One of the things that hip hop does is it "articulates what some of the social issues are", according to Prof. Msia Kibona Clark, Associate Professor and Director of Graduate Studies in the Department of African Studies at Howard University.
"Oftentimes, hip hop is dealing with police brutality, they're dealing with corruption, health care issues, migration, and, so, through the music, the artists are articulating some of the social issues," Prof. Clark explains.
Hip hop artists are "using their music to amplify a kind of directive", when it comes to social movements or issues in order to "influence those who decide to engage in social or political change".
"When you have social movements, political movements, you often have a soundtrack that accompanies that movement and that soundtrack often influences the key figures who were involved in that movement," the hip hop analyst says.
Hip hop songs are "autobiographical", so in their songs the artists talk about what they see and what feels important to them. However, these issues differ across the continent.
"You have some artists in West Africa talking about female genital cutting [...] In Senegal artists continue to really hold governments accountable for what they're doing [...] K'naan is famous for talking about the conflict in Somalia [...] There've been a few artists talking about what's going on in northern Nigeria," Prof. Clark recalls.
To hear what else the hip hop expert had to say, check out the entire episode of the AfroVerdict podcast, brought to you by Sputnik Africa.
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