DJ Vigilante, K.O (Mr Cashtime) and AKA are no strangers within the South African hip hop community. The three prominent hip hop artists came together in April of 2013 when they released the music video for the single “God’s Will”. After watching the music video and reading through the lyrics, it is clear that there are many intersections between what is being said and what is being shown in the video. Additionally, this arguably presents connections between the local culture and broader hip hop community. The entire video appears to be shot in an empty, desert-like setting, which could possibly be somewhere in South Africa. But despite being in the middle of the nowhere, the artists in the video are wearing famous designer brands which almost pop out from the empty background. The stark contrast between the music video setting and the images the artists are portraying arguably illustrates a blend of hip hop and local cultures.
The video seems to illustrate the South African artists journey into being rich and famous. When the video starts, the artist is rapping about how he is “on the road to riches” and “turned it from a broken home into a family business”. While rapping these verses, he is shown standing in the desert surrounded by gold and wearing Nike shoes. By having such luxurious items present in the plain, desert-like setting of the video, this is one way that the artist has blended hip hop culture with the local culture. Another way this is found is when he mentions the bible guiding him. The video then cuts to an image of the bible laying on the ground. Again, this arguably shows how the cultural aspect of religion in South African has been blended into the hip hop world. As the song progresses, K.O sings in Xhosa, one of the official languages in South Africa. This is yet another example of how the artists have combined local cultures within hip hop.
The music video for “God’s Will” by South African hip hop artists DJ Vigilante, K.O (Mr Cashtime) and AKA is one of the many examples of how African artists blend local culture with a broader culture found within the hip hop community. The setting and language of the music video, combined with the status symbols and lyrics, arguably illustrate this concept.
DJ Vigilante: https://twitter.com/DJVigilanteSAref_src=twsrc^google|twcamp^serp|twgr^author
K.O (Mr Cashtime): https://twitter.com/MrCashtime?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor
AKA: https://twitter.com/akaworldwide?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor
God’s Will Music Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=higIgG6OP3U&list=PLOOcfQY0Kc-rVEwJG44EuKwz9Cxd4xvra&index=60
Lyrics: https://genius.com/Dj-vigilante-gods-will-lyricsXhosa Translation: https://www.google.com/search?source=hp&ei=3Yx4Woa5LNLn5gLZmI_wCA&q=translate&oq=translate&gs_l=psy-ab.3..0l9j0i131k1.17.916.0.1014.9.7.0.0.0.0.132.405.2j2.4.0….0…1c.1.64.psy-ab..5.4.402….0._bPtcItqghc