What Is Hip Hop

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Naija Hip-Hop:
Nigerian Female Rappers and the Construction of Femininity
By: William Goldstein

“For the young lady thinking of someday becoming a female emcee, the art itself is founded on excellence, one cannot be timid or shy, dim witted or lack a sense of humor, you have to be willing to embrace the person you are, faults and all because in those weaknesses lie your true strength your power to overcome YOU to become HER”. – Sasha P (hiphopworldmagazine.com: 2012)
“We have very very few Female MC’s in Nigeria, or in Africa, it’s mostly male people. But right now I love Blaze, I love her to death, she’s a lyricist she’s gangster. The rest of the chicks are ok. You need to have a lot of guts to do this”. -Muna (Nigerian Entertainment Today: 2012)
Hip-hop music and the culture embodied within it has become a global and hybrid phenomena. The latter has been both adopted and arrogated by many different cultures, ethnicities, races, and nationalities all over the globe. Globalization plays a notable role in the significant growth presence of hip-hop in major cities around Africa in the past two to three decades, by gaining access to information through the Internet and television (Charry 2012, p. 170). Specifically speaking, Nigeria has become the hub of the television and entertainment industry in Africa gaining a large following, influence, and adoption of hip-hop music but specifically the rap genre. Nigeria is among the very few nations that have successfully incorporated hip-hop culture amidst the youth but also creating their own form of authentic Nigerian hip-hop called Naija hip-hop (Oikelome 2013, p. 85). More so, this form of hip-hop has created an outlet for the youth to listen to something new with a global edge...

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...eat: Rap Music as Street Culture Among Africa Americans. Ann Arbor, Michigan." Ph.D. diss. University of Michigan, 1991.

Joseph S. "Indigenous Languages and the Post Modern Turn: Rap as a Generational Statement of Dissidence" In Globalization and the Future of African Languages, (eds). F. Egbokahae and C. Kolawole. Ibadan: 2006.

Oikelome, Albert O. 2013. Are Real Women Just Bad Porn?: Women in Nigerian Hip Hop Culture. Journal of Pan African Studies. Vol. 5, No. 9. Pp. 83-98.
Omoniyi, Tope. 2006. Hip Hop Through the World English Lens: A Response to Globalization. World Englishes. Vol. 25, No. 2. Pp. 195-208.
Adedeji, Wale. 2011. Negotiating Globalization Through Hybridization: Hip Hop and the Creation of Cross-over Culture in Nigerian Popular Music. 4th European Conference on African Studies. Uppsala, Sweden.

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