2020 will be in the history books as one of the years that had controversies over what makes a song Highlife. While some contended that the current crop of musicians have departed from the rudiments of Highlife, others argued that they were within the circles and needed significant support instead of attacks.
Like previous years, some musicians refused to brand
Read full articletheir songs ‘Highlife’ neither will they admit belonging to the genre.
“Culture is dynamic so what we need to do is to encourage them so they do not detach from highlife,” music legend Rex Omar advised.
He had noticed that "some of the millennials are detaching from highlife" and one of the reasons was that "the lifestyle of people who carried highlife does not motivate the millennials."
The remedy was to "encourage them, coach them to get into the highlife so that as they grow up musically, they will do the right thing.”
Aside from many refusing to categorise their songs highlife, the music arena was somewhat dominated by rap music with the introduction of the Kumerica movement which saw many up-and-coming musicians jump into the fray to release songs.
Prior to this was the battle for supremacy among three female rappers - Eno Barony, Sista Afia, and Freda Rhymz. The trio ‘hacked’ the music space, made headlines, and became the subjects of discussion on both traditional and social media platforms.
Regardless, some Highlife tunes caught the attention of music lovers.
A collage of some 2020 highlife hitmakers
