Hip-hop in the Age of Empire: Cape Flats Style

The paper begins with an explanation of the concept of Empire, which is cited as being particularly helpful in a discussion of hip-hop in post-apartheid South Africa. South Africa continues to deal with the economic and political consequences of apartheid while also having to deal with the demands of global capitalism. According to the paper, the use of the term Empire alludes to the complex ways in which power is manifested on the global stage. It is this conception of the notion of Empire that provides a point of entry into a discussion of what the author refers to as hip-hop activism.

The author suggests that despite the seeming deligitimisation of hip-hop, 'conscious' hip-hop continues to have underground appeal and is employed as a tool in marginal spaces, such as in Cape Town, South Africa. In this regard, hip-hop continues to be a valuable vehicle for educating youth in Cape Town. He also suggests that a significant amount of interesting activity happens on stage and in recording studios, such as live acts like Black Noise, Brasse vannie Kaap, Godessa or Moodphase5ive, but it is Bush Radio's hip-hop theory and practical workshop sessions that hold the key to ensuring that hip-hop's potential for developing critical literacies and facilitating the empowerment of diverse members of Cape Town's new generation of hip-hop 'heads'. He argues that these workshops hold true to the hip-hop concept of 'knowledge of self' in their attempts to offer participants something that moves beyond the restrictions that South Africa's education system provides its pupils and moves beyond workshop approaches that merely seem to showcase hip-hop as an end in itself.

The paper also presents examples of activities of hip-hop crews. One, called POC, has been involved in a number of national education tours, such as a voter education tour titled 'Rapping for Democracy' and a drug awareness campaign during the early 90s. Rappers Ariefdien and Ready D were also involved in youth development workshops. Black Noise's Emile YX? was instrumental in launching an anti-racism, anti-crime campaign titled 'Heal the Hood' in the late 90s and involved Swedish hip-hop artists in this campaign after establishing links with them during a tour of Europe. Emile YX? has also been a key in organising hip-hop workshops, competitions and performance events like 'Hip-Hop Indaba' and 'African Battle Cry' in his attempts to promote hip-hop. Big Dré also drive a hip-hop show called Headwarmers, which is aired on community radio station Bush Radio. The show provides listeners with the opportunity to engage in topical debates (on AIDS or globalisation, for example), listen to local and international studio guests, call in to engage in 'open mic' emcee sessions as well as listen to hip-hop tracks, which are often difficult to obtain in the average music store. The paper states that in a sense, the radio show has become one of the means through which Cape Town’s hip-hop community is constituted and offers a means through which heads are able to mobilise. The show later became one the ways participants were recruited for Bush Radio's emcee workshops. These workshops are a spin-off of an initial programme called HIV Hop (2000), which was geared toward "looking at how to use hip-hop to educate young people about HIV and AIDS, but beyond messaging sort of the ABC thing that you see everywhere."

The paper also touches on new technological developments, saying that wav and mp3 file formats can be exploited to serve the interests of disenfranchised communities, but that the relationships that are established in cyberspace actually need to translate into real action at grassroots level. This is particularly important, given the considerable size of the digital divide in Africa and many other Third World contexts. Until this key issue is solved, the internet is only one tool in the hands of activists and interest groups who wish to strengthen civil society and provide greater access to public space. More conventional avenues such as community radio, the print media, the informal exchange of mix tapes and CDs as well as word of mouth continue to be powerful tools in the hands of the hip-hop movement.

This paper no longer appears to be available online; however, it seems to have been published as a chapter in the book "Voices of the Transition", available on the Isandla website - click here.