The process of indigenizing hip-hop culture was helped when many emcees began rapping in local languages. In countries like Ghana, Kenya, Liberia, Senegal, South Africa, Tanzania, and Uganda artists manipulated local languages and dialects and moved from producing English-only rap to also rapping in local languages. The importance of language use in hip-hop is crucial to understanding whom music speaks to, where an artist is coming from (Pennycook 2007; L. Watkins 2012). The language spoken by the masses has historically been assigned a low status (Devonish 1986). In fact, postcolonial policies to maintain colonial languages as official languages in much of Africa perpetuated the language inequality that developed, and the lower-class status assigned to the languages of the masses (Devonish 1986; Fanon 2004; Thiong’o 1986). Hip-hop’s roots, however, are with the masses, with those very individuals whom society has assigned a low status. The languages utilized by hip-hop artists was taken from the language spoken on the streets, by the masses. The slang used in hip-hop has the characteristics of other spoken languages, in that it is constantly changing, and an in-group status is also assigned to those who are fluent in it. As a result of hip-hop’s influence and popularity, in some countries hip-hop culture has promoted the status of indigenous and creole languages (and cultures) among the youth. In Ghana, for example, Pidgin English is assigned a low status but hip-hop artists have played a role in promoting its use among the youth. In response to the status of Pidgin English and street culture, Ghanaian artists Wanlov the Kubolor and M.anifest team up on the song “Gentleman” and proclaim, “I no be gentleman at all’o / I be African man original.” Through the song the duo uses Pidgin English to assert a specific kind of Ghanaian identity, one that is rooted in the masses.
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“Understand Where I’m Coming From”
The Growth of African Hip-Hop and Representations of African Culture
Hip Hop. This isn’t a hobby to me. This isn’t something I just decided to try [to] do. I’ve been doing this my whole life. This is my life. It’s in my DNA. Remember that.
—Gigi LaMayne, Tumblr post, January 7, 2016
HIP-HOP COMMUNITIES IN Africa emerged in the 1980s and 1990s and did not simply reflect what was happening on the ground but also constructed for us the realities for many urban youth in Africa. They also informed the youth and put their conditions into context, translating political speak into street language, and sometimes they provided instructions on confrontations with social and political institutions. By the mid-1990s and early 2000s pioneering hip-hop artists all over Africa were releasing politically and socially conscious music. Songs like Prophets of da City’s “Ons stem” (Our voice, South Africa, 1991), Positive Black Soul’s “Le bourreau est noir” (The executioner is black, Senegal, 1995), Kalamashaka’s “Tafsiri hii” and “Ni wakati” (Translate this and It’s time, Kenya, 1997, 2001), Kwanza Unit’s “Msafiri” (Traveler, Tanzania, 1999), or Das Primeiro’s “Liberdade” (Liberty, Angola, 2002) all pointed out hypocrisies in government, resurrected the words of past revolutionary leaders through sampling, and connected urban youth in Africa to global hip-hop communities. Many of these early artists were of a generation that was either engaged in liberation struggles (southern Africa) or the children of those who had engaged in liberation struggles. In an interview with Kama of Kalamashaka, the artist understood his role as both an emcee and an activist and saw the role of the emcee as similar to the roles of other intellectuals. Kama’s grandparents were involved in the Mau Mau rebellion and he was himself politically educated but also rooted in hip-hop culture. During Kama’s visit to Los Angeles he easily rapped along with songs from US emcee Redman’s classic 1994 album Dare Iz a Darkside, engaged in substantive discussions of Mau Mau ideologies, and debated the ideas of Frances Cress Welsing.1 Kama was representative of other socially conscious hip-hop artists. Several artists interviewed articulated the role of the emcee as street intellectuals, and several saw political education as a necessary process.
In a historical review of the growth of hip-hop as a form of cultural representation in Africa, this chapter focuses on the economic and political events on the continent in the 1980s and 1990s that led to the development and politicization of hip-hop culture in Africa, as well as at the diverse hip-hop representations found in select countries of Africa. I also look at the ways in which individual artists have shaped hip-hop in Africa as well as how they have contributed (festivals, conferences, award shows) to the development of hip-hop in Africa. The chapter details the ways in which hip-hop emerged as a tool to represent social dissonance and presents hip-hop as a cultural representation beyond the music, specifically the use of graffiti, media (film, magazines, radio), and fashion as forms of cultural representations within hip-hop culture.
Artists all over Africa have used hip-hop as a framework or vehicle to create certain narratives. It is within these narratives that the listener is able to discern historical, political, social, and economic dynamics within certain societies. Chuck D’s famous quote that hiphop is “black America’s CN” has broader implications through a cultural studies framework (Thorpe, 1999). In cultural studies even the news is a cultural representation, containing the perspectives and ideologies of the individuals editing the news stories. In many ways the evening news also represents certain cultural systems, and one’s interpretation of the news is often shaped by one’s own cultural connections. Through hip-hop, as through the evening news, reality is constructed and a historical record is created. Though different audiences translate or interpret cultural representations differently, based on their own social and economic background, those representations, be they hip-hop or the evening news, are no less legitimate realities for many.
Hip-hop, as a form of cultural representation, expresses the feelings, ideas, and concepts of the culture within which the artist lives. Hip-hop, as all cultural representations, has the power to shape, educate, and change society. There are definite similarities seen in cultural representations produced through hip-hop music all over the African continent. These similarities include expressions of hip-hop’s core elements and culture and articulations of similar economic and political environments. Differences among representations in hip-hop in Africa come from the diverse environments that exist on the continent. These diverse environments are understood through an examination of hip-hop in various countries.
The chapter also deals with the ways in which African hip-hop artists produce and distribute music with the diversity of resources available to them. There are challenges and opportunities facing hip-hop artists in Africa, and the ways in which they are navigating those challenges and opportunities are important. African hip-hop artists have embraced new media and bypassed barriers imposed by mainstream or traditional media outlets. The internet has become a platform for videos, songs, lyrics, blogs, and articles written by hiphop artists and content creators in Africa. On platforms like iTunes, Spotify, Pandora, ReverbNation, SoundCloud, Vimeo, YouTube, and others, the numbers of African emcees making their music available online has increased multifold since 2009, when my research on hiphop in Africa began.
The chapter will finally explore the ways in which African hiphop heads are exploring and using nonmusical representations in African hip-hop culture. Hip-hop culture goes beyond the music and finds expression in other art forms. Graffiti and breakdancing developed early on in many African countries, along with the music. Some hip-hop emcees had their start as breakdancers or graffiti artists. Later, with changes in technology and communication, more hip-hop heads used new media and social media to express hip-hop culture through images, films, and magazines. Additionally, distinctly African hip-hop fashion has become increasingly visible. The use of local textiles, slang, and graphics in fashion has led to more artists looking to African-produced fashions, leading to a fan base following their lead and fashion designers inspired to keep up with the changes.
Hip-Hop as Cultural Representation
Music and other forms of cultural representation (art, literature, film, etc.) may not simply be reflections of reality but indeed how reality is constructed. The constructivist approach to cultural representation posits that our understandings