Reggie Rockstone

Reggie Rockstone (Reginald Yaw Asante Ossei) is a Ghanaian musician. Renowned as the ‘Godfather of Hiplife,’ he is said to have pioneered the genre. Although but in the UK, he developed his art in the US.

The hip-life artist first found fame as a dancer in Ghana’s capital Accra in the 1980s but it wasn’t till the mid-nineties that he became touched with lasting success. This was down to his debut album ‘Makaa! Maka!’ (1997), where he laced hip-hop beats with the local Twi language to commercial success. The album was released on Kassa Records, an independent label partly owned by himself.

In 2004, Reggie Rockstone won the KORA Award for Best African video.

He was featured on a remix of Nigerian pop artist 2face’s breakout single ‘Nfana Ibaga’ (2004) with reggae artist Beenie Man, marking one of the first collaborations between icons of contemporary West African music.

In 2014, Reggie Rockstone joined hiplife band VIP, switching the name to VVIP. Same year the group released its first single, ‘Selfie’.