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Stop Aids, Love Life The AIDS awareness campaign has landed in Ghana! HIV infections are rising dramatically in Africa. This may be due to unsafe sexual practices; mis-education or simply that Africa has entered the IT (Information Technology) era. More data about infections and disease are gathered because of computer accessibility. In the past five years, Ghana's airwaves have been broadened from ONE state-owned radio & TV network to 70 private radio stations, 8 different TV stations; 15 ISP. Not to mention, the dozens of Internet cafés in the major cities. Rap music has become the medium to diffuse a very important message to an often-neglected youth, The STOP AIDS, LOVE LIFE campaign was hatched by A.P. Lintas (an advertising agency) for The Ghana Social Marketing Fund & The Johns Hopkins University of the USA. Besides posters, stickers, radio and TV adverts; the best thing to come out of this campaign was the union of Hip-Life (Rap), Hi-Life, Reggae, R-n-B, and gospel artists on one track! I t was called; STOP AIDS, LOVE LIFE. It gathered sixteen artists on a 6:15 track incorporating Hip Hop, Ragga, Hi-Life and Gospel in sections. The song was released to media outlets but it was not made for public sale. This song was produced by RAB 'THE INTERNATIONAL' BAKARI and Michael 'COALHOUSE' Smith-Horthman. You don't recognize these names? These are the same producers who blessed REGGIE ROCKSTONE of Ghana with joints form his first to current album. The message or chorus is simple and sometimes corny, but this non-profit, charity song was made to appeal to all of Ghana's 25 million citizens. "You can maintain one lover! If it's not on, it's not in! Or you can wait until marriage! Love Life, Stop AIDS!' The call was put out to all the rap artist of Ghana. Only TIC TAC; REGGIE ROCKSTONE; CHICAGO; Friction of V.I.P.; CY-LOVER; CIL PESWA answered the call. Some were blocked by their management from participating as in the case of LORD KENYA. Others, such as OBRAFO were laid down with a bad case of malaria (another scourge of Africa). But all in all, the music was disseminated along with a quality video clip. Rab: " It was very hard to get all these artist on one track. Originally, there was supposed to be a cassette with seven songs, ya know, a couple of rap songs, hi-life, gospel, reggae, dancehall etc. But, a lot of producers backed out because it was a charity project i.e. no cash! The agency suggested that we make one song incorporating the different music forms, plus the message. The beats were easy! Hi-Life guitar licks, Hip Hop kiks and snares, scratching, ragga riffs, gospel keyboard swells and all of that! The hardest part was the arrangement of the vocals. The rap artist had a lot to say! We had to cut some rappers because we needed to cover the most widely-spoken languages in Ghana. Twi of the Akans is the most common indigenous language. English is also common. Tic Tac and others wanted twenty bar verses! I had to explain to them that we did not want a 20 minute song. Plus, it ain't all about rap! Some other musicians had to drop their piece also! Rockstone, Tic Tac handled killer verses with deep messages in Twi. Chicago held it down with an Ewe verse. Friction dropped a message in Hausa. Cy-Lover handled a short jammy in English. Cil Peswa represented for the Pidgin speakers of West Africa. " The producers and the artists received an award from the first lady of Ghana; Nana Konadu Rawlings. The government paid respect to the Hip Hop movement. This was a plus for Rap Music in Africa and the youth of Ghana. Nice one Rab! © 2000 Africanhiphop.com

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