Foner 2001). With similar patterns of music retention, the Caribbean population that would emerge in New York City was large. It would be members of that Caribbean community who would collaborate with African Americans to create a cultural revolution. The music that would develop into hip-hop has its roots in these retained musical traditions.
Hip-hop emerged in the Bronx borough of New York City in the 1970s, where African American residents exchanged creative influences with the West Indian and Puerto Rican communities (Chang and DJ Kool Herc 2005). Caribbean immigrant artists such as Jamaican-born DJ Kool Herc (Clive Campbell), Barbadian-born Grandmaster Flash (Joseph Saddler), and Antiguan-born DJ Red Alert (Frederick Crute) were among the pioneers who helped found hip-hop (Perry 2004; Chang and DJ Kool Herc 2005). The Caribbean influence on hip-hop also came with the importation of two music trends that emerged in the Caribbean, specifically in Jamaican music, in the 1960s (Hebdige 2004; Perry 2004; Chang and DJ Kool Herc 2005).
First was the introduction of dub music, which consisted of remixing and manipulating sound recordings, often removing the vocals to work with the drumbeats; second was the Jamaican style of toasting, or talking over beats (George 2005; Veal 2007). As Caribbean artists like DJ Kool Herc and Grandmaster Flash integrated into the African American community in the Bronx, they brought their Caribbean influences with them. Out of this fusion came hip-hop music and culture, and a new sound that would soon have a global reach.
Pan-African Dialogues through Music
The musical flows between Africa and the African diaspora are more than a century old. There has been a constant movement of peoples and cultures between Africa and the African diaspora, with cultural styles being adopted, transformed and renamed, and then borrowed again. Tsitsi Jaji (2014), in fact, talks about the “continuities” between African American music and various parts of Africa and the diaspora. Rather than seeing Africa as simply the source of diaspora music and culture, Jaji sees it as part of the cycles of taking, transforming, and giving between connected communities and cultures. Often when we speak of Pan-Africanism it is through the diasporic gaze, through the diaspora reflecting on African connections. We seldom consider the African gaze and African reflections on diasporic linkages. It is crucial to consider both, and in fact to look at Pan-Africanism using multiple lenses, and in consideration of the cultural linkages that encompass a global African (race as opposed to citizenship) population.
According to Edmund John Collins (1987), some of the earliest arrivals of diaspora music in Africa began in the 1880s with the arrival of former enslaved Blacks into West Africa from the United States, the Caribbean, and Latin America. In Ghana and Nigeria, the African American and Caribbean contribution to highlife dates back to the early 1900s (Shipley 2009; Shonekan 2012). In the Congo, and later in Senegal, Cuban music became very influential and popular (Shain 2002; White 2002). In the 1930s Cuba’s rumba music was a major influence on the emergence of Congolese dance music, which would become popular across Africa (White 2002).
The music that emerged from African American and Caribbean communities in the 1960s through the 1980s would also find its way to Africa. The music from artists ranging from James Brown to Michael Jackson to Bob Marley would be a precursor to the wave of hip-hop music and culture that would impact the lives of many African youth in the 1980s and 1990s.
In addition to the legacy of retained African culture in African American and Caribbean music, twentieth-century African musical influences could also be heard in the music of the African diaspora in the United States. African musicians like Fela Kuti, Miriam Makeba, Lucky Dube, and Hugh Masekela became well known in the African diaspora in the United States. Many of these artists lived in America during the turbulent 1960s and 1970s and became involved in the civil rights and Black Power movements. This was especially the case of exiled South African artists like Hugh Masekela and Miriam Makeba. Makeba would eventually marry Black Power activist Kwame Toure (aka Stokely Carmichael). Fela Kuti was very vocal about his exposure to the Black Power movement of 1960s Los Angeles and its influence on his music. Fela Kuti would also influence the Black music scene in America.
As hip-hop grew in America, several artists would sample beats or vocal tracks from Africa. Afrobeat musician Fela Kuti is perhaps one of the most sampled African musicians in American hip-hop. A selection of some of the many artists to sample his music: Mos Def sampled “Fear Not of Man” for his song of the same name (D. Smith 1999); Missy Elliott sampled “Colonial Mentality” for “Watcha Gon’ Do” (2001); Nas sampled “Na Poi” for “Warrior Song” (M.anifest 2012); the Roots sampled “Mr Grammarticalogylisationalism Is the Boss” for “I Will Not Apologize” (Trotter 2008); and J. Cole sampled “Gentleman” for “Let Nas Down” (2013). African American hip-hop artists Jay Z and Will Smith teamed up to produce the musical Fela!, which opened on Broadway in 2009.
The bridging of the gap across the Atlantic divide, between the United States and Africa, through hip-hop, has not been frequent, but the occurrences have been significant. There have been a number of collaborations between African and African American emcees. Much of this is due to the numbers of African emcees that migrated to the United States. In addition, several African American emcees are connecting with African artists in Africa. Collaborations between K’naan and Mos Def (“America,” 2009), Wale and Pharrell Williams (“Let It Loose,” 2009), M-1 and DJ Awadi (“The Roots,” 2010), and Blitz the Ambassador and Chuck D (“The Oracle,” 2011) have involved African and African American emcees on various projects. In fact, M-1 of the American hip-hop duo Dead Prez has been in two documentaries on hip-hop in Africa: Ni wakati and United States of Africa: Beyond Hip Hop.
Collaborations between African emcees from various parts of the continent have also led to linkages among urban youth across Africa. Early collaborations include, in 2000, the release of “Da Noize” by Kenya’s Nazizi and Mizchif from Zimbabwe. With improvements in communications and technology we have increasingly seen more collaboration. In 2009, ProVerb (South Africa) and ModeNine (Nigeria) released “ProMode,” Hip Hop Pantsula (HHP) (South Africa) and Naeto C (Nigeria) released “Boogie Down,” HHP and Nazizi released “Daraja” (Künzler 2011b), and Professor Jay (Tanzania) and Kwaw Kese (Ghana) released “Who Be You.”
In 2010, M.anifest (Ghana) and Krukid (Uganda) teamed up for a project entitled the African Rebel Movement and collaborated on the album Two Africans and a Jew. In that same year, Senegal’s DJ Awadi traveled to thirteen African countries for his Présidents d’Afrique project. The project produced an album and the documentary United States of Africa: Beyond Hip Hop. The album features collaborations between hip-hop artists from different African countries, like “La patrie ou la mort” with Smockey of Burkina Faso, “Amandla” with Skwatta Kamp of South Africa, and “Uhuru” with Maji Maji of Kenya. Also in 2010, Dominant 1 (Malawi), the Holstar (Zambia), and Illuminate (Zimbabwe) released “Don’t Stop Playing,” and the Holstar and ProVerb released “Stepping Stone.”
In 2011, ProVerb and Naeto C released “Higher,” and Navio (Uganda) and Jua Cali (Kenya) released “Respect.” In 2013, M.anifest and Camp Mulla (Kenya) released “All In,” and Gigi LaMayne (South Africa), Sasa Klaas (Botswana), Devour Ke Lenyora (South Africa), Ru the Rapper (Namibia), and DJ Naida (Zimbabwe) released “No Sleep.” In 2014, M.anifest and Proverb released “Proverbs Manifest,” M.I. (Nigeria) and Sarkodie (Ghana) released “Millionaira Champagne,” Sarkodie and Vector tha Viper (Nigeria) released “Rap Attack,” and Khaligraph Jones (Kenya), Dominant 1 (Malawi), the Holstar (Zambia), and Raiza Biza (Rwanda) released “Fecko: Real African Poetry 2.0.”
Defining African Hip-Hop
As the growth, influence, and content of hip-hop culture throughout Africa is being studied, so are attempts to define it. In the numerous interviews and conversations for this project, it became clear that several different positions were emerging on the topic. Most interviewees were asked to define African hip-hop, and the answers varied.
Some
