West African Highlife Band has been played on NTS in shows including Highlife & Sunshine Show w/ Tryb, featured first on 4 February 2023. Songs played include Esi.

The West African Highlife Band, comprised of veteran West African musicians, revives the hit songs that motivated the feet of a generation of African youth during the era that ended colonial rule. The band’s album is titled “Salute to Highlife Pioneers” (Inner Spirit Records). The band is based in the San Francisco Bay Area, and is led by Babá Ken Okulolo, a Nigerian bassist, vocalist, composer, educator, and bandleader.

Band members are:

Babá Ken Okulolo, who is one of a few living Nigerian musicians with roots in both traditional village music and popular West African genres. His four-decade career spans the palmwine, highlife, Afrobeat, and Afro-rock eras. He played and recorded with Nigerian musical legends including Fela Anikulapo Kuti, Tony Allen, and King Sunny Adé. Now based in the U.S., he teaches, records, and leads several other ensembles, including Babá Ken & Kotoja, Babá Ken & the Nigerian Brothers, and Babá Ken and the Afro-Groove Connexion. Soji Odukogbe, former lead guitarist with Fela Anikulapo's Egypt 80, from Nigeria. Pope Flyne, vocalist, keyboardist, master drummer, African dance instructor, and former lead singer for the famous Sweet Talks highlife band, from Ghana. Nii Armah Hammond, percussionist, founding member of Ghana's Hedzoleh Soundz, performed on many recordings and world tours with Hugh Masekela. Lemi Barrow, hard-hitting Liberian trap drummer with funk roots who also plays in Kotoja. Rasaki Aladokun (seasonal), talking drummer, has performed on many recordings and world tours with King Sunny Ade's African Beats. (For more information, see article on Babá Ken Okulolo.)