2007
Living the Hiplife
Film Distribution:
Third World Newsreel Film Premiere:
FESPACO, Ouagadougou
FEATURE DOCUMENTARY
This ground-breaking feature documentary follows Ghanaian musical superstar Reggie Rockstone to uncover the birth Hiplife, a musical genre that combines hip-hop flow and style with highlife rhythm and melody. The film features numerous innovators, artists, beatmakers, and producers including Rab Bakari, Paa Kwesi Holdbrook Smith, Panji Anoff, Blakofe, Dhoruba bin Wahad, John Collins, Hammer, BB Menson, KOD, Abrewa Nana, Sidney, VIP, Obuor, TH4 Kwages, Freddy Funkstone, MA, The Mobile Boys, Motia, Directed by Jesse Weaver Shipley (2007, Third World Newsreel).
“Living the Hiplife is absolutely engaging. The film is thoughtful and visually exciting at the same time. It is a musical documentary that gives a powerful sense of life in contemporary Africa. I loved it.”
John Akomfrah
Filmmaker, Smoking Dogs Films
Founder of Black Audio Collective
Member Board of Governors BFI (British Film Institute)
“Living the Hiplife offers a fascinating tour of the world of Hiplife culture, where Ghanaian Highlife and American Hip-Hop blend to create an entirely new sound of the African Diaspora. Told through the voices of the central artists and producers themselves, we hear the engaging tale of how the musical genre was born, and how the supposedly provincial culture of inner city Accra engaged in an international dialogue that would rock West Africa. Director Jesse Shipley has created an informed, intellectual inspiring documentary of individual innovation and cultural redefinition.”
Mat Johnson
University of Houston
Author of Hunting in Harlem
“Living the Hiplife is ethnographically sophisticated and rigorous without sacrificing the narrative power of its compelling storyline. Shipley shows the transnational links that grease the wheels for “Black Atlantic” exchanges which are simplified and uncritically assumed in many other offerings. This is a strong film with much to say to anthropology, to African Studies, and to serious fans/scholars of hip-hop culture.”
John L. Jackson, Jr.
Author of Real Black: Adventures in Racial Sincerity
“Living the Hiplife truly captures the textures of West African music in a visually compelling bricolage. Its vivid characters have ambitions of fame and fortune that are contrasted with archival footage and the geographies of afro-cosmopolitanism.”
Jyoti Mistry
Filmmaker, I Mike What I Like
Johannesburg, South Africa