African Hip Hop Research Project, MA

The main objective of the African Hip Hop Research Project is to research the wide-reaching influence of Hip Hop in contemporary African life and examine the pressing issues expressed in the lyrics of African Hip Hop.

In Africa, Hip Hop is changing and recreating the culture and lives of youth, as it introduces new means of communication, education, empowerment, activism, and entertainment. Youth from the townships of South Africa to the suburbs of Paris are already rhyming about discrimination and inequality and using Hip Hop music as a tool to assert themselves. Today, Hip Hop culture has become the new terrain for global youth interaction, as youth all over the world emulate African American Hip Hoppers. Hip Hop is the language of the next generation and plays an indisputable role in youth identity formation.

The fastest growing and dominant form of youth expression across the world has a special significance in the African context, where the future path for the continent lies in the development of the youth. Taking into consideration Africa's rapid urbanization and the youth-skewed population distribution, Hip Hop becomes an important means of communicating with and understanding this generation. Therefore, the overarching goal of the project is to explore methods to address African youth issues.