Hipco and Gbema are the music of Liberia's urban youth. Hipco is Hip-hop sung in colloquial English, the form of English you hear on the streets of Liberia, and is as much about lifestyle and dance as it is about social and political engagement.
Gbema, on the other hand, is the generic term given to electronically-produced traditional music. So it covers a wide range of rhythms, most of them very high paced, reminiscent of Sierra Leonian Bubu or South African Shangaan. It’s also quite common for the rhythms to jump into half or double time.
You can tell which is which from listening to the two tracks below. Better yet, download them, courtesy of the artists and Akwaaba Music, the label on which the Lone Stars Vol. 1 compilation album has just been released (see last week's post for Chief Boima's Lone Stars mix).
Lone Stars is Liberia's nickname (take a look at the flag, as well as that of its national football team), but Boima and BBrave at Akwaaba also named the album Lone Stars because, as you will have gathered from Boima's recent in-depth article about the intersection between Liberia's music, its politics and its recent history, the artists truly are lone gunslingers, making music without anything resembling an industry (so this legit release is the first in a long, long time).
Hipco first with Hero, by David Mell
DOWNLOAD HERE (Password: weheartfans)
Then Damyarea (area song) by Junior Freeman & African Soldier.
http://content.omroep.nl/ghettoradio/musicblog/junior_freeman_african_soldier_damyarea.mp3 Right-Click to DOWNLOAD Damyarea
“Dumyarea” actually means “that’s my area” in Liberian English, and is now common slang on the streets of Monrovia, having started out as a phrase used by market sellers to stake their claim on a spot. Such was the popularity of the song this summer that President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf used Junior Freeman's hook to launch her re-election campaign.
Anyway enjoy these, and go get the rest from Bandcamp, iTunes, or, from next week, Amazon and other online retailers.
Listen out for tracks from Lone Stars Vol. 1 on This Is Africa hit radio.
