Positive Black Soul (PBS) is one of the first hip-hop groups based in Dakar, Senegal founded in 1989. Didier Sourou Awadi also known as DJ Awadi and Amadou Barry is also known as Doug E. Tee are members of Positive Black Soul. The group integrates elements of traditional music into their more modern beats and rap. Positive Black Soul songs mostly focus on political and social activism in Senegal. To reach their audience in their country, they mostly perform in French and Wolof which is the most predominant language in Senegal. Their main focus is to promote political engagement in the country and for them to vote during the presidential election. The music video I choose was “Je ne sais pas” a French phrase which means “I don’t know”. Viewing the music video, Positive Black Soul portrait the 4 elements of hip hop; graffiti, rapping, dancing (breakdancing) and deejaying. In the video clip, it was centered on graffiti and breakdancing. Watching Positive Black Soul’s video, I am not sure if it is because it is a pretty old song, but in my opinion, he was probably trying to portray hip-hop since around that time, it started to become more common in their community. Moving toward the music itself, we can say that in their song, he talks a lot about the struggle, the song goes on talking about issues that are prevalent in Senegal, such as pollution, corruption, aggression and lost. Giving a different kind of stories and saying how people tend to not have the answer to many questions on what is going on. In one of the verses, PBS mentioned how we tend to not know the answer to many things but we still, as a society, need to spread love and despite the negativity that might come to crush you down, you must continue because regardless, it would be hard.
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