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Music as a Catalyst – Amplifying Underrepresented Voices

By Kibo Ngowi Art is a powerful tool for connecting people and shining a light on important social issues, and promoting equity and representation. This is an idea that runs right through the Lab’s Arts for Change programming. With music in particular, the Lab has created a network of musicians making socially conscious music across the African continent, creating sustainable models for change that integrate values and impact into the fabric of their work.  Two people who played an instrumental role in this process are the musician MI Abaga and the activist Nora Rahimian. These two talented changemakers have recognized [...]

2023-06-27T09:38:29+00:0027th June 2023|

Llega a plataformas musicales “Volver al Corazón”, una mirada íntima a la realidad de mujeres que viven en prisión en México

Read the press release in English here. Ciudad de México, 17 de noviembre de 2022. En México existen actualmente 220 mil 420 personas privadas de la libertad, de las cuales 12 mil 418 son mujeres, informó el INEGI en el Censo Nacional de Sistemas Penitenciarios Nacional y Estatales 2022. Si bien toda la población penitenciaria sufre de carencias y desatención pues el presupuesto destinado a cubrir sus necesidades básicas es mínimo, es a las mujeres a quienes se les brinda una menor atención que a los varones aludiendo al justificante de que son minoría. Las mujeres privadas de su libertad [...]

2022-11-23T10:50:46+00:0017th November 2022|

Capacity Building for the HipCo Accountability Network

‘Voice to Represent’ (Voice2Rep) is Accountability Lab’s pioneering and reformative musical campaign and advocacy platform that promotes issues around integrity, accountability and good governance through the lenses of a more equal participation and greater representation across Liberia. Its goal is for young and undiscovered artists to build their knowledge, skills and get the connections they need to improve their music and use it to advocate for social change. Hip-Co Accountability network on the other hand is a group on young national artists (male and female) who consider themselves ‘conscious musicians’, using a mixture of ‘hip-hop’ music and the Liberian ‘colokwa’ [...]

2022-03-18T11:05:40+00:008th February 2022|

PRESS RELEASE: National Endowment for Democracy Supports Democracy Concert in Four Counties

Accountability Lab Liberia, in partnership with the National Endowment for Democracy, launched a Voice2Rep (formerly Rap2Rep) tour and concert in four locations – Gbarnga, Bong; Buchanan, Grand Bassa; Monrovia, Montserrado; and Ganta, Nimba – as part of conscious efforts to spread civic education messages to the youth and citizens in these areas around elections participation and related issues. The concert aimed to present creative ways of educating the youth and citizens of their roles and responsibilities during and after elections periods, emphasizing the need to engage with political and aspiring candidates that want to be elected to public offices of [...]

2021-06-24T06:51:06+00:0018th June 2021|

How Music Has Influenced Behaviour During COVID-19 in Liberia

By Nyema Richards and Sanjeeta Pant When Rap2Rep (now Voice2Rep or “Voice to Represent”) started in Liberia in 2015, it was a relatively small campaign to encourage creative activism among young people using Hip-Co- a popular Liberian genre often referred to as the ‘political music’. The campaign has since expanded to Nigeria and Zimbabwe, and, most recently, has also gained international attention. The campaign in Liberia was named by the UN as one of the finalists for the SDG Action Awards for “harnessing conscious music as a tool for social change through the platform of youth participation.” Voice2Rep was specifically [...]

2021-02-23T17:01:35+00:0023rd February 2021|

Rap2Rep Liberia changes name to Voice2Rep

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Monrovia, February 1 2021 - Accountability Lab Liberia, a nonprofit institution that makes governance work for people, announced today that it has changed the name of its Rap2Rep conscious music campaign to Voice2Rep.  The name change reflects the different genres of music that we’ve started attracting in our call for applications, which include hipco, rap, soul and pop. It is geared at having a more diverse campaign which stands to make the Voice2Rep campaign more meaningful for a larger proportion of the Liberian youth community that it is targeted at. It also aligns the Liberian campaign with other [...]

2021-02-14T02:45:34+00:001st February 2021|

Elevating Local Knowledge for Sustainable Impact

By Sheena Adams and Nyema Richards Walking around Monrovia, Liberia it’s hard to escape Hipco music. From supermarkets and dress shops to small, battered radios attached to motorcycle taxis, the music floats all over the city. The genre combines Liberian Pidgin-English, called kolokwa, with high-BPM dance rhythms and also touches of reggae, hip hop and RnB. Dating back to the Liberian Civil War, it’s also a genre that tackles socio-political issues in the country, and is a means for young people to express themselves in a relatable, viral way. As a campaign tool, Hipco has proven to be a powerful vehicle for change. Arguably [...]

2020-08-14T11:16:39+00:0014th August 2020|

Accountability Lab Liberia Awards Winners of the Rap2Rep Coronavirus Music

Monrovia – Accountability Lab Liberia has awarded Hellen Smith, an emerging gospel musical artist, as the winner of this year's Rap2Rep musical campaign – a special feature that places high emphasis on coronavirus awareness messaging. By J. H. Webster Clayeh Rap2Rep is a musical campaign organized by the Accountability Lab Liberia that began 2015. It is a campaign that gives local artists an opportunity to use music as a tool for social change. The campaign has built a network of Hipco (Liberian style of music) artists that includes musicians who produce socially conscious music and are passionate about using their voices [...]

2020-07-21T10:40:04+00:0021st July 2020|

Accountability Lab awards 2 Liberian artists

Accountability Lab has awarded two Liberian artists for winning its Rap2Rep musical campaign. Ms. Hellen Smith emerged as winner of the campaign, receiving a grand prize of US$ 300, while Andrew Horton came second, taking away US$ 200 at the award ceremony held on July 17, 2020, on Carey Street, Monrovia. By Lewis S. Teh Ms. Janet M. Kamara said Rap2Rep is a campaign that is held under the auspices of Accountability Lab since 2015, basically using music as a tool for social change. For the past four years the campaign has built an accountability hipco network that includes musicians [...]

2020-07-20T10:51:37+00:0020th July 2020|

“We Have the Power” to Reform Our Electoral Laws

“We can all say there is a need to have more women in the electoral process; we want to have more women in leadership; we think women can do better,” said iCampus Manager Luther Jeke. But the question is, how do you get more people to hear what you say? That’s where Rap2Rep, a music competition run in partnership with Accountability Lab and iLab Liberia, comes in. Rap2Rep is a one of a kind competition that provides a platform for performers “to shape the future of the country through song.” It began on a small scale in 2016, and has [...]

2019-09-25T00:00:00+00:0025th September 2019|
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