Author: bigsmile715
-
Hip Hop & Diaspora: Connecting the Arab Spring
Hip Hop & Diaspora: Connecting the Arab Spring by Lara Dotson-Renta Every evolution has a certain style of music connected to it. The recent and still on-going pro-democracy movements now popularly known as the “Arab Spring’ has been accompanied by a very strong musical components, and it has been hip-hop that has become the most iconic
-
Rap Music in Libya: Serving as a Mouthpiece for Change
Rap Music in Libya: Serving as a Mouthpiece for Change While rap and hip hop in North America today is predominantly done for entertainment purposes, in other parts of the world where the stakes are high and violence is rampant, rap and hip hop music have reverted back to their original roots; that is, to
-
Namibia: Women Hip-Hop Artists Challenge Stereotypes
Different from American hip-hop, African hip-hop prides itself on a more positive portrayal of women, but traditional cultural attitudes towards women still dominate the industry, says Namibian female rappers. They constantly have to prove themselves. Managers routinely pocket 50 percent of the fees, if the women get paid at all. Even when women work on
-
Uganda’s Bouncing Cats: Hip hop with heart
Bouncing Cats is a new documentary of one man’s attempt to bring breakdance to the war-torn children of Uganda. The man is Abraham ‘Abramz’ Tekya, an AIDS orphan from Kampala who has a passion for hip hop. Abramz set up Breakdance Project Uganda in 2006 and gives free breakdancing classes to kids in Gulu and
-
Libya’s artists: We are the ‘true’ Libya
Libya’s artists: We are the ‘true’ Libya by Reza Sayah It is probably next to impossible to find a city anywhere in the world that is closer to war than Benghazi, Libya. But here, in his cramped, cigarette smoke-filled studio in a former government building in Benghazi, MC Swat, 23, has been writing scathing lyrics about the
-
Tunisia’s rappers provide soundtrack to a revolution
Tunisia’s rappers provide soundtrack to a revolution by Neil Curry Tunisia’s rappers have long made a point of speaking their minds, their lyrics often bringing them into conflict with the old regime. But more than simply upsetting the status quo, according to one of the country’s leading rappers, their music was the “fuel” for Tunisia’s revolution.
-
AFRICAN HIP HOP IN TANZANIA – Highlights of a Conversation with Alex Perullo
This article, AFRICAN HIP HOP IN TANZANIA, is consisted of highlights from an interview with a prominent scholar, Alex Perullo who studies East African popular musicians. Among many things covered discussed in the interview, he talked about Hip Hop history in Tanzania, the socialist influence in Tanzania & censorship, and comparison between the hip hop of scene in senegal
-
State of South African Hip Hop
The rise of hip hop in South Africa began with Prophets of Da City when they performed the song “Excellent, the First Black President”, said Lee Kasumba, a DJ, writer, and all round authority on the rap scene there. That song put hip hop on the map in South Africa. Prior to that, hip hop
-
Conscious Senegalese rap is not dead
Under President Wade, the political and economical situation has continued to deteriorate in Senegal for the past ten years. While many have suffered under the rule, rappers, Thiat and Kilifeu from the central Senegalese town of Kaolack stood up and denounced acts of corruption and served jail time as a result. Now they are back
-
Gambia: Hot-B New Album Goes Online
Baboucarr Joof aka Hot B SDF, one of the Gambia’s promising hip-hop rappers recently released his second album. After being discovered during a music festival held in the Senegalese city of Dakar, the rapper made his fame when he dropped his debut album, called “Love and Peace in the Gambia” in 2007. But unlike his