Ghanaian legendary highlife musician, Kwabena Kwabena is of the belief that the famous Ghanaian singer and rapper, Black Sheriff is not a hip hop musician but rather does high-life music.
The highlife artiste thinks the sound and rhythm Black Sheriff infuses in his songs are highlife sounds so why are people labelling him as a hip hop artiste.
He added that Black Sheriff is the beginning of the 8th generation of highlife musicians.
Speaking with Jay Foley on the Culture daily show on 3music, he outlined his reasons for making such claims.
According to the Kwabena Kwabena, there’s nothing like hip hop attached to Black Sheriff and it’s about time he should be addressed as a highlife musician.
He explained, “We are labelling Black Sheriff as a hip hop artiste but I don’t see him as a hip hop artiste at all. If you listen to his music and everything he’s done with his music, how then do we label him a hip hop artiste”.
To back his claims, he further explained that, Blacko is considered as the 8th generation of highlife music citing Blacko’s ‘Konongo Zongo’ song as an example.
“He is the new generation of highlife musician, he is the 8th generation I say if I want to put him there. We are the 7th generation and he is the beginning of the 8th because if you listen to his rhythm and you listen to that delivery and the vocals, nothing could have been inspired about highlife music. Looking at his ‘Konongo Zongo’ song is purely highlife”.
Kwabena Kwabena however blamed the media for causing such labeling.
According to him, before Black Sheriff came to the limelight, the songs he used to produce were highlife and not hip hop.
“It is you guys who have actually caused this, you caused this, why, if you listen to the tracks the guy released even before his album, it was nothing hip hop. Does he do stuffs like Sarkodie does, let listen to a song like ‘Country side’, was it two hip hop artistes performing”, he told the host.