There are many styles of traditional and modern music of Ghana, due to Ghana's worldwide geographic position on the African continent.
Hiplife is a Ghanaian musical style that fuses Ghanaian culture and hip hop. Recorded predominantly in the Ghanaian Akan language, hiplife is rapidly gaining popularity in the 2010s throughout West Africa and abroad, especially in the United Kingdom, United States, Canada and Germany.
Reggie Rockstone is a Ghanaian rapper. He was born in the United Kingdom but lived his early years in Kumasi and Accra. He has been living in Ghana continuously since he pioneered the Hip-Life movement in 1994. He is married to Dr. Zilla Limann, Daughter of Hilla Limann, the only president of the third Republic of Ghana. They have three kids together and have been married since 2001.
Buk Bak was a Ghanaian musical group composed of Prince Bright, Isaac Shoetan and Ronny Coaches. They rapped in Ga, Twi, and Pidgin, and were the first hiplife group in Ghana to be successful with Ga lyrics.
Elom Adablah, better known by his stage name E.L, is a Ghanaian Afrobeats musician, rapper, singer and producer.
Nii Addo Quaynor, better known by his stage name Tinny, is a Ghanaian Rapper. He was born in Osu, Ghana to Mr. Ricky Tetteh Quaynor and Naa Badu Quaynor. He is the last born of their six children. At the early age of eight, by singing and rapping at parties and funfairs, he got into the music industry. In 1994, he started performing at Fun-World, an entertainment program that was organized every Sunday at the National Theatre (Accra). He has released five studio albums since his debut.
Jeff Tennyson Quaye, professionally known by his stage name Jay Q, is a Ghanaian musician, record producer, record executive, sound engineer, songwriter and keyboardist. He is the founder and current CEO of Q-Lex Entertainment and Jay-Qlex Recording Studio. He has produced albums for and overseen the careers of many musicians, including Buk Bak, VIP, Castro, Mzbel, Obrafour, Daddy Lumba, Nana Acheampong, Ofori Amponsah, Akosua Agyapong, Obuoba J. A. Adofo, Wulomei, and others. As a producer Jay Q is credited as a key figure in the popularization of Hiplife, Highlife and Gospel. He introduced Jama (kpanlogo) into Hiplife, which became laudable and was accepted in Ghana, Africa and the rest of the World. In 2003, Jay Q won an award for Best Sound Engineer in Ghana.
Prince Bright, also known as Bling Sparkles, is a Ghanaian hiplife musician. He is the sole surviving member of the Buk Bak music group after the demise of his partner Ronny Coaches.
Desmond Kwesi Blackmore, known by his stage name D-Black, is an anglophone hip-hop and Afrobeat musician and entrepreneur from Ghana. He has been described as "a successful entertainment mogul"
Vera Hamenoo-Kpeda, better known by her stage name MzVee, is a Ghanaian singer, afropop, dancehall and R&B artiste. Her debut solo album features several hit singles including 'Borkor Borkor, 'Natural Girl' and 'Dancehall Queen'. MzVee was signed to the record label Lynx Entertainment and was the winner of the New Artiste of the Year award at the 2015 Ghana Music Awards. She parted ways with Lynx Entertainment in the year 2019. She is currently a solo artist.
Raglife is a Ghanaian musical genre that is a combination of hiplife, Ghanaian hip hop and highlife, with reggae. The music uses traditional reggae elements like drum beats and melodies along with rap. The genre is thought to have been created by Abrewa Nana, the first popular female rap artist in Ghana.
Jason Gaisie, popularly known as Pappy Kojo, is a Ghanaian hip hop and hiplife recording artist from Takoradi. He is well known for his hit single "Realer No".
Maradona Yeboah Adjei, known by his stage names Guru and Gurunkz, is a Ghanaian rapper and fashion designer. Guru NKZ is a successful hiplife artist in Ghana. He is known for his contemporary hip-hop rap style that combines English and Ghanaian indigenous languages. Guru's breakthrough was in 2011, when his hit song "Lapaz Toyota" appeared on the Ghanaian music charts. Guru is considered a contemporary hip-hop artist, as his songs venture new ground in the Ghanaian music scene, mixing hip-hop, Afrobeats, Highlife, and Dancehall sounds.
Samuel Adu Frimpong, popularly known as Medikal, is a Ghanaian hip hop musician born to Portia Lamptey and James Frimpong in Sowutuom, a suburb of Accra.
Eugene kwadwo Boadu Baah, better known by his stage name Choirmaster is a Ghanaian hip life/afropop singer-songwriter, record producer and entrepreneur. He became widely known as the leader of the defunct hiplife group Praye before going solo. He has earned numerous awards and additional nominations.
Gh hip hop, Gh rap or Ghana hip hop is a hip hop genre, subculture and art movement that developed in Ghana during the late 1990s. The hip-hop genre came into existence in Ghana through Reggie Rockstone, who is known as the hip-life father, and other notable musicians such as Jayso and Ball J. It first came to Ghana as Hiplife, where Reggie Rockstone introduced a fusion of hip-hop beats with African sounds to create a whole new genre.
Eazzy is the professional name of Mildred Ashong, a Ghanaian singer, rapper, and songwriter.
Musah Haruna is a Ghanaian Afrobeat and Reggae musician, known by his stagename Friction. Friction is the founder and former leader of the legendary Ghanaian Hiplife Music Group VIP. This group has become one of Ghana's most well known Hiplife music groups, and subject of documentaries such as HomeGrown: Hiplife in Ghana and the book The Hiplife in Ghana: West African Indigenization of Hip-Hop. Friction released two albums with VIP, 'Ye De Aba' and 'Bibi Baa O', and Friction and his group became a nationwide phenomenon. In the year 2000 Friction featured in Ghana's national HIV Campaign song 'Stop AIDS, Love Life' among other Ghanaian music stars such as Reggie Rockstone and Black Prophet.
Emmanuel Mallet popularly known as Zapp Mallet is a veteran Ghanaian recording engineer and a record producer. He is recognized as one of the pioneers of the hiplife genre that started in the early 1990s in Ghana. He is also recognized as the only recording engineer to have won the Ghana Music Awards on three consecutive occasions; 1999, 2000, 2001.
Global Music Awards Africa is an annual award, presented by Smart Focus Media. GMAA honors outstanding musical accomplishments in Africa, with the goal to discover the next African star. The first edition was supposed to hold on 6 March 2021, at Accra International Conference Centre in Ghana. Due to COVID-19 regulations in Ghana, it was held virtually on 20 March 2021, at AICC. The most recent ceremony was held on 16 April 2022 at Lagos Oriental Hotel in Nigeria.
