Reggie Rockstone Unhappy with Hiplife Exclusion In Grammy’s African Music Category 

Legendary rapper, Reggie Rockstone, has registered his displeasure with organizers of the newly created African Music Performance Category in the Grammy Awards over the exclusion of hiplife in the list of genres.

He noted in an interview that although he was elated that Highlife and ‘Mapouka’ were recognized under the African Music Performance category, he quibbled that Hiplife being the ‘old lady should have been recognized as well.

“I am happy that we are in there because it could have gone the other way but it definitely became an eyebrow raiser when I realized the old lady hiplife wasn’t in there. The old lady’s grandmama is in there. That’s highlife. Even Mapouka is in there”.

“Hiplife is what sparked the revolution and you can also go back and check before the re-emergence of Afrobeats with the ‘s’. And Nigeria knows this. We’ve always parlayed. We are cousins but you can never do without the old lady, hiplife. You gotta be joking,” he added.

Reggie also added that the Grammy Awards may have made a typographical mistake by writing highlife instead of hiplife in the genres named for the Best African Music Performance category.

“Here is another thing that came up. A lot of times when people talk about hiplife and highlife they get confused. So somebody said to me ‘Reggie, it could have been a typo. So many times people have confused hiplife with highlife because they sound so similar,” the acclaimed Hiplife Grandpapa noted.