To answer your question, I think yes. If rapping in Twi over funky beats is hiplife then rapping in all those genres must be Hiplife too.

I think a bigger question is, can you classify the following artistes as hiplife? People like Wanlov, Samini, King Ayisoba, etc.

It's become really tough to put a finger on what is true hiplife.

Wow, that’s the beauty of it all; different opinions on same issues, what more can I ask for. I’m really loving it Chale! And I do appreciate your time taken to drop some knowledge on these hiplifers.

On the real, your answer made me think deeper about classification more than I’ve ever thought of. After the deductions made from your answer above (“If rapping in Twi over funky beats is hiplife then rapping over all those genres must be hiplife too”) , it seems you are more less saying that a rap verse over an rnb song (eg. “Where the party at”- Jagged Edge ft Nelly) or rock song (Linkin’ Park with Jay-z) make them fall into the hip hop category. Hence, falling to remain rnb and rock songs respectively. However, I doubt if you will classify “Kokooko” (Dasebre ft Lord Kenya) as a hiplife song more than a “burger”/”boga” highlife with rap. I understand and agree with you that it’s now difficult to put a finger on what is true hiplife. However, it’s obvious that the dominant genre is what always counts where ever you find yourself in the world. It seems Ghanaians are quick to call any local beat or local song with rap hiplife, and this is the main reason why I had to start this discussion. I believe we as hiplifers must be able to identify the real from the fake in order to encourage what we want and discourage what we don’t. And please don’t associate what the people want with sales, because you and I know so well that promotion and marketing are the driving forces these days.

I think what I meant by my question is if you are not creatively blending or fusing funky beats with “jamma beats”, “kpalogo” etc. the whole hip energy is gone. Hence, it isn’t good enough to use them raw rather than mixing to achieve the “hipness” that hiplife is built on.

Kindly take a second look and holla at yo boy! Safe Brother!

Actually :-) I guess hip in hiplife does come from hip hop so the traces of hip hop must be there. I am just saying that traces of hip hop is rapping. But I think lacing the beats with funk would be suuweeet tho.
I'll backtrack on the Twi rap over any beats stuff though now that you mention the example of Daasebre's Kokooko. The song probably has to be made by a hiplife artiste cuz in Ahuofe Dwamena's case, he was featuring Lord Kenya so it has to be a highlife song. You know what's interesting? Ofori Amponsah calls his new-age songs with Barosky 'hiplife' because there is Barosky's ragga in it. Has anyone realised that Mr. All4Real just went to a whole new level after he started featuring Barosky and rap in his music?
To summarise, I am all for blending funk, bhangra, whatever with our traditional rhythms when it comes to hiplife. It will broaden the genre and our music will be growing. If R. Kelly can embrace Reggaeton, we can too - so I don't want to hear people dissing Tic Tac for doing it.
You feel me?

It’s unfortunate that I haven’t listened to a full album of Batman Samini, Wanlov, and King Ayisoba so I can speak very little of them. However, the little that I’ve heard from Samini on his songs and collaborations with other artists seems to be more dominant with the Dancehall/ Ragga style. So I believe in our terms (Ghanaian terms), he can be classified as more of a Raglife artist. On the other hand, a song like “Gyae Shi” is pure singing, and as much as it’s arguable to classify it, it will be wrong to call that song hiplife. You see Chale! The issue here is that they are free to do any kind or style of music they want. However, if you wanna call it hiplife then let us feel the energy that makes it hip. The same goes for Raglife. The word is “Distinctiveness”.

Anyway, opinions differ so let's keep them coming. Holla at ya boy!

I feel you brother! Especially on the blending issue because that's what hiplife needs to take the music places and also to bring it to back to what it used to be. On the All4real issue, I guess he's living in his own fantasy world, because we all know that you just featured an artist who rapped on the track, and that wouldn't change its genre for real. Big ups to him though, because he is keeping it All4Real. I hope you feel me too?

Yeah, it is becoming very difficult to classify artistes these days. If we paid too much attention to detail, we'd have created many offshot genres from hiplife. I feel you on the hip energy though, hiplife has definitely strayed and I actually think we should coin new terms to keep the authenticity of the original hiplife songs.
The reason I brought Wanlov and Ayisoba thems is because they are probably classified as hiplife. Ayisoba won traditional song of the year but when you listen to his collabos with Kweku T and Kontihene (Modern Ghanaians) or his track with Sidney (of Nananom fame), they may be put in the hiplife category. Even 5 5 (Afrikan girlz) are called a hiplife duo. We need some streamlining for sure, maybe we could start it here and others would follow the lead.

For real!!