Audio: Reggie Rockstone and Zapp Mallet "Choke Slams" each Other

Reggie Rockstone

Reggie Rockstone popularly known as the Godfather of Hiplife has "shoked slammed" Music producer and sound engineer Zapp Mallet for claiming to have coined the name "Hiplife".

Reggie Rockstone says he was "pissed" because lots the people are trying to put out false information to discredit his legacy and hard work.

According to Reggie Rockstone, it was his father, Ricky Osei of blessed memories and himself who had discussions on the name for the new movement and the direction they wanted to go with the news tunes he wanted to do about twenty years ago.
"I am surprise l hear Zapp is saying he coined the name Hiplife. See, it was my father and l who were discussing on the name for the revolution which we were about to embark on. Zapp was the sound engineer back then and so when l had the discussions with my dad, l went to the studio the next day and made it known to the rest of the crew which had Zapp Mallet as the sound engineer. So l am surprise when l hear Zapp saying he coined the name "Hiplife" said Reggie Rockstone.

Reggie continues to say the name "Hiplife" was first heard in his song on his first album called "Makaa Mati"

Zapp Mallet

"See, l was the very first to mention the name Hiplife in a song after l have mentioned it in the studio though we had some disagreements and that was after l heard discussed the name with my Dad a night before".


Reggie further revealed that his dad paid Zapp Mallet for the service he rendered as a sound engineer on the "Makaa Maka" album which is the first hiplife album in the world. He said it was the same album that introduce Sidney who is his cousin because his uncle told him his cousin was also good at rap so he put him on the song "Chooo boi".

Reggie Rockstone in an interview with Ama and Naa Ashorkor on the Entertainment Show on the Zone, a program on Starr Fm a local radio station in Accra, Ghana said, "l have not taken the credit from Zapp Mallet and when you listen to the video, l gave credit to him by saying, l give credit to the most innovative studio engineer by the name Zapp Mallet".

Zapp Mallet was called in to react to the statements from Reggie Rockstone.
In his responds, Zapp said the subject is not an issue he has never being interested in from day one.

"Well this is an issue l have not being interest in from day one. I mean Reggie and l go way back and this shouldn't be an issue that will bring issues between us. I am not happy the way things are turning out because setting the records straight doesn't mean we should fight and the way the things are turning out is not right and for me l think it is childish and amateur".

Answering the question as to wthere he has said Reggie Rockstone is not the originator of Hiplife, Zapp responded by saying he does think Reggie can single handedly say he is the originator of Hiplife.

"As far a l am concern, he can't single handedly say he is the originator. I am happy he mentioned his father Ricky Osei who was having countless meetings with on this issue when we were trying to bring hip pop and highlife together. And that is how come we had the name Hiplife."

According Zapp Mallet, he has never said anything in trying to set the record straight after twenty years because he has never being interested in the subject.


"I have never said anything. It was someone who was bringing out up issues of setting the records straight and came up with that. I haven't said anything. That is why in the beginning that l have not being interested in thing from the word "Go". You know, this (Hiplife) was a whole movement Ricky Osei was involved, Micheal Kuku was involved, Mike Cooke was involved and a lot more so if he alone is going to take up to say he is the originator, then fine that is all up to him".


Zapp Mallet is reported to have said he coined the name "Hiplife" after Sidney the cousin of Reggie Rockstone pop up with the agenda of setting the record straight after Reggie Rockstone was featured on CNN.
"When Reggie Rockstone came down from UK, he came with his partner and they both had the hip-hop culture which was sweeping all over the globes as it were at that time and some of us thought that we could go to our root, our heritage and do something Ghanaian, more African and merge hip-hop with our identity. An identity that will project the Ghanaian culture so Michael Kuku who was an instrumentalist then and I decided to name that class of music hip-life and it worked,” he said.

Zapp Mallet born Emmanuel Mallet was also quoted as saying,

“I have been silent on this issue for this long even though I knew it will come out one day. This was in 1994. It is a long story to be told now but a lot of us were behind generating and promoting this hip-life course and it is just fair we give them some credit, indeed Reggie Rockstone founded that genre, made it commercial but a lot of people gave a helping hand and he was not the one who introduced the name hip-life,” he added.

Barima Sidney

Sidney a controversial hiplife musician and formerly of "Nananom" fame claims, Reggie is not the originator of Hiplife music genre as he parades himself to be. Sidney now called Barima ask Reggie Rockstone to tell the truth of the story and stop taken credit when he knows he is not the only one involved in bringing Hiplife to light.
One of the people who have also spoken to the matter was Root Eye who is the host of "Music Music" on TV3. According Root Eye, it was Zapp Mallet who coined the name "Hiplife" back in the days.

Hiplife is a music genre that was which has a fusion of Hip Pop and Highlife music genre. It is currently one of the genres which is highly patronized in Ghanaian music cycles today.

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