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"I never thought Hiplife had a future" - M3nsa

M3nsa's incertitude was due to the dominance of Highlife genre in the 90s and the fact that music lovers during the days embraced Hip-hop.

M3nsa

M3nsa of FOKN Bois fame has disclosed that, he never thought Hiplife had a future.

According to the "Ghetto" rapper, his incertitude was due to the dominance of Highlife genre in the 90s and the fact that music lovers during the days embraced Hip-hop -- a genre he 'loved so much' before the emergence of Hiplife.

"I never really thought of it (Hiplife) like that. All I knew was that this Hip-hop music that I loved so much had found its way to Ghana and we’d taken it and made it our own.

"We weren’t really in competition with Highlife music or Highlife musicians but even they had to jump on it to remain relevant. It was obvious it was going to do what Hip-hop had done in the West; and that is to be around for a long long time," M3nsa opined in an interview with Ebenezer Donkoh of NYDJLive.com

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When asked about what motivated him to support that music revolution in the 90s, M3nsa said "It wasn’t a conscious decision to do it (Hiplife). Hiplife had come at a time in my life where I’d been unwittingly training my ears from playing classical piano and listening to all the good kind of Hip-hop, Jazz, Classical, Soul and Highlife music.

The timing was right, I was at the right age to try different things without caring too much about failing or making money out of it. That really allowed me to be experimental and apply some of the music skills I’d acquired as a kid."

Recounting his work with Reggie Rockstone in the early days of Hiplife, he said "Rockstone had heard of me from LifeLine Family (Wo Sisi). We later found out our families knew each other from a long time ago.

"I was initially featured on Rockstone’s 3rd album (Me Ka) in 1999, on a song called Mapouka. We ended up doing a Europe tour the year after and when we came back I began sharing a few ideas/ beats I had and that was how it all started.

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"I was barely 18 then and Reggie was a pro, he’d listen to my ideas and show me how to make them more effective or connect with the people more. I learned a lot from him. I produced the beats and we wrote songs together."

M3nsa is amongst the pioneers of Hiplife music and has worked with other pioneers like Obrafuor, Reggie Rockstone, Ex Doe, VIP, Sidney of NanaNom, KK Fosu, Kofi B, Azigizah, Kweku T, NFL, Azigizah, Yogie Doggy, T Blaze, Tic Tac, Cy Lover, Freddie FunkStone, Abrewa Nana and Shoetan from BukBak.

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