Language, Authenticity, and Hiplife Music in Accra

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article examines how the indigenization of language in hiplife becomes a marker of authenticity and, at the same time, a project of transnational commodification to “sell our culture”. Recently, language and global marketability have become a focus of debate in the Ghanaian entertainment industry. Here, indigenization becomes central to how some Ghanaian performers want their music and identity to circulate globally. I argue that the global music industry can be regarded as an authenticating mechanism legitimizing musics in a way that can define the horizons of musical possibility in local contexts.