Hipco: Difference between revisions

| other_names = HipCo

| colorimage = Hipco artist Takun J.jpg

| caption = [[Takun J]], a famous Hipco artist.

'''Hipco''', also referred to as '''HipCo''' or '''co,''', is a genre of [[hip hop]] from [[Liberia]]. It has been described by ''[[The Guardian]]'' as Liberia's "unique musical style" using "vernacular speech and political messages."<ref name=FootnoteB>{{cite web |url=https://www.theguardian.com/music/2013/jan/09/liberia-music-pot-boiling |title=Liberian street hit stirs the political pot |last=Rahimian |first=Nora |date=January 9, 2013 |website=www.theguardian.com |publisher=[[The Guardian]] |access-date=March 18, 2019}}</ref>

Rap and pop music are also performed in indigenous languages across the country, with a generation of artists creating their own style of uniquely Liberian rap music called Hipco (or "Co"). Hipco is usually performed in Liberian English or the local vernacular, using the style of communication with which Liberians speak and relate to each other. Hipco evolved in the 1980s and has always had a social and political bent. In the 1990s it continued to develop through the [[Liberian Civil War (disambiguation)|civil wars]], and today stands as a definitive mark of [[Culture of Liberia#Music|Liberian culture]].<ref>{{cite web |author=Christopher Giamo|publisher=Together Liberia|url= http://togetherliberia.org/takun-j-hip-co-liberia/|title=Takun J – Hip-Co in Liberia |date=24 June 2011|accessdateaccess-date = 2012-06-06 }}</ref><ref>Ashoka, [https://www.vice.com/en_se/article/hipco-liberia "'Hipco' Is the Soundtrack of Monrovia's Post-War Youth"], ''Vice'', 2 April 2014.</ref> Hipco music was becomingbecame popular in 2000. As of 2017, it was the popular music genre of Liberia, "serving as the medium through which rappers speak against societal ills, including injustice and corruption."<ref name=FootnoteE>{{cite web |url=https://allafrica.com/stories/201701190637.html |title=Liberia: Documenting Hipco |last=Dopoe Jr. |first=Robin |date=January 19, 2017 |website=www.allafrica.com |publisher=All Africa |access-date=March 18, 2019}}</ref>

The "co" in the genre is short of the Liberian dialect [[Kolokwa]], which according to the ''Washington Post,'' "the Liberian underclass has been improvising since the early 19th century, blending the English brought by 19,000 ex-slaves with words from about 15 native tongues to attain a soft-sounding patois. Kolokwa is 99 percent an oral language — as yet, there is not a single full book in the dialect — and it is all but incomprehensible to the American ear. In Liberia, the cultural elite havehas long shunned it as lowbrow. Which means that when HipCoHipco artists inject a few choice snatches of Kolokwa into otherwise English lyrics, their words have political zing."<ref name=FootnoteC>{{cite webnews |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2019/lifestyle/magazine/trump-insulted-these-countries-travel-writer-celebrates-them/ |title=Last year Trump called these countries a profane name. We sent a travel writer to celebrate them. |last=Donahue |first=Bill |date=March 12, 2019 |website=www.washingtonpost.com |publishernewspaper=[[The Washington Post]] |access-date=March 18, 2019}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=African 671 |first=University of Wisconsin-Madison Students in |title=Liberian Music-Hipco |url=https://wisc.pb.unizin.org/lctlresources/chapter/liberian-music-hipco/ |language=en}}</ref> According to the ''[[Washington Post]],'' "HipCo is to Liberia as [[jazz]] is to the [[United States]]." In 2017, Liberian historian C. Patrick Burrows stated "we're on the verge of a renaissance,. and HipCo is at the leading edge of it."<ref name=FootnoteC/> In 2020, [[Takun J]], [[DenG]], [[Sundaygar Dearboy]], Tan Tan, Soul Smiter, Odemz, and Amaze recorded the Hipco song "Sanitize". The artists released the song in order to raise awareness about [[Covid-19]] and encourage Liberians to practice good hygiene.<ref>{{cite web |title=Liberian Hipco Stars Fight COVID-19 Through Music |url=https://accountabilitylab.org/liberian-hipco-stars-fight-covid-19-through-music/ |website=Accountability Lab |access-date=17 February 2023 |date=May 13, 2020 |archive-date=6 December 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221206012045/https://accountabilitylab.org/liberian-hipco-stars-fight-covid-19-through-music/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

Among high-profile Hipco artists are [[Takun J, [[Christoph the Change]], and [[Bucky Raw]].<ref name=FootnoteF>{{cite web |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/04/style/monrovia-hipco-clubs.html |title=The Ease of Monrovia’sMonrovia's ‘Hipco’'Hipco' Clubs |last= |first= |date=November 4, 2017 |website=www.nytimes.com |publisher=[[The New York Times]] |access-date=March 18, 2019}}</ref><ref name=FootnoteG>{{cite web |url=https://www.vice.com/en_uk/article/wdaemm/hipco-liberia |title='Hipco' Is the Soundtrack of Monrovia's Post-War Youth |last= |first= |date=March 30, 2014 |website=www.vice.com |publisher=[[Vice (magazine)|Vice]] |access-date=March 18, 2019}}</ref><ref name="FootnoteK">{{cite web |url=https://www.liberianobserver.com/lib-life/music-industry-awash-with-beef-over-ownership-of-song-title-woomi/ |title=Music Industry Awash with Beef over Ownership of Song Title: "Woomi" |last=Millimono |first=Saah F. |date=August 30, 2018 |website=www.liberianobserver.com |publisher=[[Liberian Observer]] |access-date=April 15, 2019}}</ref>

[[Category:LiberianMusic musicof Liberia]]