African Popular Culture and the Path of Consciousness: Hip Hop and the Culture of Resistance in Nigeria
dc.contributor.author | Adedeji, Wale | |
dc.date.accessioned | 2021-03-16T11:53:25Z | |
dc.date.available | 2021-03-16T11:53:25Z | |
dc.date.issued | 2013-11 | |
dc.description | Staff Publication | en_US |
dc.description.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. | en_US |
dc.identifier.citation | Adedeji, W. (2014). African Popular Culture and the Path of Consciousness: Hip-hop and the Culture of Resistance in Nigeria. Postcolonial Text, 8. | en_US |
dc.identifier.uri | http://repository.elizadeuniversity.edu.ng/jspui/handle/20.500.12398/916 | |
dc.language.iso | en | en_US |
dc.publisher | Postcolonial Text | en_US |
dc.subject | Hip hop | en_US |
dc.subject | Youth culture | en_US |
dc.subject | Conscious music | en_US |
dc.subject | Resistance | en_US |
dc.subject | Nigeria | en_US |
dc.subject | Africa | en_US |
dc.title | African Popular Culture and the Path of Consciousness: Hip Hop and the Culture of Resistance in Nigeria | en_US |
dc.type | Article | en_US |