The Hip Hop African

Dope Saint Jude- also known as Catherine Saint Jude, is a South African rapper, and singer who brought her uniqueness to the hip-hop scene and dominated. Her music is fearless and unapologetically queer, with recent tracks such as ‘Go High Go Low’ celebrating her identity, and ‘Grrrl Like’ which was featured on the famous Netflix show ‘Blood & Water’.  Jude states that African people are starting to embrace their African identity and it’s suddenly becoming the norm to be an African artist she sees that artists embrace that in the hip-hop scene, and rapping in their home languages.

Her music video “Go high Go low” was released in 2020 this music video is a vibrant depiction of Dope Saint Jude’s fierce personality, edgy style, and identity as a black, queer woman from South Africa. It also serves as a love letter to Cape Flats, the southeast district of Cape Town where Dope Saint Jude was born and raised. She values the community’s dedication to serving people of color. In the video, she features places where colored people weren’t allowed in restaurants. She is a strong advocate of feminism and her music talks about the topics of sexuality, creating a pathway for female and queer voices to be heard. “Spent my life being an underdog Spent my life sitting outside Deep in my solitude I had to dig deep and salvage my pride”  basically stating she wasn’t looked at as being on top which made her go harder.  Jude was low and insignificant and became that girl when she locked into her inner self.

 Dope Saint Jude touches on all of this that defines her art. Her songs are from her experiences, and in a world oversaturated with the discourse around identity politics, she manages to inform her work with a radical newness that is rare today.