Music had a big role to play both during and in the aftermath of the West Africa Ebola epidemic. I found that out when I visited Monrovia in August. A lot of artists wrote songs about the personal experiences people had facing the disease. Henry Amazin’ Toe, a.k.a Amaze, is a well-established hipco artist who composed and recorded such songs.

I met Amaze several times during my stay in the Liberian capital. The first time was during a group interview I held in Mamba Point with other artists (Teddy Ride and Margaret Cephus). Then again at our VOA Town Hall at the YMCA. Amaze performed with his female MC counterpart Peaches and answered questions about music and Ebola after his set. I also saw him perform live at the number one hipco music joint in Monrovia, ‘146‘. The club is owned and run by hipco pioneer and revered music legend, Takun J.

Amaze, who’s is 29 years old, made two important points about music and Ebola during our conversations . First, he said that music impacted Ebola immensely.

“Music is what people listened to. Its what made people wash their hands with chlorine. It was what made people start being hygienic…especially hipco.” And those last two words, “especially hipco,” was Amaze’s second important point.

“Hipco is sub of what they call Hip Hop in America. We borrowed it. Co is Coloquois (or Kolokwa) – our local way of speaking in Liberia. So people listen mostly to hipco mostly because we communicate through hipco easily.”

In my earlier post about hipco star Teddy Ride, I’d discovered that for some musicians, like Teddy, Ebola helped them become famous. It boosted the music industry in Liberia. But my encounters with Amaze in Monrovia made it very clear that music made a difference for a lot of terrified, grief and panic-stricken Liberians. Just before I met him outside of the Town Hall on Broad Street, I had a chat with another musician about the impact of music and musicians during the Ebola epidemic in 2014-16. Ebeneezer is the keyboard player and leader of the band who backed up Amaze, Peaches, Teddy Ride and the other featured artists.

Amaze composed two songs about Ebola: “Spread the Word” and “Kickback Kick to Ebola.” The first song was released during the height of the outbreak. Its purpose was to sensitize and educate people about the disease. He said, “Every artist back then would contribute. So we had to do everything we could do to sensitize and “conscietize” through music. After the Ebola period, when Ebola subsided fear was still in Liberians so I thought it wise to write a song “Kickback Kick to Ebola.”

“…so we had to make people come back to doing what they used to do because the fear was very in Monrovia and Liberia. As artists who people listen to we had to find a way to make people happy again. Here’s a little more from his performance at the Town Hall with Peaches.”

These days Amaze is focusing on the upcoming 2017 national election. He is currently on tour and promoting his new song and music video to engage voters to get involved in the election process now. In his most recent video “Know Who to Vote For,” Amaze teams up with his familiar partner Peaches, plus J-Glo and Hovor. Their message in colorful Coloquois: “Don’t vote on the basis of ethnicity, money, education level, or nepotism. Vote for the common good of Liberia.”

Liberia was declared free of active Ebola transmission on January 14 2016.

On August 9th, 2016 I visited Liberia, about eight months after it was declared Ebola Free. My VOA colleague Jackson Mvunganyi and I went as a team to learn the role music played during and after the epidemic that ravaged that country in 2014-2015.

We held a Town Hall meeting and over six days met with youths and musicians in Monrovia and neighboring regions.

I met over a dozen musical artists and interviewed six of them in Monrovia. Each had their own unique experience within their communities during the active Ebola period and its aftermath. Music indeed played a powerful and positive role throughout the crisis, but conversely, the epidemic had a powerful impact on the music industry and the lives of Liberian artists.

In the next few posts, I will focus on several of the artists interviewed. But here its all about 24 year old Teddy Ride.

“I had talent in high school and I was always thinking about how to get started on my songs. Okay so all of a sudden I came up to town and then I saw this engineer. I had money on me. Everybody never wanted to work because it was Ebola time. But I still stay with the whole program with the little money I had. and then people said ‘ okay let’s go to the studio hear what he got. And then when I start there, my very first song was a hit.”

That hit song was “Pretty Mama” . . .

“The Ebola period caused our entertainment industry to grow. Now people don’t often by Nigerian digs: other countries’ movies. Liberian movies are on the rise…and some artists like me have our fame … and we still got thousands and thousands of people who follow our songs all over Liberia. So it now goes to us, even though we came up small, but now its almost like a responsibility…something we need to do.” Teddy Ride.

Teddy gives much of the credit for his success to Ebola. “Ebola helped make some of us popular,” he said.  “Back then everybody was glued to the radio. Everybody was listening to the radio.”

People stayed inside their homes during the height of the epidemic for fear of catching the virus. So Teddy enjoyed massive, captive audiences with his new songs. Here’s Teddy alongside Margaret Cephus and Amazin’ after our interview doing a drop for MTIA.

Another important thing about Teddy Ride is he’s a hipco artist. What’s Hipco? Teddy described is this way: “Hipco is music that speaks to people’s minds.” In more technical terms, hipco is the Liberian style of Hip Hop. Its been around since the 1980s. Hip is borrowed from American English and –co comes from coloquois (or kolokwa), the most common pidginized form of Liberian English.

The Town Hall was well attended by groups of engaged youths, both men and women.

Listen here to the Music Time in Africa radio feature on Ebola and music in Liberia featuring Teddy Ride and also Amazin’ and Quincy B.