Soundway Records reissues Free Youth’s long sought-after 1985 single “We Can Move”, one of the first known examples of Ghanaian hip hop, emerging at the dawn of ‘hip-life’ (hip hop meets highlife). It was the trio’s only release and originally pressed on 7" vinyl, but now comes fully restored, remastered and available for the first time on 12” vinyl along with the original cover art.

Free Youth comprised three main members: brothers Terry “Sir Robot” Bright and Abednego “King Abed” Ayim Bright, and their friend Lenny “Nii Addy” Dimple. Around the early 80s they began regularly dancing and singing at clubs and parties in Accra, with other dancers occasionally joining them on stage – including one Reggie Rockstone, who later went on to find commercial success. Catching up in London, where two of them live now, Abed recalls that Rockstone would sometimes borrow outfits from them to dance in. Lenny pipes up: “He’s still got my red trousers, man!” (as seen on the front cover of the single We Can Move).Although Rockstone was credited with being one of the pioneers of the hip-life genre in the mid 90s, its roots in Ghanaian hip-hop can be traced back nearly 10 years earlier with Free Youth’s single, as well as with highlife stars such as K. K. Kabobo and Gyedu-Blay Ambolley experimenting with semi-rap lyrics.

1. We Can Move

2. We Can Move (Drymbago 2019 Instrumental Version)