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Music

Black Stars: Ghana's Hiplife Generation

Featuring Ghana's finest MCs, from Kwaku-T to Batman Samini

By Phil Freeman

Tuesday, May 13th 2008

Details:

Black Stars: Ghana's Hiplife Generation
Outhere

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The image of African music, as seen through American eyes, goes through phases. Right now, we're going through a retro moment: It would be easy to look at the recent deluge of compilation CDs (the three Nigeria Special volumes, Nigeria 70, and the Lagos All Routes and Lagos Chop Up sets) and conclude that a) all African music comes from Nigeria, and b) Africans stopped making music sometime in the late '70s/early '80s. But African music doesn't begin or end with funky reissues or the ultra-earnest singer-songwriters who've been playing to the NPR and jam-band crowds these past few years.

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