Tag: Senegalese Hip Hop
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The Legacy of Y’en a Marre: Paco Pat Ghetto
“Le travail même s’il permet de satisfaire ses besoins honnêtement, il permet également de gagner notre dignité humaine“ “Paco Pat Ghetto BËSS YI DAÑO GAAW” Youtube. Uploaded by Paco Pat Ghetto. 13 May 2022. https://youtu.be/UwfnJ0t2ATk Guédiawaye, a suburb of Senegal’s capital city of Dakar, is home to the hip-hop initiative with the acronym ADNE, short…
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Didier Awadi’s “Mama kitoko” (feat. Marie Ndiaye)
“Mama kitoko” is a 2020 single by Senegalese rap legend Didier Awadi. Awadi was born on August 11, 1969 in Dakar, Senegal. He is of Beninese and Cape Verdean descent. Awadi began his music career in the early 1980s when the hip hop scene in Dakar was in its early stages. In 1984 he started…
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Dip Doundou Guiss – “Deuil National” #Lesenegalendeuil
Released November 13th, 2020, “Deuil National” by DIP Doundou Guiss displays the extreme hardships and difficult decisions made by those who decide to leave Senegal behind and to brave the dangerous journey across the open oceans in search of a better life. “Deuil National”, which means “National Mourning”, comes in the context of the movement…
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Gunman Xuman: Consciousness and History
In my last article, I wrote a profile of Matador, one of Senegal’s most important figures at the intersection of civil society and hip-hop. This week, we will be looking at Makhtar Fall, aka Gunman Xuman, a towering figure in the Senegalese hip-hop scene who has also broken into the international spotlight with an innovative…
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Borders: What are they good for? Senegalese and Gambian Hip Hop
In this episode two students discuss hip hop in The Gambia and in Senegal. The two discuss the unique situation of The Gambia and Senegal and how the imposition of a border across the wolof culture has affected the music scene there. In the podcast, three artists are discussed: Y’en a Marre, Bai Babu, and…
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Feminine ideals in Toussa Senerap’s work
Toussa Senerap—who’s name is a play on the French “Tous ça,” or “everything,” and an agglomeration of Senegal and Rap—plays an interesting consciousness in her work surrounding the idea of femininity. Senerap both embraces womanhood and shies away from traditional conceptualizations of femininity from both hip-hop and Senegalese contexts. For this piece, I’m primarily analyzing…
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Faux! Pas Forcé: still an anthem
Just a day or two after the vote which kept Macky Sall in power in Senegal, it’s worth revisiting one of the anthems of the movement Y’en a Marre, Faux! Pas Forcé. Y’en a Marre, which translates to “we’re fed up” in French, was a democratic civil society movement that was one of the key…
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The Writah Raps
Hip-hop is as much a literary genre as it is a musical one, and as a means of storytelling the medium of hip-hop has lent its ability to convey meaning to both traditional and modern aspects of African society. And with a mic as his pen, P.P.S. the Writah crafts lyrical masterpieces that connect Senegal’s…
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Excuse my Wolof
My last article discussed Youssoupha’s album NGRTD. While reading the lyrics of his song entourage, I realized Youssoupha discussed many of the same themes MC Solaar touches on in his early albums produced some 20 years ago. While you could write a novel on the thematic similarities of African hip hop produced two decades apart,…
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Dakar’s Female MCs and the Power of the Cyp(her)
In a hip-hop scene as developed and competitive as Senegal’s, the cypher continues to act as a platform by which talented, young rappers make their debut. The fast-paced intensity of a hip-hop cypher is the perfect way for new artists on the scene to prove to their worth to the public. And in a society…