voice-over: this is bbc news. we'll have the headlines and all the main news stories for you at the top of the hour, straight after this programme. argument done by eno barony plays. # high spirits so they can't kill it. # god's plan, no man... hiplife, to us, is what peanut butter is to bread. this is what actually- defines us as ghanaians. every ghanaian everywhere is representing ghana with hiplife. i would not even have fathomed being a musician if hiplife didn't happen. the story of hiplife

is important to tell... # i don't walk around in the philippines. - # with the philistines. # m dot, in any vicinity, i fulfil a dream. - # no, i'm not a rapper, l i'm an ideas company... to understand the rising global influence of african music, you have to understand the story of hiplife... keep your eyes on the road by reggie rockstone plays. when i did what i did, i tagged it. so, when a dude put a piece of meat between two bread, and he called it a burger, he named it. and that's what i did. i named it �*hiplife�*. # but that's all the boy really wanna hear... hiplife music is a conversation between ghana's past... shordy by praye plays. akasieni by lord kenya plays. ..and its present. bunker by kidi plays. mind your business

by eno baroni plays. this is the story of a music genre that birthed a global movement. but before hiplife, there was �*highlife�*. highlife music plays. from ghana's independence in 1957 through to the 1970s, highlife was the nation's soundtrack. back in the what we call �*the colonial days,�* they were using all these instruments for military songs. # ba—ba—dum, ba—ba—dum. # dun, dun ba—da—da—da—dum... you know, people were marching and things like that... the colonial masters in their bow ties, they thought that that was a "high" form of life and they called it highlife. highlife isn't originally from ghana. highlife was brought to ghana by soldiers from the west indies. ghanaian rhythms were pushed into the highlife.

we take what is happening outside and we bring our own. ah, one, two, three, four! hit it! i am the originator. that's what i say, gyedu—blay ambolley is the tree. those that came later, they are the branches. hit it! because when we were children, we didn't have money to buy congas. so, we started using our mouth for rhythms... sings rhythms. the country in the world that has the richest tradition of orators and linguists is ghana. the king of the asantes cannot speak to anybody. he can — he can only speak through a linguist. the linguist is the rapper, -

but it was me who added rhythm. for the next two decades, highlife artists infused global beats like reggae, jazz, funk and disco into the genre. in 1992, after 11 years of military rule, ghana had a new constitution and democratic freedom. young ghanaians flooded the cultural capital, accra. american hip—hop dominated the newly liberated airwaves. a young music producer, panji anoff, tapped into the scene. i recorded a demo for almost every single rap group i could find in accra at the time, free of charge. the first person i wanted to work with is my childhood friend, reggie rockstone. my name is reggie rockstone, the hiplife originator. # now whoop it up, turn it out. # whoop it up, bring it in. # turn it out, whoop it up, hey! abraham: reggie is always hype, all the time. - and when he speaks, it's like he's rapping.|

imean, he's... literally, his language is like poetry. - # ah! # woke up outta bed this morning. # crack a dawning... # i grew up in colindale, uk, brixton, crackney — they call it hackney. i grew up in brooklyn, new york, flatbush. coming back home to ghana. # yeah, this is reggie rockstone... �*93-�*94. when i got off that plane, the smell, the sunshine, the love, right up to we started this movement called hiplife. things took off when reggie met dj rab in accra. i met reggie rockstone in a nightclub called miracle mirage and he was rapping on the mic... rab was an african—american who came to ghana to stay. for a long period and helped develop this i sound that became hiplife. ..and i introduced myself and reggie had the short locks at the time and he was with

another rap artist called freddie funkstone. i thought i was listening to rappers from brooklyn. so, immediately, igot up out of the table. i said, "look, i don't have any discs, but i can make beats". we left the club, like, 4:00 in the morning, we got to the recording studio at like 10:00 or 11:00 in the morning. then, like, a few hours later, everything started clicking. rab was very much like reggie as well — two peas in a pod. i unfortunately, he passed away. but yeah, rab was reggie's partner in music for- a long time. the two ghanaians, raised in the west, mixed hip—hop with highlife, and hiplife was born. i looked like the folks that they had seen on mtv. i had the short dreads, the wife beater, the tims, the camouflage. but then, when i rapped, it was in twi. and that, thatjust blew everybody�*s mind. raps in twi.

twi being one of the biggest local languages, it was unique in a sense that nobody had attempted to put rap together in that context before. # on and on for the hiplife. # check, check it out... pops would always say, "listen, reggie," you know, "all your rap? "bibbidy, bibbidy... "people ain't got time to listen to all of them lyrics. "we need something to catch them — a hook, a chorus." and he was right. because at the time, not long before i came, naughty by nature had blown up with hip—hop — "hey, ho" _ and my father always used to say how african that was — call and response. now "tsoo boi," i can say that anywhere in ghana and i get a response. # tsoo boi. # yeah. # tsoo boi... "tsoo boi" actually

is the heave—ho. any time we have to move something heavy, it's that sound, and this tells you how powerful sound is. # tsoo boi... reggie rockstone quickly became ghana's first superstar. people in the place! you know what i'm sayin�*? it was so easy for africa to embrace hip—hop — it comes from us. everything about hip—hop is african, right down to the boogey, right down to the swag — everything. it's only because of that big, bad boat ride called slavery is how we got divided. i got an uncle that look just like puff daddy. # yo, sometimes i sit back and try to reminisce... panafest �*94 — a pan—african cultural festival aimed at bringing africans around the globe together — would catapult hiplife.

i felt pa nafest was, in many ways, the perfect opportunity for hiplife to go beyond accra. all of a sudden, it changed. it's like, hold on a second — these kids have something. for the next two decades, hiplife acts dominated west african airwaves, reclaiming hip—hop as african. there were some huge, huge sales made by hiplife

artists like tic tac or obrafour or kenya. for the very first time, they became the songs that you'd hear in the bars, the clubs — everywhere. then, when i came to this country, i shot the very first hiplife videos, which was reggie rockstone�*s tsoo boi and talking drums' aden. # i'm about the flow. # because he's rhymin' with the 0. # once had a afro, - but not some cornrow... i had wasted a lot of money taking talking drums to america and thinking that in 1995, america was ready for a burna boy. # know my name is shabba. they were rapping but they were wearing these batakaris. 30 years ago, they were considered to be very primitive, traditional clothes. but i went to atlantic in 1995 with talking drums. i shouldn't have done, �*cos i met record executive executives who couldn't even conceive that there was hip—hop in africa, so it took till 2020 for an american label like atlantic

to sign burna boy. # like say tomorrow no dey... by the late 2010s, afrobeats out of nigeria — a hybrid of highlife and global beats — had knocked hiplife off its pedestal. afrobeats became the catch—all for west african pop. # you want a mr right, i'm mr right now... hiplife is dead because the driving force of the music is the younger people, and the younger people do not identify with hiplife. i'd be a fool to sit on bbc and say hiplife is dead. . no, hiplife is not dead. ghana and nigeria — sibling rivals on everything from jollof rice to football — dispute whether afrobeats was born out of hiplife. i get embarrassed when i see these unnecessary ghanaian resentment towards nigerians �*cos of their success. it's not a good look.

# i don't deserve all your awesome. # but truthfully, truthfully... we benefit from nigerian success, as nigerians do benefit from ghanaian success. # simple abc for your delight. # mmm, sake off. some young people now don't realise the collaborations - and work that has been- going on between ghanaian and nigerian artistsi for the last 30, 40, 50, 60, 70 years. # palm wine for lunch and dinner for breakfast... nobody will understand i the importance of hiplife until afrobeat is the biggest music in the world. - we are almost there already. but without hiplife, - there would be no afrobeats. ghana had established that sound before nigerians really got into the stride of things. # like say tomorrow no dey... for them, '99 was like a watershed moment for them and, '99, ghanaians already had megastar hiplife artists. if you were to take the music that they were doing and compare it with what was happening in ghana, what you will find is that it was more like the pre—hiplife american imitation sort

of music, and it didn't have an identity. but as time went on, they fused in the pidgin, the local language, just like hiplife did. nigeria carried the torch but ghana lit the torch. i we dropped the soap. we should have stood by that brand. because our cousins next door did the same thing with afrobeat and they did not budge, and here we are today. let's be clear, first and foremost — afrobeats is not nigerian, it's ghanaian and nigerian. # like cabernet sauvignon. # strangers wondering what we on... the originators of hiplife were a bit too precious about what it should be, so as new versions sonically were happening, you could hear people saying, "0h, thisjamba. "this azonto is watered down, it's not real."

this thing, there is always the idea of real. you have to evolve or perish is what any music form has to understand. those that were gatekeeping in hiplife were refusing to acknowledge the evolution. # up and down them streets, yeah. - and a thing must evolve. the thing must evolve. for it to survive, the thing must evolve. wild cheering. # sh—sh—shut up and bend over... wild cheering. # sh—sh—shut up and bend over... now, a new generation of artists raised on hiplife are writing its next chapter. kidi and kuami eugene are the fresh faces selling out international shows and captivating a global audience. i learned almost everything i knew from the streets. how to survive with no money in your pocket. there are a lot of songs made by hiplife artists that actually motivated me, kept pushing me to go. i could see people making ends

meet from doing music, which is hiplife music. and i knew i had a space in there. # vibe. # die. # by fire. # my vibe... afrobeat, it's making people enough money. and it has the public eye. # my vibe... even though we have artists doing afrobeat, it doesn't tell our story. hiplife is what tells our story. and i think it wouldn't be fair for us to lose such a thing. that means you're losing part of our heritage. hiplife is the illustration of the culture of ghana. # i'm so tired i don't know what to do. # dreams, dream, dreams. so i mix my highlife,

what i'd hear locally from my legends, with r&b, what i'd hear from the west. when you're cooking, you throw in this and then in about five minutes, you throw in this, that's what happened to the hiplife genre. so when it came, it was in its pure state, like, you know... he vocalises. # keep your eyes on the road... like, it came in its original form but, with time, certain artists took something out of it, added something else and it became like, oh, yeah, hiplife has changed now. # my baby, you be wonderful. # you give me loving wey i never know'oo. # my baby, you be miracle. # you give me loving wey i never know... reggie rockstone — a name that will forever be remembered in ghanaian music history — also came and said, "ok, "this is what we're doing. "you know, our fathers are having fun with this. "what can i bring? "what can i spice it up with, to give it a little different "flavour from what our people know?"

and that's what birthed hiplife. # girl, your love is spiritual. # oh, my god, oh. # girl, your love dey be. # i want to shower you kisses. # to live all over you. # when you give me chance... and we had now hiplife and we got highlife, we had two things now. now, the question is where do we go from here? # some honey. # buy some prada, gucci louis v, giorgio armani. # my momma needs a house. # my brother needs some shoes. # i had to get the family right before i lost my granny. # i'm from the ghettos of ashaiman... in a male—dominated industry, rapper eno barony is changing the face of hiplife. i think the existence of people like eno barony is the breaking of the glass—ceiling moment. she raps. i remember the first time i was on the radio station with her, she out—rapped me. i was like, "my goodness —

who is this one?" she raps. all i remember wasjust being shocked when she started rapping. i was shocked. ijust wanted to listen to her. i was like, "who is this?!" my name eno means 'mother�* in my native language, twi. that's the name my dad gave to me. and somehow, some way, divine intervention, i'm like the mother of rap in ghana. raps in twi. mzbel shot to fame in 2007 with a ground—breaking hiplife album, 16 years. every girl i knew at that time was dressing like mzbel. # face off yi w'ani i be the 15 girl wey you want...

when i came into the music scene, i never saw girls my size. most of the girls i was seeing were, let me say, skinnier. people were talking about my image so much — "why are you like this? "why are you not going to look like this and stuff?" so it was... it was bothering me. when i accepted myself as who i am, i did a song called heavy load and i realised, "oh, so i have fans who arejust "like me and are looking up to me, the way i dress, "everything i do". the truth about why there are not many women involved in hiplife and in the music space is that the space, unfortunately, is still quite sexist, you know? it's difficult for women, you know, to operate in these spaces, whether even it's as simple as midnight sessions in the studio. every successful music scene in the world has a lot of women in it. so, if we want to succeed... clicks tongue. ..bring the gal dem. so, if you see a woman doing

anything male—dominated, you don't doubt it. raps. one of the oldest african - proverbs, which is sankofa — there's something i beautiful in the past. if you think you can'tl go forward without it, go back, pick it up, and take it with you into the future. . that is where we are now. in a moment in ghanaian music where we will need to revisit what that brilliant culture called hiplife that birthed a lot of what's happening now, to really reimagine it and see how we move forward... # sista, sista, damn i miss ya. # i'm gone till november, i'll be back to getcha... we had a sankofa moment with hiplife. # can i count on you too? # i'm begging you. # let me fly free and make some revenue. # if i chop, you go chop some too. # 12 months pregnant, this idea is long overdue... hiplife�*s place in the future of global music may come down to who it lets in, what it holds on to, and whether it can evolve.

# when you dey scratch my back. # it's all love. # if you dey fix my itch. # it's all love symbiosis dey benefit. # do for each other, dem no go fit... perhaps the only question is what do we choose to evolve? do we choose to evolve what is closest to us? or do we choose to evolve the elements that are foreign to us? who are you? you are ghanaian. so just be ghanaian. right now, if i go to the uk, and i play any african music — it doesn't matter what it is — it will be branded afrobeats. as long as they know it's an african artist, it's coming from south africa, it's coming from senegal, it's coming from kenya, it's coming from nigeria, they'lljust call it afrobeats. that's the problem. the problem isn't the fact that hiplife has lost its id. hiplife hasn't lost his id locally. it is how the international audience is viewing hiplife. hiplife is still giving birth to artists day. in, day out.

if it's lost, - it won't bear fruit. we have... our heritage�*s been rooted in it. and it is something we can't let go of, cos it's part and parcel of us. i want hiplife to be that good story that lifted black folks in africa and all over the world, gave young people a voice. my generation, it gave us a voice from africa. initially, it was just in accra, then it was ghana, then it went west africa. now, it's global, through nigeria and ghana. we have artists featuring with beyonce, featuring withjustin bieber. ultimately, i believe as a musical genre, it gave a generation a voice and continues to do that. and this voice has and is slowly changing the perception of this continent. hiplife is identity to us... # i bathe in faith, not based with snakes. # a basic case of me

and fake no dey relate... identity is very important. if you lose that identity there, then you don't know where you belong to. the mother is highlife but rap is africa. africa, africa. # weather forecast a bit nippy, i heard. # beggars can't choose but be picky instead. # 9 to 5 blues kick me, i'm dead. # driving in a storm how i fit see ahead. # weather forecast a bit nippy, i heard. # beggars can't choose but be picky instead. # 9 to 5 blues kick me, i'm dead. # up early no sleep e be someway bi. # boys abre all week e be someway bi. # price of living no be cheap e be someway bi. # but thank god it's friday me be gye m'ani. # someway bi, e be someway bi # hello. after what's been a fairly wet and cool week for a large swathe of the uk, this weekend sees a transition to something drier and warmer underneath this area of high pressure. this is the big picture,

if you like, for sunday. we start to develop more of a southerly wind and that will be pushing milder air across the uk but also some moister air as well, so we're going to see a lot of cloud through sunday, also some drizzle for a time through the morning. that will tend to become confined to the coasts through the day. could see some mist and fog along some eastern coastal counties at first which will soon clear, allowing sunshine to develop and some of that will push its way further north and west. when we get the sunshine, temperatures up to around 16 or 17 celsius on sunday afternoon. on into monday, and we are still underneath this area of high pressure. in fact, this is the set—up for the week ahead, although we do start to see more of an easterly wind settling in and as that does, it will bring something cooler for east—facing coasts but for many, mostly dry, spells of sunshine and away from eastern coasts, feeling a little warmer. still a fair amount of cloud around on monday, which will soon break across eastern areas and most will see some spells

of sunshine through the day and some western coasts and northern ireland, perhaps hanging onto the cloud, maybe with a bit of drizzle at times. in the sunshine, temperatures quite widely in the mid—teens, in the best of the sunshine and away from eastern coasts, temperatures could get up up to around 16 or 17 again. as we head into tuesday, high pressure still the dominant feature, keeping atlantic fronts at bay, but notice the isobars start to come close together so we start to develop a stronger easterly wind. once again, some coastal counties, eastern coastal counties, will feel cooler, more cloud pushing across southern counties of england, and perhaps wlaes too, but for many, dry day, good spells of sunshine, warm in the sunshine away from eastern coasts but most will have a dry day as well. little change really as we head into wednesday. if anything, the winds become a bit stronger on wednesday. we are sitting on the edge of that area of high pressure. once again, a fair amount of cloud across some southern counties and parts of wales, sunshine developing for many

through the day but notice the strength of the wind on wednesday, quite a keen easterly wind blowing so despite some sunshine along eastern coasts, it will be feeling on the cool side, perhaps 12 or 13 celsius celsius here. away from eastern coasts, temperatures again in the mid—teens but not seeing the 16s and 17s we saw earlier in the week. and we keep the strength of the wind, we still keep that stronger windows we head into thursday. mainly dry, good deal of sunshine but that noticeable easterly breeze taking the edge of temperatures but on thursday at the moment, a fine day, good deal of sunshine but we could start to see some showers pushing into parts of east anglia and south—east england as well and those temperatures will typically be between 12 and 1a or 15 celsius. so further on from there, as this high pressure continues to drift away a little bit further, we start to see areas of low pressure developing across central and southern parts of england and here we could start to see some showers developing

as we head through the weekend and into the early part of the following week but i think, for many, where we've seen a fair amount of rain recently and things have been on the cool side, for the week ahead and then further ahead into the forecast, things are looking mainly dry and a little bit bit warmer. bye— bye. # sh—sh—shut up and bend over...

live from washington. this is bbc news. at least 27 people killed, including aid workers, in clashes between sudan's army and a paramilitary force. more than 100 animal rights protesters arrested after storming the ground at the grand national horse race. and minneapolis becomes the first major us city to allow broadcast of the muslim call to prayer over speakers five times a day, all year round. hello. i'm helena humphrey. good to

have you with us.