Blitz the Ambassador, a Ghanaian rap artist, has been influential in the concoction of African culture and American culture within his music. Based in Brooklyn, New York, the basis of Hip-Hop is prevalent in his craft while still honoring his roots. Let’s take a look at his 2016 video for his song “Running”.
In the visual it is based in an area in Africa, presumably in Ghana. There is a wedding going on that seems, more or less, traditional. During this wedding, the older woman finds a young boy lying out on a boat that ended up ashore. She then, through traditional practices, revives the boy. There are two construction men who are demolition workers that knock on the older woman’s door, but, now standing there, are two boys that run after the men until the men reach the wedding ceremony and there is no longer anywhere to run.
If you listen to the music behind the video, you can see the incorporation of both American Hip-Hop and African traditional music. He does this through the lyrics and through the actual music. The basis of the music is traditional sounds and beats. As for the lyrics, he incorporates his native tongue while also saying “Where you at?” in the chorus of the song. Most of the lyrics are indeed English.
Ultimately, his song and his visual for it is a representation of disrupting changes that lead to disadvantages for his people. This is portrayed through the constant showing of the little boy who is running after the construction and demolition men. The young boy(s) represent, from what I understand, the culture and the way life is in the status quo. The construction men represent the tearing down of that culture and what is in the “now”.
Overall, Blitz the Ambassador’s song inherits many types of symbolism for maintaining and protecting what’s precious to many people of the world, the dignity of culture.