Before 2007, I had an minimal knowledge of what House music was. I associated House music with La Bouche’s ‘Sweet Dreams‘, CeCe Peniston’s ‘Finally‘ and dreadful techno souls which appear to be repetitive never ending songs with people at raves putting their glow sticks in the air. But there was something about house music that I liked, but I couldn’t put my finger on it. Then I met my dear friend Altan in 2007. It felt like he took my hand and started walking me through the big wide world of House music. I fell in love. But my new obsession with house music wasn’t really appreciated by my African friends. I constantly had House remixes blasting through my car stereo, but I was often confront with something along the lines of ‘What is this nonsense you are listening to? Put on some real music. R&B is more like it’ or ‘Have you lost your mind. Black people don’t listen to stuff like this!’ I blocked out their ignorance, and continued on with my house phase. Then I fell in love with House remixes of popular R&B songs and the new hip-hop electro-sounds from the likes of Common and Kanye West. As much as I loved house music, I often found it hard to dance to. It was a weird transition from Hiplife and R&B shaking to jumping around House style. I wondered if house could one day be incorporated with Hiplife. I laughed it off. I thought that would be ABSOLUTELY crazy. I remember playing one of my favourite house songs ‘Forgiveness‘ by Wamdue Project for my cousin while I was in Ghana. He laughed and stated that it wasn’t music. My cousin’s reaction gave me confirmation that the idea of combining House and Hiplife was crazy.
However…… I found this song titled Iwo Ni by H-Code featuring Vector & Tasty on Nigerian HipHop. It’s probably not the best song but it’s probably the best of it’s kind that I have heard! The video clip is not the greatest either, but I love the electro-sounds of the song. It gives a softer tune than the hard bouncy beats of Hiplife. It’s a nice kind of cooling sound and most of all, it’s fresh. I am getting a little bit tired of hearing the same kind of beat in various Hiplife songs OVER and OVER again! While on my daily web rounds, I came across the song ‘Hold Yuh‘ by Jamaican artist Gyptian which has the same beat as Rihanna’s Rude Boy – DJ Smooth Remix (I don’t know which one was released first). But this song, has about seven different versions by various Hiplife artists. I wouldn’t be surprised if there are more versions to come! It’s annoying hearing the same thing. Hearing something fresh and different like Iwo Ni is very much appreciated. I just wonder if it’s going to be received by African people and the clubs.
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