If you were a young child growing up between 2004 and 2005, you probably would have waited patiently when the DJ at a party drops that intro ‘pananapapaaaa’ so you get crazy and wild with your friends.

Partying within this time was all about this particular ‘genre’; children will go wild when these songs were played, adults were no different.

Hard overriding kicks, low hats, loud snares, random toms, whistles, the Akan ‘gong gong’ rhythm, funny-sounding synthesizers, amazing usage of some peculiar plugins (music producers can relate), excellent cues and its speedy, yet groovy tempo were characteristics of this great genre.

‘Gheohe’ was the name.

Widely enjoyed in some coastal areas across the capital, Accra; Nungua, Tema, Osu, Labadi, Korle Gonno amongst several other Ga dominated environments.

With its meaning, it is not well established but most Ga people liken it to the Ga phrase, ‘GbÍ» Ohe’ which means open up or feel free. This may somehow be true because people indeed opened up and danced their hearts out whenever it was played.

The genre’s breakthrough was quite an amazing one because the only genres which had a tremendous effect on people then were ‘Soukous’ or the ‘Mapouka’.

With Mapouka, the songs that came out were great songs including, ‘Coupe Bipamba’ (je m’appelle) by Awillo, ‘Amoulanga’ by Magic System,’ Zoblazo’ by Meiway,’ Alhaji’ by DJ Ramatouley, ‘Dzolo Nationale’ by Yang System and the most enjoyed ‘Ahou’ by Les Tueuses.

Amazingly, the popularity of ‘GbÍ» ohe’ affected the number of Mapouka songs played. The genre had greatly influenced the production of so many songs. Some Ivorian DJs joined hands with these Ghanaian DJs producing some of these songs.

Unfortunately, GbÍ» ohe has now become an occasional genre and in some cases, are hardly played on most notable radio stations across the country.

One DJ who took it upon himself and gave the genre a lot of airplay was DJ Lalo of Obonu FM. He played GbÍ» ohe influenced songs for three hours on weekends.

DJ Lalo entertained listeners with genre three hours every weekend

One may not be wrong to liken ‘GbÍ» ohe’ to that of South Africa’s ‘Afrohouse’ genre which has now been established as a genre on its own.

Like GbÍ» ohe, talented South African DJs like Vetkuk, Black Coffee, Maphorisa, DJ Fortee, Dr. Malinga and Uhuru produce ‘afro-house’ songs and with time, they have become renowned and amassed wide audience wherever they go in any part of the world.

Unfortunately, GbÍ» ohe is limited to only the Ga communities thus not much attention is paid to the genre. Hence, no form of support has been rendered to individuals who tried to hold it up like Gasmilla and Screwface.

GbÍ» ohe still remains a great genre in its own unique way.

Enjoy DJ Katapila’s Zoomlion ;