African Popular Culture and the Path of Consciousness: Hip Hop and the Culture of Resistance in Nigeria

Abstract

Having witnessed increasing popularity and boost in Africa from the 1990s, hip-hop is rapidly becoming a dominant culture among the youths as a vehicle of local social critique and global inter-connectivity in the public sphere. While incorporating elements from their own local cultures to appeal to home-grown sensibilities, hip-hop musicians have found a platform for getting their messages and ideas across to local audiences through music. However, in recent times hip-hop has been an object of constant criticism for veering off its path of consciousness with its projection of affluence, materialism (‘blings’), over-sexualisation, and misogynist(ic) messages by its artists. This paper argues that despite a lot of negative criticism trailing hip hop worldwide, Africa still remains a fertile ground where the genre is being deployed by youths as a vital tool of resistance and a powerful voice for socio-political and economic change. Using the Nigerian hip-hop scene and the critical analysis of the music of Sound Sultan, 2Face Idibia and Eedris Abdulkareem, I demonstrate the ways in which popular hip-hop music has now assumed huge cultural force for youths in urban Nigeria. I argue that the hip hop generation in Nigeria still believes in using the genre to effect a change in a country riddled with corruption and abuse of public office, thereby choosing the path of consciousness over commercialisation and large-scale hedonism amongst youth.