This album was a complete change compared to the first and second album. K’naan tallks a lot about a girl in his life as well as love. In this album his english usage is way more than his natural somalian language he spoke in the other 2 albums. his immigration experience isnt mentioned as much as the other two albums either, but he does talk about it.in the song “coming to America” he talks a little about his immigration process and how it felt to move etc. African immigration isnt mentioned in this album either this isnt mentioned through out the album.K’naan talks about his country by talking about them in his songs. the social and political problems in this album are about the americans and how their government is ran. I would say that the intended audience is young female groups. i believe that mainly because, this album has a lot to do with love and a certain female in his life. African Americans are mentioned in this album and the life of them in some of the album. this album has more hip hop rythm to it and compared to the other two albums. he mentions the difference between love of god, love of the girl, or the love for a country.
Category: Malawi
Real Elements
Real Elements is a hip hop group from Malawi. Although the hip hop scene in Malawi is small, Real Elements paved the way for many artists to get their music out and get the youth listening. The group toured the UK, but broke up to pursue personal goals. Many released their own solo albums. One of the group members left in order to dedicate himself to religion. He is now a gospel rapper.
The group’s lyrics are mostly in the native Chichewa, but they also use English in their songs. Their music is heavily influenced by American beats and rhythms.
This song is by Real Elements.
Language, Ideologies, Choices, and Practices in Eastern African Hip Hop
This is an essay written by, Alex Perullo and John Fenn which can be found in the book Global Pop, Local Language by, Harris M. Berger and Michael Thomas Carroll. Since Hip Hop’s emergence in North America during the 1970’s and 1980’s, Hip Hop has become a global way for the youth to express their own local styles. This is no different in Tanzania and Malawi, two neighboring African countries. Both countries use English in their hip hop music, but Tanzania uses also Swahili and the Malawian youth use the language Chichewa. Author, Alex Perullo, states that Tanzanian hip hop in English reflects American hip hop in talking about the pleasure’s of life for example, parties, friends, and praise of the artist. Perullo then says that when the musicians use Swahili, the hip hop artist is usually conveying a message to the Tanzanian people about important social issues like lack of employment, corruption in the government, police brutality, and HIV/AIDS. Tanzanian hip hop artists have stayed away from some American themes found in rap music like violence, because it is seen as disrespectful by the Tanzanian people. Although English is the dominant political and economic language in Tanzania, it is only spoken by five percent of the population, so Swahili has become the most dominant language in the Tanzanian hip hop scene. Many Tanzanian hip hop artists use American rappers such as Tupac Shakur to learn the flow of hip hop music and once they have acquired the skills they develop themselves as Tanzanian hip hop artists. The creation of new words and the changing of the meaning of old Tanzanian words is core to the hip hop scene because this creates a common culture the youth of Tanzania are able to identify with. In Malawi, English is all over rap and hip hop music, but it is usually accompanied simultaneously by the language Chichewa. Much of the conversation about hip hop music in Malawi is done in English including newspapers, radio, and face to face dialogue, but the young hip hop artists of Malawi realize the importance of using the local Chichewa language when trying to convey certain messages in their music. The Malawian youth see hip hop as having important social functions as well as a way to effectively transmit meaning.
