Representing Africa in Contemporary Nigerian Hip Hop: A Video Analysis of Ruggedman's “Ruggedy Baba”
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Date
2015-12
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Modern Research Studies
Abstract
Since MTV pioneered the art of music video broadcast in
1981, music video has gradually become one of the most important
outlets for music promotion and an indispensable marketing strategy for
an artiste. In recent times music video has almost assumed a life of its
own and somehow larger than the music itself with a lot of investment
in energy and finance being put into it by artists, labels and
management. Africa on the other hand is catching on with this trend as
there is an overt visibility of MTV Africa and other satellite television
stations like Channel - O, Soundcity, Nigezie and Trace solely
dedicated to promoting music videos. This paper examines the concept
of music video in the Nigerian popular music context while extracting
its functionality in the contemporary Nigerian hip hop genre. Against
the backdrop of the ‘Ruggedy Baba’ video this research isolates the
primary function of a video to music and argues that through visual
representation of music, identities can be formulated as presented in
‘Ruggedy Baba’ where traditional Africa is prominently represented in
a music genre deeply rooted in urban street culture.
Description
Staff Publication
Keywords
Music video,, Popular Music,, Hip Hop,, ‘Ruggedy Baba’,, Nigeria.