The Hiplife Complex

One of the things that is so fascinating about hiplife music is the abundance of controversial lyrics. Ideas of what is acceptable in terms of offensive words, ideas, or images varies a lot between the States and Ghana. Recently a hilarious duo who are altogether veterans in the hiplife game, but had not been heard from in a while, came out with a song that has put them back in the public spotlight. "Yefri Tuobodom", which means "We're from Tuobodom," is a song based on an old folk tune that pokes a bit of fun at the not-so-rural town of Tuobodom. Nkasei, the group in question, put together an updated version of this song and made an enormous hit out of it. The original song functions sort of like a summer camp sing-along and has been sung for years by Ghanaian youth: think "Jingle Bells, Batman smells..." or something of that nature. A friend of mine used to sing it with his mates during a volunteer program he did in a village no where near Tuobodom about ten years ago. The groove is totally unqiue at time when more and more songs either come from two major schools of thought production-wise (Hammer vs. J-Que, to be dealt with in a future posting).

Watch the video.

Basically, the song seems to mock the people of Tuobodom, which has put a stain on the rep of a town no one had really heard of before. Is bad publicity better than no press at all?

I wrote a bunch about this whole issue but it got erased somehow, so I am going to leave it here for now. Just don't have the energy to write it again. Check out the above and below links and read about how this song caused a stir in Parliament, in the media, and the hearts and minds of average folks all over Ghana.