education, this generation could use ’em
Shackles gotta lose ’em
The pigs got egos, gotta bruise ’em
A badge and a gun, try to confuse ’em
Diallo never run, no gun, a wallet, why they shoot him?
In the song “Neo.Vadar” Yugen Blakrok (South Africa) provides a good example of hip-hop’s emphasis on representation, as well as the use of hip-hop rhyme techniques. Yugen Blakrok’s 2013 album Return of the Astro-Goth uses imagery that blends Asian symbols (similar to the US-based hip-hop group Wu-Tang Clan), African subjects, Black consciousness, and hip-hop lyricism. In the song “Neo.Vadar” Yugen Blakrok (seen in fig. 1.1 on the roof of her apartment building in Johannesburg) shows a lyrical style that uses the creative technique called slant rhymes. Unlike many full rhymes, in which the last words of a bar or line of rap have the same sound, slant rhymes have similar but not identical sounds.
Planted these roots under the Transkei sky
So when flowering, to shoot through the earth when the rains subside
Command them “Grow and bear fruit to feed the hungry and wise”
Divine sustenance, universal nature’s benign
But when the light behind the eyes fails to focus
And threats of rebel armies on your horizon just swarming like locusts
My thoughts run with the speed of Hermes.
Manifest these verses before the world of the mystic submerges. (Bradley 2009)
The song title “Neo.Vadar” is a play on Darth Vadar, the infamous Star Wars villain. The song blends science fiction, metaphysics, and Greek mythology and locates itself within a Xhosa community. In the song Blakrok places her herself firmly in the Transkei, a former Bantustan for the Xhosa in the Eastern Cape. Her lyrics are often more like streams of consciousness and contain a lot of symbolism, with references to spirituality and metaphysics, including a reference to the Greek god Hermes. Yugen Blakrok shows lyrical creativity in the use of symbolism and lyrical word to create a narrative that differs from the narratives created by her counterparts.
Figure 1.1. Yugen Blakrok in Johannesburg in 2016. Photo by author.
All three artists represent distinct styles of emceeing. The use of specific rhyme techniques by African artists distinguishes their music as hiphop music, as separate from other music genres. While examples were given of English lyrics, similar defined rhyme techniques can be found in the music of hip-hop artists rapping in languages other than English.
In “Dans mon rêve,” Senegal’s Didier Awadi rhymes in French and uses chain rhymes to repeat the same word in more than two lines.
J’ai fait le rêve que le peuple se levera
Dans mon rêve cette fille se lèvera
Dans mon rêve ce fils se levera
Main dans la main la mere se levera . . .
Dans mon rêve Y’a pas d’homme qui est dominé
Dans mon rêve Pas de peuple qui est dominé
Dans mon rêve Pas de terre qui est dominée
Et l’état c’est la haine qui est dominée
Dans mon rêve des colons éliminés
Dans mon rêve Colonies eliminée.
Nikki Mbishi (Tanzania) rhymes in Swahili and uses internal rhymes in his song “Utamaduni.”
Yo, vina punch na midundo, mafumbo na temithali
Za semi, zisome tungo, ni gumzo, jiweke mbali
Mi ni fundo we ni mwali nishike udumishe ndoa
Bila mishe niko poa nipishe nisafishe doa
Nadharia kwa kilinge, ninge hazitambi tena
Nishinde mbilinge, Mungu hazijui dhambi njema
Gongo La Mboto msoto hainyweki gongo ya moto
Maisha vitisho, mwisho wanaujua hadi Mrisho Mpoto.
While musical genres such as kwaito, bongo flava, kuduro, genge/ kapuka/boomba, and hiplife may have derived from hip-hop, borrowing from R&B and reggae as well, they are not synonymous with hiphop. Studies of hip-hop in Africa are newer than studies of hip-hop in America, the latter including the work of several scholars who have been actively involved in the culture. Studies that present research on bongo flava as Tanzanian hip-hop, kwaito as South African hip-hop, or hiplife as Ghanaian hip-hop are evidence of a need for further research and understandings of the spaces shared by hip-hop and other musical genres in Africa. This book will briefly touch on the relationship between hip-hop and other pop music genres in Africa, but a broader study may be needed. Research on hip-hop in Ghana leads to material on hiplife, which is often discussed as if it is synonymous with Ghanaian hip-hop. Hiplife is its own genre, much like highlife, Afrobeat, and others. Jesse Shipley has acknowledged the difficulty of defining hiplife, saying it is characterized “not by a particular rhythm or lyrical pattern” but by “a performative electronic orchestration of Akan-language practices and diasporic hip-hop” (2013, 132). Some say hiplife is Ghanaian hip-hop rapped in local languages, but Harry Odamtten (2011) indicates that hiplife is performed not only in local languages but also in English and Pidgin English. Both Shipley and Odamtten discuss the various genres that hiplife borrows from, including hip-hop, highlife, and reggae. The fact that Ghanaian hip-hop artists often produce both hip-hop and hiplife music adds to the ambiguity. Ghanaian emcees like Sarkodie have produced both hip-hop and hiplife. In a 2011 interview with Ghanaian emcee Yaa Pono, he said that he considered himself both a hip-hop and a hiplife artist, drawing a distinction between the two but easily moving between both genres. Given hiplife’s dominance in Ghana, when I asked Yaa Pono why he performs hip-hop at all, his response was “because it satisfies my soul.” Similar responses were given by other Ghanaian emcees who perform hiplife because of the genre’s popularity and marketability.
Hip-Hop Subgenres and Hybrids
Musical genres are often influenced by other musical genres. In a sense, all musical genres are hybrids, developing out of a blending of musical styles and influences. In the emergence of hip-hop in the 1970s, we see the heavy influence of both reggae and Caribbean culture, as well as the Black Arts movement of the 1960s.2 Hip-hop was influenced by contacts with other music genres and cultures as well but would merge these influences and develop its own identity. Similarly, hip-hop would both produce its own subgenres and influence the emergence of other genres.
Out of US hip-hop would come hip-hop subgenres, like gangsta rap, dirty south rap, and pimp rap in the United States (Lena 2006); out of South Africa came gangsta rap, spaza rap, motswako rap, and zef rap (UnderGround Angle 2009; Subzzee 2010b; Williams and Stroud 2013). In her studies, Jennifer Lena (2004, 2006) has identified thirteen rap subgenres in the United States, distinguishing them by looking at a combination of lyrical flow, lyrical
