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2. A Genre Coming of Age: Transformation, Difference, and Authenticity in the Rap Music and Hip Hop Culture of South Africa
- Indiana University Press
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2 A Genre Coming of Age Transformation,Difference,and AuthenticityintheRapMusicand HipHopCultureofSouthAfrica LEE WATKINS As dominant elements in rap music are often attributed to Africa (e.g., Keyes 1996), I see South African rap music and hip hop as a diasporic genre at home— in Africa—but also as a genre having many homes.1 Within these many homes claims to authenticity are expressively mobilized and contested. African Americans claim the genre as an authentic expression of their roots and routes, and as such it reflects their place within the racialized economic and political system of the United States. Adherents in other parts of the globe explain that their marginal statuses are reasons enough for identification with and participation in hip hop. The cross border associations facilitated through hip hop and rap music speak to a global consciousness, which is articulated substantially within a local discourse. This form of global consciousness is not only both real and imagined but also increasingly virtual, thereby rendering the notion of diaspora through hip hop performance even less secure in its moorings. If anything, this genre reveals that the notion of roots in the modern world is negotiable, changing, and subject to the tenuous nature of contemporary life. Aspects of hip hop have been visible on the streets of South Africa since the mid-1980s. At the time, hip hoppers were motivated by what they learned in American hip hop films. They fervently embraced the music and dance and often performed at discos. Although they had an interest in unfolding political events, this was not their primary focus. As the political situation became more serious, however , hip hoppers were increasingly called upon to dance for high school and other community protest rallies. In the end, while hip hoppers were not political activists , they nonetheless formed an association with the political campaign against apartheid. Students and other youths also gathered on the streets of townships 58 rap storiEs where they battled as rappers and break dancers. The sheer pleasure of performing on streets and designated performance venues such as the Base and T-zers disco in Cape Town, along with their presence in mass protest gatherings, strengthened the appeal of hip hop. Its visual impact was further authenticated by the vibrating efects of spraypaintings on the walls of buildings in the townships of Cape Town. Many of these spraypaintings were personal tags, love messages, and, at the height of apartheid repression in the late 1980s, demands for a South Africa free of military rule and white racial hegemony. I initiated my research on South African hip hop in the late 1990s. The issues I recognized at the time, such as racism, marginalization, and musical creativity embedded in local and global frames of reference, remain much the same, but in this chapter I augment my findings of that time with the immediacy of the contemporary hip hop scene in South Africa. Like its counterpart in the United States, the movement has in recent years experienced transformation. Changes may be discerned in the racial constituents of the movement, the dissipation of its regional dominance, the growing presence of women rappers, and the influence of this genre on the emergence of kwaito, a form of urban popular music. Whereas before I had gained my information from hip hoppers only, this chapter juxtaposes their voices, many of which are now limited to the past, with rap music fans and adherents in the present. The first part of this chapter is a description of the numerous hip hop scenes in much of South Africa, including Cape Town, Johannesburg , Durban, and the seriously neglected—in music studies—cities of the Eastern Cape, such as Grahamstown and Port Elizabeth. The second part examines the issues emerging in these various locations. The third part contextualizes hip hop in South Africa more critically within a global performance culture. The fourth part is an analysis of hip hop’s future potential. A Survey of Rap Music and Hip Hop Membership in South Africa South African rap music has come of age in its longevity, social reality, and representation of diverse interests in many national, racial, and class groups and as a creative influence in the emergence of kwaito. Kwaito has similarities with the compositional aspect of rap music, as considerable layering and extensive hailing of other artists’ music are present in both forms. The relationship between kwaito and rap is amplified in their determined reliance on technological excess. Kwaito was spawned in the black townships of...