ABSTRACT

The twenty-first century ushered in a new era in African popular culture. Hip hop, a popular genre of musical expression, which borrowed extensively from Western and African idioms and iconography of power and social relations, took a decisive turn. The themes and narratives of twenty-first century African hip hop mirror similar global forms in their conception and glorification of fandom, stardom, commodification and sexualization of women’s bodies, violence, and superfluous display of wealth. In this article, I examine some of the rare instances in which Nigerian male hip hop artists have used their talent and poetic license to call attention of the public to the economic and socio-political disenfranchisement of women. This article goes beyond a content analysis of the songs to underscore how core transformations in Nigeria’s democratic process since 1999, when civil rule was reintroduced, have shaped the circumstances under which hip hop artists rethink their sexualization and commodification of women’s bodies.

摘要

二十一世纪迎来了非洲流行文化的新纪元。嘻哈是一种流行的音乐表现形式，广泛借鉴了西方和非洲的习语以及权力和社会关系的图像，发生了决定性的转变。二十一世纪非洲嘻哈的主题和叙事在他们对狂热、明星、女性身体的商品化和性感化、暴力和多余的财富展示的概念和美化方面反映了类似的全球形式。在这篇文章中，我研究了一些罕见的案例，在这些案例中，尼日利亚男性嘻哈艺术家利用他们的才华和诗意来唤起公众对女性在经济和社会政治上被剥夺权利的关注。