LANGUAGE IN INDIA

Strength for Today and Bright Hope for Tomorrow

Volume 14:6 June 2014
ISSN 1930-2940

Managing Editor: M. S. Thirumalai, Ph.D.
Editors: B. Mallikarjun, Ph.D.
         Sam Mohanlal, Ph.D.
         B. A. Sharada, Ph.D.
         A. R. Fatihi, Ph.D.
         Lakhan Gusain, Ph.D.
         Jennifer Marie Bayer, Ph.D.
         S. M. Ravichandran, Ph.D.
         G. Baskaran, Ph.D.
         L. Ramamoorthy, Ph.D.
         C. Subburaman, Ph.D. (Economics)
Assistant Managing Editor: Swarna Thirumalai, M.A.

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Negotiating Globalization through Hybridization:
Hip Hop, Language Use and the Creation of Cross-Over Culture in
Nigerian Popular Music

Wale Adedeji, Ph.D.

Abstract

The process of globalization has been of a tremendous impact on African societies while the status-quo of expressive cultures have obviously not remained the same due to this factor with popular music gradually becoming homogenized to fit into the western stereotypes. The Nigerian popular music has been greatly influenced by the dictates and progression in the international scene due to global communication and cultural flows as exemplified by the popularity and proliferation of hip hop culture among the youths from the 1990s.

It is quite evident that English is more or less the official language of popular music while the glorification and promotion of foreign music styles especially hip hop and its cultural expressions is almost making the local music practices less fashionable. This paper explores the Nigerian popular music practice through the current mainstream hip hop and identifies how its practitioners have successfully formulated a sub-genre dubbed ‘Afro hip hop’ through hybridization whereby African identity is portrayed and maintained by asserting linguistic independence with the use of Nigerian languages as medium of delivery through code-switching. This is also followed by appropriating indigenous popular music style especially fújì and highlife to create a fusion that appeals to home-grown sensibilities while still subscribing to the global hip hop community. This paper reveals the effectiveness of ‘Afro hip hop’ as hybrid music and how it is being used as a strategy of resistance towards seemingly popular music homogenization brought about by globalization.

Keywords: Popular music and identity, Hip hop, Code-switching, Globalization, Nigeria, Hybridism.

Introduction

Globalization, in its simplest meaning, ‘refers to a world in which societies, cultures, politics and economies have in some sense come together’ (Kiely 1998: 3). This implies that the world has been brought together as an entity through varieties of ways where it is now possible to look at the same thing at the same time in a synchronised manner irrespective of location. This can further be seen as interconnectivity of people and activities at the highest level notwithstanding the distance or regional boundaries, brought about by technological development through the internet, transportation, or exchange of information via satellite broadcast. However taking a critical look at this phenomenon from another perspective one can sense an undertone of dominance and hegemony: did the whole world actually want to be homogenized? Or are there some powerful forces determining trends and events elsewhere?

This is only the beginning part of the article. PLEASE CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE IN PRINTER-FRIENDLY VERSION.

Wale Adedeji, Ph.D.
Independent Researcher/Artiste
walemanblackbeat@yahoo.com
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