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“Understand Where I’m Coming From”

The Growth of African Hip-Hop and Representations of African Culture

Hip Hop. This isn’t a hobby to me. This isn’t something I just decided to try [to] do. I’ve been doing this my whole life. This is my life. It’s in my DNA. Remember that.

—Gigi LaMayne, Tumblr post, January 7, 2016

HIP-HOP COMMUNITIES IN Africa emerged in the 1980s and 1990s and did not simply reflect what was happening on the ground but also constructed for us the realities for many urban youth in Africa. They also informed the youth and put their conditions into context, translating political speak into street language, and sometimes they provided instructions on confrontations with social and political institutions. By the mid-1990s and early 2000s pioneering hip-hop artists all over Africa were releasing politically and socially conscious music. Songs like Prophets of da City’s “Ons stem” (Our voice, South Africa, 1991), Positive Black Soul’s “Le bourreau est noir” (The executioner is black, Senegal, 1995), Kalamashaka’s “Tafsiri hii” and “Ni wakati” (Translate this and It’s time, Kenya, 1997, 2001), Kwanza Unit’s “Msafiri” (Traveler, Tanzania, 1999), or Das Primeiro’s “Liberdade” (Liberty, Angola, 2002) all pointed out hypocrisies in government, resurrected the words of past revolutionary leaders through sampling, and connected urban youth in Africa to global hip-hop communities. Many of these early artists were of a generation that was either engaged in liberation struggles (southern Africa) or the children of those who had engaged in liberation struggles. In an interview with Kama of Kalamashaka, the artist understood his role as both an emcee and an activist and saw the role of the emcee as similar to the roles of other intellectuals. Kama’s grandparents were involved in the Mau Mau rebellion and he was himself politically educated but also rooted in hip-hop culture. During Kama’s visit to Los Angeles he easily rapped along with songs from US emcee Redman’s classic 1994 album Dare Iz a Darkside, engaged in substantive discussions of Mau Mau ideologies, and debated the ideas of Frances Cress Welsing.¹ Kama was representative of other socially conscious hip-hop artists. Several artists interviewed articulated the role of the emcee as street intellectuals, and several saw political education as a necessary process.

In a historical review of the growth of hip-hop as a form of cultural representation in Africa, this chapter focuses on the economic and political events on the continent in the 1980s and 1990s that led to the development and politicization of hip-hop culture in Africa, as well as at the diverse hip-hop representations found in select countries of Africa. I also look at the ways in which individual artists have shaped hip-hop in Africa as well as how they have contributed (festivals, conferences, award shows) to the development of hip-hop in Africa. The chapter details the ways in which hip-hop emerged as a tool to represent social dissonance and presents hip-hop as a cultural representation beyond the music, specifically the use of graffiti, media (film, magazines, radio), and fashion as forms of cultural representations within hip-hop culture.

Artists all over Africa have used hip-hop as a framework or vehicle to create certain narratives. It is within these narratives that the listener is able to discern historical, political, social, and economic dynamics within certain societies. Chuck D’s famous quote that hiphop is “black America’s CN” has broader implications through a cultural studies framework (Thorpe, 1999). In cultural studies even the news is a cultural representation, containing the perspectives and ideologies of the individuals editing the news stories. In many ways the evening news also represents certain cultural systems, and one’s interpretation of the news is often shaped by one’s own cultural connections. Through hip-hop, as through the evening news, reality is constructed and a historical record is created. Though different audiences translate or interpret cultural representations differently, based on their own social and economic background, those representations, be they hip-hop or the evening news, are no less legitimate realities for many.

Hip-hop, as a form of cultural representation, expresses the feelings, ideas, and concepts of the culture within which the artist lives. Hip-hop, as all cultural representations, has the power to shape, educate, and change society. There are definite similarities seen in cultural representations produced through hip-hop music all over the African continent. These similarities include expressions of hip-hop’s core elements and culture and articulations of similar economic and political environments. Differences among representations in hip-hop in Africa come from the diverse environments that exist on the continent. These diverse environments are understood through an examination of hip-hop in various countries.

The chapter also deals with the ways in which African hip-hop artists produce and distribute music with the diversity of resources available to them. There are challenges and opportunities facing hip-hop artists in Africa, and the ways in which they are navigating those challenges and opportunities are important. African hip-hop artists have embraced new media and bypassed barriers imposed by mainstream or traditional media outlets. The internet has become a platform for videos, songs, lyrics, blogs, and articles written by hiphop artists and content creators in Africa. On platforms like iTunes, Spotify, Pandora, ReverbNation, SoundCloud, Vimeo, YouTube, and others, the numbers of African emcees making their music available online has increased multifold since 2009, when my research on hiphop in Africa began.

The chapter will finally explore the ways in which African hiphop heads are exploring and using nonmusical representations in African hip-hop culture. Hip-hop culture goes beyond the music and finds expression in other art forms. Graffiti and breakdancing developed early on in many African countries, along with the music. Some hip-hop emcees had their start as breakdancers or graffiti artists. Later, with changes in technology and communication, more hip-hop heads used new media and social media to express hip-hop culture through images, films, and magazines. Additionally, distinctly African hip-hop fashion has become increasingly visible. The use of local textiles, slang, and graphics in fashion has led to more artists looking to African-produced fashions, leading to a fan base following their lead and fashion designers inspired to keep up with the changes.

Hip-Hop as Cultural Representation

Music and other forms of cultural representation (art, literature, film, etc.) may not simply be reflections of reality but indeed how reality is constructed. The constructivist approach to cultural representation posits that our understandings of reality and the world around us, including our concepts of self and other, are based on various representations. Representations create reality for us and reinforce or challenge the realities constructed by previous representations. According to the constructivist approach to cultural representation, “it is the social actors who use the conceptual systems of their culture and the linguistic and other representational systems to construct meaning, to make the world meaningful and to communicate about that world meaningfully to others” (Hall 2013, 25). Therefore, when we associate Somalia with lawlessness and piracy, while simultaneously associating America with lawfulness and security, it is because of the representation we have been exposed to about both countries. When Somali-born hip-hop artist K’naan, based in Canada and the United States, presents a representation of Somalia that challenges what we “know,” his representations, especially when supported by further similar representations, can effectively impact our understanding of Somalia. Studies show that distorted media representations of Africa have often constructed in the minds of many in the West an image of an Africa plagued by disease, poverty, war, corruption, and famine (Schraeder and Endless 1998; Mengara 2001; Gallagher 2015). These representations are responsible for what Chimamanda Adichie (2009) referred to as the single story of Africa in her now-famous TED Talk. These representations have impacts on American and European foreign policy, on Western attitudes toward Africa and Africans, as well as on work done in Africa by NGOs and other international organizations.

This does not mean that all representations are interpreted in the same way. The realities constructed by one representation may be interpreted differently, depending on the cultural context from which the audience operates and their understanding of the cultural context from which the representation originates. A well-known example of the importance of understanding cultural context is the American The Wire, an iconic television series, especially within hip-hop culture. The story is told through the lens of an inner-city Black community in America in which hip-hop culture is firmly entrenched. The show challenged America’s assumptions about the inner city, the people who lived there, and the government officials who worked there, in a way that was uncomfortable (Chaddha and Wilson 2010; Mittell 2010). Assumptions about inner-city African Americans, as well the appropriateness of the behaviors of government officials, have largely been shaped by cultural representations found in mainstream TV, film, and news media. Like the hip-hop culture represented in the show, The Wire challenged those representations by presenting a counternarrative to audiences that had already bought into a single story of inner-city African Americans. Understanding the representations presented in The Wire did not require one to have lived the experiences of West Baltimore residents, but it did require one to question, and even set aside, previously accepted representations in order to understand the cultural contexts within which the characters on The Wire operated. Because hip-hop culture featured prominently in the show, the program has become a cult classic with hip-hop heads around the world.

Cultural representations create reality, using coded language familiar to specific audiences and subcultures. In studying hip-hop, or any cultural representation, if one understands the context and the cultural codes of the system, then one can better understand the meanings of the representations. Within hip-hop culture in Africa, audiences inside and outside local communities unable to understand the cultural context of the artist may misinterpret the meanings of the representations. Understanding the cultural context requires a willingness to understand and to accept that previous representations may have constructed an incomplete reality, or a single story. African emcees are in the habit of presenting realities that contradict the single story of Africa. They bring with them complex cultures and histories and use creative wordplay to depict their realities. Hip-hop, wherever one finds it, is a form of cultural representation that informs the listener and constructs certain realities using coded language and the frameworks of hip-hop to speak to specific audiences. The social, political, and economic environments within which hip-hop emerged are significant to understanding its current use by youth across Africa.

Prelude to a Revolution

By the mid-1980s many African economies were facing difficulties, and governments found themselves in need of aid. African countries began talks or entered into financial agreements with international institutions like the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank in order to help struggling economies (Konadu-Agyemang 2000a; Perullo 2005; Opoku 2008). As a condition of the loans provided by the IMF and the World Bank, many African countries were forced to adopt structural adjustment programs (SAPs) and to restructure their economies. Today SAPs have been replaced by poverty reduction strategy papers (PRSPs), but the latter come with similar conditions.

The SAPs mandated the adoption of neoliberal economic policies, which required countries to open their economies to foreign penetration, deregulation, a rollback of spending on public services, and privatization of public enterprises (Brydon and Legge 1996; Konadu-Agyemang 2000a; Shivji 2010; Liviga 2011). Life in urban Africa became extremely difficult. Residents faced widespread poverty, housing problems, high rates of underemployment and unemployment, and a decrease in access to healthcare and education (ECA 1989; Brydon and Legge 1996; Lugalla 1997; Bond and Dor 2003; Lemelle 2006; Mawuko-Yevugah 2010). In urban ghettos all over Africa, from which would emerge many hip-hop artists, problems included overcrowding, poor housing and sanitation, substandard healthcare and education, and high crime (Brydon and Legge 1996; Lugalla 1997; Ali 2002; Lemelle 2006).

The implemented neoliberal economic policies also led to the displacement, often through land grabbing, of rural peasants who would contribute to Africa’s rapid urbanization and strain an already stressed infrastructure (Jumare 1997; Lugalla 1997; Konadu-Agyemang 2000b; Ali 2002; Weiss 2009; Manji 2012). The ranks of the unemployed also became filled with illiterate and semiliterate youth who increasingly turned to the informal market and illegal activities to survive.

The decline in standards of living due to rapid privatization and economic restructuring not only is the environment in which many hip-hop artists continue to emerge, it also is responsible for fueling and, in many cases, politicizing hip-hop in Africa. The economic environment inspired the development of hip-hop in Africa. Hip-hop provided youth with an opportunity to address the problems they were seeing around them. As in the United States, some of Africa’s most notorious neighborhoods have given birth to some of the strongest hip-hop communities.

Today the continuation, and even acceleration, of repressive economic policies continues to spur youth activism around Africa and in some cases has led to harsher condemnations by artists as well as to artists taking to the streets in protest. The result of the SAPs and neoliberal economics has led to a transformation of the state in Africa, a state no longer accountable to its population but to international financial institutions. According to Firoz Manji, the main role of the state has been to “ensure an ‘enabling environment’ for international capital and to police the endless servicing of debt to international finance institutions” (2012, 5). The results have been increased strikes, protests, and numbers of economic refugees fleeing Africa. Pambazuka’s (2012) publication African Awakenings details the increased uprisings throughout Africa. It is a critical examination of the use of social media to confront neoliberalism. Youth voices are an integral part of current waves of social protest.

Burkina Faso, Egypt, Senegal, South Africa, and Tunisia have seen some of the highest levels of mobilization in public protests in sub-Saharan Africa since 2010. In South Africa it is estimated that over eight thousand acts of public protest have occurred annually since 2005 (Manji 2012). More recently artists and activists have mobilized around the 2012 massacre of the protesting Marikana miners by South African security forces and the protests around the decolonization of education in South Africa during the 2015 #FeesMustFall and #RhodesMustFall protests. Between 2010 and 2012 thousands of Egyptians, Senegalese, and Tunisians, along with several hip-hop artists, took to the streets to protest the governments of then presidents Hosni Mubarak, Abdoulaye Wade, and Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, respectively (Manji 2012; Gueye 2013; Berktay 2014; Lo 2014; Wahlrab 2014). Protests would increase or emerge all over Africa. According to Manji, “During the first six months of 2011, protests, strikes and other actions took place in Zimbabwe, Senegal, Gabon, Sudan, Mauritania, Morocco, Algeria, Benin, Cameroon, Djibouti, Côte d’Ivoire, Burkina Faso, Botswana, Namibia, Uganda, Kenya, Malawi and Swaziland” (2012, 21).

While the Pambazuka publication does not address the role of hip-hop artists, in many of those countries hip-hop artists, along with other musicians, were contributing to the soundtracks of these movements, and in some cases were on the ground themselves. In a New York Times op-ed entitled “The Mixtape of the Revolution,” Sujatha Fernandes (2012) highlights the activism of hip-hop artists in some of these social movements, some of which has gotten artists arrested. She says hip-hop artists and activists Thiat (Senegal) and El Général (Hamada Ben Amor) (Tunisia) “may be two of the most influential rappers in the history of hip-hop” (2012, par. 1).

After Egypt, Senegal, and Tunisia saw governments overthrown, hip-hop artists played a role in mass protests that broke out in Burkina Faso and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). In 2014 in Burkina Faso rapper Smockey was among the artists leading the grassroots group Le Balai Citoyen (citizen’s broom), which led mass protests all over the capital, Ouagadougou. Balai Citoyen was a group of activists fighting the rule of President Blaise Compaoré, who had ruled Burkina Faso since the assassination of President Thomas Sankara, in 1987. Activists from both Balai Citoyen and Y’en a Marre (fed up) (Senegal) were arrested in the DRC in March 2015. They were invited by the Congolese group Filimbi but were seen as a threat by the Congolese government, perhaps because of their success in removing the presidents in their own countries.

Note that increases in social mobilization are not limited to Africa. The implementation of the same neoliberal economic policies has also caused protests in the United States, Greece, France, Bahrain, India, Columbia, Mexico, and other countries. Black Lives Matter, the Occupy movement, Anonymous, and the Arab Spring were reactions to these same global economic policies that are having disastrous impacts on the world’s poor. Urbanization, land rights, workers’ rights, police violence, education, healthcare, environmental rights, economic rights, and political representation are all subjects of protests in countries throughout the world.

No every country has seen the same level of response to neoliberalism. The social and political environment has differed across Africa. This has also influenced the evolution of hip-hop culture in Africa, which was shaped by numerous factors. To understand some of these major differences, we can examine a selection of Africa’s largest and most-written-about hip-hop communities: Ghana, Senegal, South Africa, and Tanzania. Through them we can see the diversity of experiences in Africa represented through hip-hop. The realities constructed and the manner in which they were presented, however, varied. Hiphop had arrived in Ghana, Senegal, South Africa, and Tanzania by the 1980s. This period saw the height of SAPs in Senegal and Tanzania; the rule of Jerry Rawlings, who came to power via a coup in Ghana; and increased pressures against apartheid rule in South Africa.

Politicization

Diverse arrivals and histories influenced the politicization of hip-hop in these countries. In Senegal, hip-hop was more confrontational than it was in either Ghana or Tanzania, for example. In apartheid South Africa censorship was a reality for hip-hop artists and activists who were aware of the death, disappearances, and forced exiles of other activists.

Through interviews with individuals within Ghanaian music circles, some believe the censorship experienced after the Rawlings coup, and during the Rawlings years, had lasting impacts on Ghanaian music, influencing self-censorship by many artists. Jesse Shipley (2013) argues that there is social and political content in Ghanaian music, but he provides another explanation for the impression that it is absent. Shipley says that the style of commentary in Ghanaian music is tied to the popularity of using proverbs in Ghanaian culture—the preferred, and less direct, method of social commentary.

Senegal, according to many scholars, activists, and musicians, has one of the largest hip-hop communities in the world, with three to five thousand in the city of Dakar alone (Künzler 2007; Herson, McIlvaine, and Moore 2009). In speaking to several Senegalese musicians and activists, many noted a tradition of direct criticism within Senegalese culture. In comparison to Ghana’s preference for proverbs, in Senegalese culture there is often open and direct criticism of politics, and that has spilled over into hip-hop music.

While hip-hop came to Ghana in the wake of the Rawlings coup, it came to Senegal in the midst of a border conflict between Senegal and Mauritania, an economic crisis, and thousands of West Africans fleeing the continent in poorly constructed boats headed for Europe (Diouf, n.d.; ECA 1989; Okome 2002; Bailey 2006; Sy 2006; Charry 2012). One casualty of the economic crisis in Senegal was the closure of schools because of strikes. This event is often cited as a factor in the solidification and politicization of Senegalese hip-hop (Herson 2011). During a 2009 interview, Senegalese hip-hop veteran Keyti called the incident critical to politicizing Senegalese hip-hop.

In separate interviews longtime hip-hop artists Keyti and Xuman also said Senegalese cultural and religious traditions (Islam) have influenced the social and political content in the hip-hop music. According to both Keyti and Xuman, because of these cultural and religious traditions, in Senegalese hip-hop one does not find artists objectifying women, writings songs about alcohol or drugs, or crossing cultural taboos. Even music that is not overtly political, maintains a certain level of social responsibility. Xuman and Waterflow (Moussa Lo) both stated that artists that use explicit lyrics or content would risk losing their fan base and credibility.

Like in Senegal, in South Africa hip-hop became politicized early on, due in large part to both growing militancy in the antiapartheid struggles and the heavily political music of groups like Public Enemy, which influenced early hip-hop artists (Ariefdien and Burgess 2011; Ariefdien and Chapman 2014). For artists like Shaheen Ariefdien (fig. 2.1) of Prophets of da City, political hip-hop not only challenged apartheid but would later challenge neocolonialism or Western intrusion in Africa as well (Haupt 2008). The influence of these early socially conscious hip-hop artists profoundly impacted newer generations of hip-hop artists in South Africa. This has been reinforced by the presence of workshops, events, independent radio stations, and activists invested in supporting socially conscious hip-hop in South Africa (Haupt 2008; L. Watkins 2012). Hip-hop in today’s South Africa, however, is challenged by the influence of gangster rap and commercialization, in some cases pushing socially conscious hip-hop out of the mainstream (L. Watkins 2012).

Figure 2.1. Shaheen Ariefdien in Toronto in 2011. Photo by author.

Tanzanian hip-hop has not been as confrontational as Senegalese. The country also did not undergo the censorship felt in South Africa. In Tanzania the use of an indigenous language, Swahili/Kiswahili, has meant hip-hop played a role in the politics of language in that country. The vast majority of Tanzanian hip-hop is sung in Swahili/Kiswahili, a language central to the Tanzanian identity. Swahili/Kiswahili poetry and sayings are a valued part of the way Tanzanians communicate. According to Lemelle, in Tanzania “many of the signature aspects of rap music, including wordplay, risqué, or suggestive puns and lyrical rhyme, are deeply inscribed in Swahili culture, in the form of Swahili parables, proverbs, and allegory called methali” (2006, 238). Manipulating Swahili language styles, Tanzanian hip-hop pioneers like De-Plow-Matz, Professor Jay, and Sugu (aka 2 Proud, Mr. II) helped hip-hop’s politicization in Tanzania.

Following a slump in socially conscious hip-hop in the mid-2000s, there has been a noticeable increase in confrontation in Tanzanian hip-hop. In 2011, Tanzanian artist Izzo Bizness released the song “Riz One,” directed at the son of then president Jakaya Kikwete, Ridhiwani (aka Riz One). The song implores Riz One to tell his father to do something about the current living conditions in Tanzania. The song was shocking to some because it calls out Riz One by name. It was one of the few Tanzanian hip-hop songs to directly name a political figure, instead of insinuating and leaving it to the audience to understand whom the artist is talking about.

This compares to Senegal, when during the 2011 and 2012 uprisings against then president Abdoulaye Wade, a number of scathing hip-hop songs were released. Marame Gueye (2013) details the social activism seen by hip-hop artists, both on the ground and through their music. Senegalese artists like Kilifeu of the duo Keur Gui and Simon of Sen Kumpë released the song “Faux! Pas Forcé” (Don’t push) in 2011, directed at then president Abdoulaye Wade. In the song they say: “Laye [short for Abdoulaye], do not look for alibis / Don’t be like Gaddafi / If you do not want us to be like the people of Libya” (Gueye 2013). In 2012 a collaboration of artists in Senegal released the song “Doggali” (Finishing up a killing) in which they say,

You have completed your term

The whip must strike you

The country needs other minds

You must make way for them. (Gueye 2013)

These songs represent the direct, more confrontational nature of Senegalese hip-hop.

The early 2000s witnessed a major decline in the production of hip-hop in Tanzania, due in large part to the popularity of bongo flava and some artists switching genres. Tanzania has experienced a resurgence in conscious hip-hop through the appearance of hip-hop collectives (like Okoa Mtaa Foundation, Ujamaa Hip Hop, and Tamaduni Muzik) and the recent popularity of open-mic events. Through weekly freestyle events like the Hip Hop Kilinge (cypher) hosted by Tamaduni Muzik, as well as hip-hop events put on at Alliance Française and the Nafasi Art Space, conscious hip-hop has been seeing a resurgence in Dar es Salaam. Tamaduni Muzik includes a collective of strong lyricists, like Nikki Mbishi, One the Incredible, Songa (fig. 2.2), P the MC, Nash MC, and Zaiid. In addition, the collective includes DJ Texas, hip-hop producer Duke Gervalius (fig. 2.3), and hip-hop writer Malle Marxist, all of whom are involved in creating a platform for hip-hop in Tanzania. In northern Tanzania, Okoa Mtaa has helped turn Arusha into a major East African hub for hip-hop. The group is a collective of artists that use hip-hop culture as a way to empower the youth. In additional to holding hip-hop festivals that focus on the five main elements, Okoa Mtaa uses hip-hop culture to “contribute in the social & economic development of East Africa” and to “use underground arts for social education that helps to create awareness and engagement in community positive changes” (Okoa Mtaa Foundation, n.d.). The group, as well as many artists in the area, has been heavily influenced by the work of the Arusha-based United African Alliance Community Center, a center run by former members of the Black Panther Party, Pete and Charlotte O’Neal. In an interview with members of the group Wanaitwa Uhuru (“they are called freedom”) (fig. 2.4), a collective of seven to ten artists, they indicated that while conscious artists in Tanzania are still not united, they see these events as important to the survival of conscious hip-hop in Tanzania.

In addition to Okoa Mtaa, other countries in East Africa have claimed safe spaces within which to promote both culture and youth activism. In Nairobi, Pawa254² is a place where artists and activists meet regularly. Workshops, events, and trainings are held there. The Pit in Nairobi also hosts regular events that promote hip-hop culture and the main elements in hip-hop: emceeing, DJing, graffiti, and breakdance. In Kampala, Uganda the B-Global Indigenous Hip Hop Gathering hosts a yearly gathering and has a space in the city for smaller, less formal events with Kampala youth. The B-Global, led by veteran Ugandan hip-hop artist Babaluku (former member of Bataka Squad), seeks “to empower and educate the youth to lay foundations upon which their communities can grow, build and be transformed, through engagement and practice of the Hip Hop culture” (B-Global, n.d.). Their gatherings often bring together Ugandan artists and artists from East and Central Africa.

Figure 2.2. Songa at the New Msasani Club, home of the Hip Hop Kilinge (cypher), in Dar es Salaam in 2013. Photo by author.

Figure 2.3. Hip-hop producer Duke Gervalius in Dar es Salaam in 2014. Photo by author.

Figure 2.4. Members of the group Wanaitwa Uhuru in Dar es Salaam in 2014. Photo by author.

The Hustle

There are thousands of African emcees living full-time or part-time on the African continent as well is in the diaspora. Many of these emcees give a new meaning to the word hustle. The hip-hop scene varies in Africa by country. Those artists based in the West have access to more resources but have a more difficult time breaking into the national scene. In Africa, talented artists have access to fewer resources but are in a better position to make a name for themselves nationally. Resources can include recording equipment, reliable internet access, media outlets (independent magazines, radio stations), and workshops where artists can network with others in the industry.

The transition from one’s imagination to actually releasing an album and booking shows is universally difficult, but there are variations across Africa. In some countries, for example, artists have managers and promoters to assist in booking showings and managing images. In other countries many artists self-manage and self-promote. Access to resources also varies, with southern African artists having a clear advantage, followed by those in West Africa, where economic opportunities and relative proximity to the United States give the region a slight advantage.

While bootlegging is a problem globally throughout the music industry, weak enforcement of copyright laws in Africa makes it especially problematic on the continent. For African emcees distribution, especially internationally, continues to be a problem. Many albums released by African artists cannot be found in stores outside their own countries. Many have also not been able to get their music distributed via online outlets. Many of these artists still manage to develop strong fan bases in their home countries and internationally. Some, like K’naan and Blitz the Ambassador, have made inroads in the American hip-hop market.

Hip-hop is steadily evolving and new media and social media have been a crucial part of that evolution. Facebook, ReverbNation, SoundCloud, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, iTunes, and even Wikipedia have all made information on music and artists more accessible globally. Many African emcees have videos on YouTube and pages on Facebook. Many use Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram to communicate with fans. While Facebook (1.15 billion) has more users than Twitter (215 million), both platforms allow artists to reach fans all over the world (Boorstin 2013). Online networking has meant African emcees are able to book shows all over the world and to collaborate with emcees based in other countries and regions. Some popular African hip-hop artists on social media have large numbers of followers, some with between 500,000 to 1 million followers on Facebook and Twitter, with many followers outside the artist’s country of origin.

Of the African hip-hop artists with over 100,00 followers on both Facebook and Twitter we have also seen important rises in popularity in the past two to three years, due to a larger online presence by the artists and a greater online presence of their fans at home. Some artists have seen their followers more than double. For example, between 2013 and 2016 M.anifest’s followers on Facebook rose from 79,000 to 540,000 and from 37,000 to 328,000 on Twitter; Wanlov’s followers grew from 37,000 to 182,000 on Twitter; while Fid Q’s followers grew from 29,000 to 138,000 on Twitter.

With internet-based companies selling users followers to inflate fan numbers on Facebook and Twitter, the number of likes and followers cannot be used as a precise measure of an artist’s popularity or influence. However, with the exception of K’naan, the numbers of followers correlate with the artist’s levels of activity on the social-networking platforms. K’naan seldom posts content on social media, but his exposure via the 2010 World Cup endorsement deals, as well as tours, can account for his many followers. The other artists regularly update their Facebook pages, post information and events, and send out tweets, often several times a week. Their fans also regularly engage with those posts by liking, commenting on, and sharing posts. Combined with frequent posts, the large number of followers draws in more followers who want to follow popular artists, a sort of bandwagon effect.

The impact of an artist cannot necessarily be gauged by the number of their fans. The hip-hop artists who were influential in mobilizing youth during the uprisings in Senegal and Burkina Faso, Kuer Gui and Smockey, respectively, each have fewer than twenty-one thousand followers on Facebook and fewer than five thousand followers on Twitter. These artists post infrequently on social media, sometimes less than once a month, though they have had significant impact on social and political change.

Hard copies of albums by Africa-based hip-hop artists are largely unavailable in the United States. While a comparatively small number of Africa-based artists have songs or albums available for sale online, digital downloads and online stores (iTunes, Amazon, ReverbNation, SoundCloud, BandCamp) have made it possible for African emcees to sell and distribute their music globally. There are few record labels that work internationally with Africa-based hip-hop artists. Most are American or European labels based in the West.