His first hit song was One
Gallon. He was then a member
of Hiplife group. Bradez. The
group became dysfunctional
after his brother and group
member Kunta Kinte fell ill.
These days he’s been working
on solo projects and keeping
the Bradez legacy alive.
We had a conversation with
Flowkingstone and this is what
he had to say about this year’s
VGMA, Hiplife and the state of
security in Ghana.
Colossium: How has it been?
Flowkingstone: It’s been good. Just out and
about doing my thing.
CLS: How long have you been around
for?
FLS: I started in ’96, however my debut as a
mainstream artiste is a feature I did for
Okyeame in 2003 and my first hit song One
Gallon with Bradez in 2005.
CLS: One Gallon was indeed a hit. It’s a
song that still lives on. Whose idea was
it?
FLS: It was my idea. What I did, was to go
back in time as far as music was concerned.
During that time Hiplife was being
experimented. We were rapping on foreign
beats before Akyeame came with ‘Ma San
Aba’ which was rap over Highlife beat. That
changed to the ‘Ga Jama’ style where rappers
rap over jama an example is ‘Kul Blofo’ by Buk
Bak. So I went back to listen to the ‘By the Fire
Side’ type of music known as Palm Wine
music mostly done by artistes like Egya Koo
Nimo and others. Their songs inspired the
creation of One Gallon which we took to
Apeitus for the finals works.
CLS: How will you define HIplife?
FLS: There was a time where Crank music
was a global hit and we will rap to it. There
40 | Colossium . June 2019
was also a time where we will rap on jama
beats so if I will define Hiplife; I will say
Hiplife is genre that allows rappers to
experiment with beats depending on what’s
trending at the time whilst maintaining their
originality as Ghanaians.
CLS: In your opinion, who will you say
started the Hiplife movement?
FLS: I started listen to Hiplife from the days
of Mahony P during the early 90’s. Okyeame
Kwame will be playing a lot of Mahony P in
the house during that time. Then Reggie
Rockstone came in. He made Hiplife a force to
reckon with it. He made Hiplife a powerful
force, something exciting for people to want
to be part of. Reggie Rockstone took Hiplife to
the next level.
CLS: Let’s talk about Bradez, why have
you gone solo?
FLS: Why have I gone solo? Well I think
everyone knows the story. Quite frankly, I
haven’t gone solo. Bradez is a movement and a
group but I started my solo project because I
was torn between stopping music and moving
on to keep the legacy alive. We all know what
happened to my brother with regards to his
health. So I had to put everything on hold to
take care of him. After a while I had to get
back to