In the early 20th century, when port cities in West Africa thrived, a new indigenous style of music known as palm wine music emerged from the waters. What started out as a form of entertainment in low-class dockside bars where sailors, dock workers, and the working class gathered to drink palm wine, a milky-sweet tree sap alcohol, became a multi-national sensation, birthing local genres across West Africa. Picking up influences and instruments across generations, and reimagined by Ghanaian and Nigerian musical luminaries, the tinny rhymes…
