ABSTRACT
Rap music as one of the elements of hip hop culture originated in New York’s South Bronx neighbourhood in the late 1970s. Its lyrics provide a powerful lens through which to view the many dimensions of the African American predicament. As a form, Rap music is for African Americans the means to pen down their history and social circumstances and forge their identities out of the white oriented and white dominated American society and culture. The dominant discourses have relegated African Americans to the margin and excluded them from the power, profits and privileges that Whites overtime have enjoyed in American society. By devaluing the blacks in every possible manner, Whites were able to hold in place the racial hierarchy of the American society. Thus, this dissertation explores rap songs as the medium through which African Americans reflect their predicaments and not only challenge dominant discourses but project their ethnic identities as well. The study deploys postcolonial theory in analysing the selected rap songs based on the relations between Whites and Blacks on American soil and how the songs are used in expressing identity related issues such as racism, marginalization, politics, legal and economic disparities. The study finds out that African American ethnic identity emerged from an identification that is rooted in perceived commonality of oppression, suppression and marginalization.
CHAPTER ONE
GENERAL INTRODUCTION
1.0 INTRODUCTION
African Americans are citizens of the United States of America whose forefathers were forcefully removed from Africa during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Such Africans were forced into slavery and were stripped of their cultural affinities. Consequently, this forceful removal had an effect on the Africans who found themselves in an alien world and had to learn new ways in order to survive. In the process, Africans were caught up between two cultures; an African one on one hand and an American one on the other. It is important to note that American culture is not universal, as Africans taken into slavery found it different from the culture they were used to. The slaves had to adapt to an alien culture. Thus, it is this dual identity that gave rise to the term African American, a term that deliberately recognizes the African and American cultures that have moulded the African American personality.
One important area in which researchers interested in African American culture focus on is ―identity. The concept of identity has always been linked to the history of African Americans and their presence in what has now become the United States of America. For a long time, the image or view blacks had of themselves was largely defined by the way Whites in America described them in their writings, films and other forms of representation. In the past, in the course of domicile in the United States, African Americans have been called by such names as – Negros, Blacks, Coloured, but in the last thirty years, the term African American and Black American has been used. The mechanisms the Whites put in place to subjugate the blacks go a long way in making them think and feel inferior (Wikipedia). Slavery affected every aspect of their lives. The nearly 300 years of slavery have distorted and caused great pain such that African Americans have had to create a new culture and identity out of their experiences in the new world. This is because the white masters did not acknowledge the right of African American to an independent ethnic or cultural identity. As historian T, Vaughan (1995) has noted that the Europeans rarely identified African arrivals in the colonies with terms denoting either nation or ethnicity (Quoted in Hornsby, 2005). For instance, Africans were referred to as Negroes, a term referring to their skin colour.
Before the beginning of slavery, Africans lived in a society that was predicated upon a religious system and cultural practices (Hamlet, 2011). As such the people‘s beliefs, values, norms, history, were transmitted by griots and other members of the society who were the custodian of African culture from one generation to another. The transportation of blacks from Africa to the Americas for slavery stripped them of their culture, identity, family and possessions. Language was the first cultural trait the slave traders and holders tried to suppress. On the slave ship, members of the same community were deliberately separated from each other to prevent communication (ibid). This notwithstanding and given that the blacks came from different backgrounds, the similarities in the basic structure of their culture allowed them to be able to form a different form of communication that was partly African and American (Gay and Barber: 1989). Oral tradition was a major cultural vestige that blacks took to the new world. In African American culture, oral tradition has served as a fundamental vehicle for cultural expression and survival. This oral tradition also preserved the cultural heritage and reflected the collective spirit of the race. African American oral tradition can be traced to Africa.African American cultural expressions have been some of the ways of resisting racial oppression and also a way of expressing African American identity. Although the institution of slavery was out-lawed in 1865 in United States, African practices continued to evolve in to newer modes of expression that provided a foundation for African American cultural or ethnic identity. These include folktales, ritualised games such as
the dozens, songs, spirituals, vernacular expression e.t.c. From the foregoing, rap can also be classified as a part of the African American cultural expressions as it is said to have developed from previous art forms such as the dozens and vernacular expression.
Overall, the goal of this study is to analyze the lyrics of the selected rap songs of Grandmaster Flash and Furious Five. The analysis of rap as an art form is to demonstrate how the form serves as a vehicle for promoting the identity of the African Americans as well as artistically articulating their diverse social and political experiences. Rap acts as a mechanism for retaining and disseminating African American cultural heritage. It is an avenue of speaking out about their predicament in America. The study also looks at the aesthetic features found in the lyrics of Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five (such as repetition, call and response, language) and deploys postcolonial theory as its theoretical frame work.
1.1 GENERATIONAL HISTORY OF AFRICAN AMERICANS
The history of African Americans can be traced to the time of the middle passage when blacks were forcibly uprooted from Africa and were transported to a new and alien world. Blacks who were taken as slaves were stripped of their culture and language. This was important for the slave owners so that the blacks will forget who they were and accept a culture alien to them. For the enslaved blacks the new world and way of life created a new identity for them which was a result of the various mechanism put in place by their owners such as, religion, science and philosophy and also through the improvisation and adaptation that the enslaved came up with.
Therefore, stripped of their cultural vestiges, blacks brought with them a strong memory of rich cultural values; one of such is the importance of family. It is important to note that slave owners did their best in separating members of black families as children born by a slave were usually sold by his/her slave master/mistress to another master. But with all the measures put in place to separate slaves, they were still able to survive and form family ties amongst themselves. Family can be seen in the African sense as a large number of blood relatives who can trace their descent from a common ancestor and the family was held together by a sense of obligation, as such, each member of the family is brought up to think of himself in relationship to the group as a cohesive unit. It is this family ties that Africans or blacks brought with them to America. Gutman (1976) observes that ―African family resilience was transmitted to the Americas, and, thus, assisted in Africans‘ survival both during and after slavery (quoted in Hornsby et.al. 2005).
From the above, it is obvious that the African Americans did not forget their roots. They found strength in the memory of what their life used to be before being captured as slaves. The African slaves created a culture different from that of their masters, a culture they could call their own. Thus Gutman‘s argument can be compared to Howard Zinn‘s observation in A People‘s History of United States (1999). Zinn observed that ―in a society of complex controls, both crude and refined, secret thoughts can often be found in the arts, and so it was in black society‖. In this respect, one can surmise that the African American experience in America created a fertile ground for the development of cultural forms ranging from work songs, negro spiritual, slave narratives, poetry, jazz, blues, to mention but a few. The Southern states in America were rich in fertile soil and this part of the country depended largely on slave labour to maintain its farms. Some Americans in the Northern states thought slavery should not be allowed in a free country. In this respect, the American Anti-Slavery movement was formed in 1833 in Philadelphia and had several branches established throughout the free states. The goal of this organisation was to abolish slavery. This did not go down well with the whites in the South and they attempted to prove and justify slavery using scientific and biblical arguments to the effect that blacks were inferior to whites and were destined to be slaves (Race Timeline, 2003).
In 1860, Abraham Lincoln was elected as the president of the United States. The southerners did not like the ideas of Lincoln because they feared he might free the slaves, which he did eventually (O‘Callaghan:1990). The following years after Lincoln‘s election as the president resulted into a civil war between the Southern states and the North. The Northern states won the war and American slaves were consequently set free.
As a result of the emancipation proclamation and the thirteenth amendment southern states in reaction passed laws known as Black Codes which stipulated the inferiority of the blacks. Such codes stipulate that blacks would remain without property, education and legal protection. Blacks were denied the rights to vote and could not give evidence against the whites or act as jury members. Thus, this caused the United States Congress in 1866 to pass a Civil Rights Act providing full rights for all people born in the United States (Davis: 2008). The legislation was not effective as the southern states rejected this legislation, and this made the North in 1867 to pass the Reconstruction Act. The South was placed under military rule. This action taken by the North only increased the hatred the Southern whites had against the blacks. Whites in the Southern states created an organization called the Ku Klux Klan. This organization devised ways of threatening, murdering and lynching of blacks (ibid). Another means they used in suppressing blacks was the Jim Crow laws. The laws preached separatism. There were consequently separate hospitals, schools, public transport, restaurants, and theatres for blacks and whites (ibid). The fate of blacks was sealed. Although they were freed and enslavement was abolished by law, to be black still meant being a second-class citizen and one who was limited in terms of basic human rights. Nor did the 15thAmendment passed on the 30th of March 1870, which forbade restricting of the right to vote due to race, colour or condition of former servitude able to improve the situation of blacks (ibid.).
The World War I and World War II created an avenue for the blacks to migrate from the South to the North. They moved to Northern states like Chicago, Michigan and New York City. This was because such places provided for African Americans a better access to education, economic opportunities and cultural institutions which they could not get in the rural areas of the South where blacks remained more isolated and uneducated. The movement of the blacks to the North allowed them to form a strong community with ingredients for the development of black culture (Stevens: 1991).
The Civil Rights Movement came to prominence during the mid-1950s in the United States and had its roots in the centuries-long efforts not only to abolish slavery but address the aberration of racism. It was a response to racial discrimination and was used to agitate for full civil liberties for blacks. In 1954 the Supreme Court decided that segregation in schools was against the constitution. In 1955 a black woman Rosa Parks was arrested in Montgomery, Alabama because she refused to let a white passenger take her seat. This led the blacks to boycott the buses and the boycott was led by Martin Luther King who became the leader of the Civil Rights Movement. In 1964 the American Congress passed the Civil Rights Act which banned discriminations in schools, public places, jobs and in many other fields (Markova: 2008). The Black Power movement and Black Arts Movement are movements that manifested during the Civil Rights Movement particularly in the 1960s. Black Power and Black Arts Movement were both related to the African American‘s desire to attain recognition as a full citizen of the U.S. Both concepts are nationalistic; Black Power Movement is concerned with politics and it also witnessed a period of cultural and artistic revival. The Black Power Movement had been around since the 1950s, but it was Stokely Carmichael that popularised the term in 1966 (Coombs, 2004). He was the head of the Student Non-violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). The Black Power Movement instilled a sense of racial pride and self esteem in blacks. The movement encouraged African Americans to join or form political parties that could offer a foundation for real socio economic progress. The movement aspired for blacks to define the world in their own view.
The Black Arts Movement was an association of African American visual artists, writers, poets, playwrights and musicians. The movement took a definite shape around 1965 and lasted to the late 1970s. Blacks involved in this movement were united by a desire to cultivate a vital black aesthetic different from the standards of whites that reflected and addressed the particular experiences and sensibilities of African Americans. The movement set out to re-affirm the intrinsic beauty of blackness, an explicit challenge to centuries of racism (Neal: 1968). African Americans who contributed to this movement include; Gwendolyn Brooks, Nikki Giovanni, LeRoi Jones (Amiri Baraka) to mention but a few. Today, issues of discrimination remain, though African Americans have made and are still making a significant contribution to every part of American society, be it business, science, politics, art and entertainment.
1.2 AFRICAN AMERICAN MUSIC
African American art forms such as poetry, narrative, music and songs are related to the society from which they emerged from. Scientific and biblical arguments which were used as weapons to justify slavery served ironically as the foundation for African American arts. Africans who were taken as slaves had to readjust in a world alien to them. Throughout history, people of African origin in the United States otherwise known as African Americans have developed several music genres, beginning with Negro Spirituals, Blues and Jazz music, to the most recent genre of Rap music. It is important to note that rap is one of the five elements of hip hop culture. Thus music is a vital component of the African American culture.
Music has always been a defining aspect of African American culture; ever since the passage of the slaves from both West and Central Africa to the New World. Through their music and songs, the first African Americans were able to keep a sense of their African identity. Music gave a sense of power, of control. If it did not improve the material being of its creators, it certainly did have an impact upon their psychic state and emotional health. It allowed them to assert themselves and their feelings and their values, to communicate continuously with themselves and their peers. They could partly drop their masks and the pretence and say what they felt, articulate what was brimming up within them and what they desperately needed to express (Daniel and Smitherman: 1976). Music along with other forms of the oral tradition allowed African Americans to express themselves, to derive pleasure and also to pass on these forms for posterity. In view of this, Franklin and Moss (1994:25-26) posit:
African Slaves came from a complex social and economic life, and were not overwhelmed or overawed by their New World experiences. Despite the heterogeneity characteristic of many aspects of African life, African people still had sufficient common experiences to enable them to cooperate in the New World in fashioning new customs and traditions which reflected their background.
Franklin and Moss both surmised that as Africans of different experiences were forced to live together, there was an interaction of various African cultures which resulted to a new culture of their own. The African American culture must be seen as the product of the African American experiences in America. Although the content of the African American culture grew out of the American scene, its style did have African roots. It is these African roots that the lave brought with him–a highly developed sense of rhythm which was passed fromgeneration to generation, and an understanding of art which conceived of it as an integral part of the whole of life rather than as a beautiful object set apart from mundane experience. Song and dance, for example, were involved in the African's daily experience of work, play, love, and worship. In sculpture, painting and pottery, the African used his art to decorate the objects of his daily life rather than to make art objects for their own sake (Coombs, 2004). Out of the African American experiences and memory from their past lives grew a new culture which was passed down to subsequent generations of African Americans. This buttresses Coombs‘ point when he further affirms that the Africans brought their feelings for art with them, the content of their art was actually changed as a result of their American slave experience. As such, the African American cultural spirit became emotional, exuberant, and sentimental (ibid). This is to say the African American characteristics which have been generally thought of as being African and primitive–his naivety, his exuberance and his spontaneity–are, in reality, his response to his American experience and not a part of his African heritage. They are to be understood as the African's emotional reaction to his American ordeal of slavery. Out of this environment along with its suffering and deprivation, has evolved an African American culture (ibid).
The misrepresentation and marginalization of blacks in America created an avenue for African American culture to develop which is distinct from the culture of their oppressors. As such, African Americans attempted to reassert their identity instead of being represented by others by taking materials from African American culture and experiences in America. African American consciousness or nationalism became noticeable towards the end of the 19th century. A number of African Americans left the South to escape oppression and this led to the Great Migration. They moved to Northern cities like Chicago, Michigan, Philadelphia and New York to form strong black communities. The Great Migration expanded black communities which created a fertile environment for black culture to grow. The migration
fostered African American nationalism which contributed to the emergence of a new type of African American who was becoming increasingly conscious of his value as a black person. For instance, Harlem, a neighbourhood in New York, turned into the largest metropolis of the black world. It is therefore no coincidence that Harlem with its newly found self-confidence and African orientated racial feeling stimulated rich literary activities (Berghahn, 1977).
The Northern black middle class in the early part of the 20th century began to set up a number of political movements that advocated for racial equality, inspired racial pride and confronted the prejudices or stereotypes that blacks were ignorant, servile and not intelligent. One of such political movement is the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). Alain Locke a leading black intellectual edited a volume of critical essays and literature entitled The New Negro (1925). Like Marcus Garvey, Locke preached the political and cultural rebirth of the black race. It was manifested by a creative outburst of art, music and literature as well as by a new mood of self-confidence and self-consciousness within that community. The centre of this explosion was located in Harlem and the period became known as the Harlem Renaissance (Coombs,2004). According to Locke the most important task for the African Americans was to rehabilitate the black man throughout the world, and to demolish the prejudices which had been carried over from slavery (qtd in Berghahn, 1977).
The 1960s and 1970s saw the emergence of an artistic and cultural movement among African Americans in America. At this time African Americans were fascinated with the African continent. They studied African art, language, culture and history. Thus Africa, not America was regarded as the real home of the African Americans (Berghahn, 1977). African Americans became more aware of their position within American society and tried to give it a constructive meaning. As such black intellectuals feel that African Americans have a justified claim to demand equality with whites in America. It is important to note that the intellectuals of this period did not abandon the militant spirit which was reminiscent of the new Negro of the 1920s although some of the intellectuals‘ beliefs or ideas appear to be more cynical and disillusioned. This is because intellectuals of the 1920s like Garvey advocated for a return to Africa. The intellectuals of the 1960s and 1970s though fascinated with Africa realised that they are of Africa but do not feel at home there because they have been disconnected or forcefully uprooted. At the same time African Americans remained as outsiders and rootless in the American society. Their bitterness, undoubtedly, springs partly from the dashed hopes of blacks in an anti-black America. Richard Wright a black intellectual attempted to theorize the complex relationship between black America and Africa. He also tried to interpret the meaning of being black in anti-black
America. Wright‘s upbringing, his experience with poverty and racism shaped his world view. Marxism appeared to offer an explanation to the great depression and it captured Wright‘s imagination. Wright created an assertive image of Black people that challenged traditional racist stereotypes. Wright is of the view that the Black intellectual responsibility is to contest white‘s conception of black existence in America and, in the process, to assert the validity and complexity of the Black experience. In his 1937 article, ―Blueprint for Negro Writing Wright argued: The Negro writer who seeks to function within his race as a purposeful agent has a serious responsibility. In order to do justice to his subject matter, in order to depict Negro life in all its manifold and intricate relationships, a deep, informed, and complex consciousness is necessary; a consciousness which draws for its strength upon the fluid lore of a great people, and moulds this lore with the concepts that move and direct the forces of history today (Gayle, 1970). Hence, Wright, like other Black intellectuals such as LeRoi Jones, James Baldwin, Ralph Ellison, were forced to fight in order to legitimize the very humanity of Black people and to defend them against the cultural domination of white supremacist ideas and practices. From the foregoing, African Americans use art, literature as well as music as an avenue through which African Americans question, resist and protest against oppression and marginalization in America.
1.3 EXAMPLES OF AFRICAN AMERICAN MUSICAL STYLE
The first examples of African American music were during the period of slavery when slave songs were sung on plantations. Although Africans were restricted from practicing their culture, however the slaves brought over ―whooping and ―hollering, which were originally in Africa means of melodically calling out to one another to announce emergency or important news. According to Conyers (1997), these calls could travel extended distances. The purpose of these calls was to express deep emotional experiences such as love sickness, hunger, or loneliness. These calls were a combination of song and spoken words. These melodic calls were performed in a free and extemporaneous manner. These structures served in later forms of African American music.
The spirituals developed during the period of slavery. According to Conyers (1997), spirituals were a product of improvisation and communal consciousness. Spirituals were created from many existing songs, embellished with new musical accompaniment and lyrics that fit into the traditional metrical pattern. The spirituals used traditional African religious structures such as the call response and repetition brought directly from Africa. The spirituals could take place at both sacred and secular occasions, at churches or praise houses and work places. The spirituals also drew on the important older worldviews among the slaves, and this perpetual testimony gave African Americans a strong sense of community.
Another example of African American music is the blues which emerged in the beginning of the 20th century. The blues took its essential ingredients from the Slave work songs and field hollers of the slave communities in the South of the United States. The blues grew out of the bitter hardship following the American civil war. It contains African traditional musical elements, such as allusive lyrics, improvisation, and the call and response which is seen in black choral singing. Often containing commentary on current events; the blues made work and recreation time pass more easily. The ―blues combine musical structure and poetic forms from the spirituals, work songs, and field cries with new musical and textual ideas‖ (Conyers, 1997).
Given that African-Americans have shared a horrible experience in the States, the blues became the medium that enabled them to speak about their sorrow. Ralph Ellison states accordingly that ―The Blues is an impulse to keep the painful details and episodes of a brutal experience alive in one‘s aching consciousness to finger its jagged grain, and to transcend it not by the consolation of philosophy but by squeezing from it a near-tragic, near-comic lyricism‖ (quoted. in Dundes 1990). As such, musicians of this genre discussed the issues or problems that African Americans contend with in U.S.A.
The Blues music style is one of the most distinctive ingredients of Jazz. As Gilbert Chase points out, ―the music that came to be called jazz had its matrix in the strongly distinctive traditions of Afro-American music, including the propulsive dynamism of African dancing, the hot rhythm of gospel hymns [and] the form and inflection of the blues‖ (Chase, 1987). Thus, as much as other African-American genres, Jazz was stronglyconnected with the African heritage and traditional musical expression. Jazz is an African-American music genre which originated around 1910 and is said to have been born ―in the streets and parks of the New Orleans African American community‖ (Salaam, 1995). Jazz grew out of the interaction between several different musical and cultural traditions, most dominantly the African American and the Western European. ―The African American influence might be considered an oral tradition that expresses itself in the improvisatory actions of performance in contrast to the notated tradition of western Europe (Megill & Tanner, 1995).
The style of jazz tells a story, displays emotions, and tries to elicit a response from the listeners. Jazz is a lively, energetic music with pulsating rhythms usually played by a small instrument (a combo) or a larger group (a big band). It includes a strong element of improvisation which gives individual performers the freedom to follow their own flights of musical fancy (Wright, 1992). Jazz is simply instrumentation without vocalization in most cases. The improvisational aspect of jazz music is mirrored in the hip hop music form when a rapper improvises lyrically.
Like jazz before it, hip hop was originally a type of dance music. Hip hop thrives on rhythm in its melody and lyrics. Paul Gilroy postulates that hip hop culture grew out of the cross fertilization of African American vernacular cultures with their Caribbean equivalent (1993:103). Although the term rap is often used interchangeably with hip hop, the former term is one of the elements of hip hop. Rap developed into a distinct form in the 1970s when black parties became common in New York City, particularly in the Bronx, a community well known for its large African American population (Light 1999). Rap is seen as part of African American cultural heritage. It is seen as a specific way of communication. It is linked to the streets, and the street is a place where African Americans learn about life experiences. Many rap lyrics paint a picture of urban daily life. Black culture places a high regard on creatively expressing people‘s real life experiences. Hip hop remains true to its cultural roots by promoting African values within African American communities. Conyer James (1997) states that as people of African descent struggled with enslavement, racist oppression, and intellectual bondage, their art and creative outlets tried to reflect the reality of the movement toward black liberation.
1.4 HISTORY AND DEVELOPMENT OF RAP MUSIC
Rap music originated in the South of Bronx, a neighborhood in New York City in the late 1970s. Rap is one of the four elements of hip hop which include; disc jockeys (DJs/ turntablists), emcees (MCs/ Master of Ceremonies), break dancers (B-Boys and B-Girls) and graffiti writers (Keyes: 2004). The most prominent of these elements is rap. The hip hop according to Tricia Rose (1994) is a social movement and a counter culture. This mean that this genre of music resists the existing notion of blacks as little more than a beast and also mobilizes blacks to agitate for change in their political, social and economic realities.
Rap is a way of communication. Rap, according to Shaw (1986:384) is a ―rapid-fire street talk generally rhymed, spoken to minimal musical accompaniment of a percussive ostinato, punctuated by an occasional guitar or bass chord. Also Keyes (2001:1) defines rap music as ―a musical form that makes use of rhyme, rhythmic speech, and vernacular language, which is recited or loosely chanted over a musical sound track.
As such one can surmise from the above definitions that rap music is singing in a speech like manner to musical instrument and its words are taken essentially from African American vernacular. Rap is a reflection of the social concerns of blacks and it is linked to the street (Folbs: 1980). As such Folbs (1980) observes that ―The street is any place ―cept home, a church or school‖. This observation made by Folbs suggests that the street is an important part or plays an important role in the life of blacks because the street is where the largest part of their lives are lived. The street is also known to be a place where friends and enemies are made. More importantly, it is a place where African Americans prove to be true to their roots.
It is important to note that the enslaved primarily lived on plantations in separate quarters away from the Whites with occasional interactions with their masters. Within this evolved what is called ―slave culture. Concerning this, Bennett (1980:79) states that ―in the slave quarters, bondsmen developed their own society which differed in many ways from the society of the masters‖. This environment or society allowed the blacks to continue African practices in music making, oral narratives, and belief system e.t.c. Although the institution of slavery was out-lawed in 1865, African practices continued to evolve in to newer modes of expression that provided a foundation for rap (hip hop) which include storytelling, ritualised games such as the dozens, songs, spirituals, vernacular expression e.t.c.
The founding father of rap music is Dj Kool Herc. The history and emergence of rap as a musical form is linked to him. According to Alex and David (2001:13) hip hop began when Clive Campbel, later known as DJ Kool Herc (Hercules) who arrived in New York City from Jamaica. Also Light (1999) observes that before the term hip hop was used for this genre of music, there were out door parties in public places such as the park in Bronx and Harlem. A disc jockey would connect his sound system directly in the power box of a street light and play records where people gathered around to dance and rap. DJ Kool Herc is credited with propelling these parties into a musical style. Herc first performed at his sister‘s birthday party in 1973 which was held in the recreation room of their housing project in the West Bronx. This propelled Herc‘s career as a disc jockey (ibid).
The 1960s saw the birth of street gangs in New York. This was a result of the loss of charismatic leaders like Malcom X and Martin Luther King Jr during the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s. The death of these aforementioned activists triggered unrest among those living in the black communities in New York. By the late 1970s street gangs increased due to violence, drugs, and black on black crimes. The reason for this according to Clerence Lusane (Quoted in Sullivan, 2001) was: The conservative, often the covertly racist policies of the government administrations during the 70s and 80s caused crisis in the inner city: thousand more people fell below the poverty level, educational spending dropped, and unemployment skyrocketed. The illegal economy blossomed, as one solution to widespread unemployment. The subsequent war on drugs incarcerated a grossly disproportionate number of young African American men, making it evident that this population had become the nations‘ scapegoat.
Also the laws that the government put in place to suppress and harass the blacks increased the high rate of poverty which in turn contributed to the creation of more gangs in the black communities. Street gangs developed from innocuous youth and were created in order to protect their territories against other gangs (Krejeova, 2011). One of such groups that developed is the Black Spades. The Black Spade is said to be one of the largest street gangs in New York. The group was involved in violence and the sale of drugs (Light 1999).
Afrika Bambaataa is said to belong to this gang the ―Black Spades. Later on street gangs gave way to peaceful gangs such as the one Bambaataa created which is called ―the organization in 1975. It was later called ―the Universal Zulu Nation‖ (ibid). This organization created a fertile ground for black youth to focus on singing out their pain and channel their energy into rapping instead of making a nuisance of themselves. Light (1999) states that Afrika Bambaataa was respected amongst his peers and shared a vision of what Blacks and Hispanics can accomplish if they work towards a common goal. He further observes that the hip hop platform created by Zulu nation upholds such principles as knowledge, wisdom, understanding, freedom, justice, equality, peace, unity, love and respect in its manifesto. Thus the organization united the blacks for it gave them or created a path way towards the freedom, love and equality they craved for, from the Whites who made life tough for them.
The first wide spread evidence of commercial rap or hip hop success is attributed to the Sugar Hill Gang, a music group that was signed by a music entrepreneur Sylvia Robinson. The group released its first hit in 1979 titled ―rappers delight‖. Another group credited to have changed the focus of rap songs is the Grand Master Flash and the Furious Five group when they released ―The Message‖ in1982. This song is socially inclined as it looks at the socio-political concern of the period. Thus Rose (1994) and Hoch (2006) see rap not only as a means of mitigating gang violence, but a way of resistance and protest which was rooted in the frustration caused by lack of freedom and power that African Americans have experienced in American society. To buttress their statement Alridge (2005:226) observes that the lyrics of pioneers such as DJ Kool Herc, Afrka Bambaataa and Grandmaster Flash speak out against joblessness, lack of power, poverty, education, police brutality, crime and other social problems faced by the blacks in urban areas such as the Bronx and Harlem both in New York city. By the late 1980s, rap was considered a male dominated genre. In the early stages of rap, women‘s participation was deterred by gender-related opinions (Rose 1994). The first female rap group is the ―Salt n‘ Peppe‖ and they appear on the rap scene in the late 1980s. Their songs addressed African American women‘s refusal to submit to African American male domination. The duo challenged misogynistic ideas that pervaded rap songs. Another female rapper that made her debut into rap scene was Lena Mitchelle Moorer better known as Lyte. Lyte was considered the first female rap artist whose lyrics challenged the unfair treatment of women like the duo Salt n peppe and she paved way for others like Dana Elaine Owens and a host of others. (Light: 1999). Dana Elaine Owens, better known by her stage name as Queen Latifah, is another successful female rap artist that emerged in the late 1980s and early 1990s (Ruth, 2000). She often rapped about the empowerment of women and addresses the problems faced by women. Women rappers questioned the representation of women as gold diggers within rap lyrics performed by male artists and addressed the fears women share concerning male deception and infidelity (Rose1994) According to Chang and Watson (2007:62), hip hop saved a lot of lives in its early days, for it created an avenue for the black youth to stay off drugs or violence. Also Dick Hebdige (2004:223) contends that rap did for the poor blacks what reggae did for struggling Jamaicans a decade earlier. Rap got them noticed and it helps forge a sense of identity and pride for the blacks.
1.5 RAPAS POETRY
Rap like poetry is an expression of feelings, emotions and thoughts. Unlike poetry rap is achieved by combining vocal and instrumental sounds. It is pertinent to state that all artists, whether poets, novelists, or rap artists seek to share their experiences via the medium that most effectively lends itself to their personal abilities. They are performed most often in rhythm to a beat with vocal delivery that ranges from sing-song to conversational. Their most distinguishing poetic feature is rhyme, which rappers employ in full and slant, monosyllabic and multisyllabic forms at the end of and in the midst of the line. Rap verses make ample use of figurative language, most especially simile, though other less common rhetorical figures and forms are also used (Bradley and Dubois, 2010).
Through studying the lyrics of rap songs, one gets to understand it as a form of poetry. When the lyrics of rap songs appear on a page, aspects like simile, metaphor, alliteration, assonance, rhyme scheme, enjambment, repetition, and rhetorical questions become apparent. Thus, this dissertation examines rap as a poetic form, with the two forms not only sharing a lot in common but as the case is here, the rap form of music being deployed by Black American singers is used to interrogate their conditions in the United States.
1.6 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
Much scholarly effort has been devoted to rap music and songs in the past two decades. Its appeal goes far beyond the boundaries of United States. Nonetheless some critics dismiss the art form. This is because the critics believe that rap artists use offensive and profane language in their lyrics. As such they see rap music as a negative force in the society. Other studies in recent years have explored rap music as a popular cultural expression among African Americans. However, few of such studies distinguish rap music as a form of oppositional culture and a form that can be situated within postcolonial discourse.
Hence, the study focuses on the view that rap songs are a form of oppositional culture. The focus on rap and not the jazz or blues music types is because rap is a rebellious art form which is regarded as a lyrical poem which is crafted in verses. The study suggests that rap‘s oppositional culture and critique of the American society highlights the tenets of postcolonial theory. The study contends that rap songs incline towards resisting oppression, mediating social and cultural experiences as well as addressing identity related concerns. This feature points to the potential of rap songs as an art form which is a social movement and counter culture.
Furthermore, this research contends that beyond the claim about the profane and offensive use of language by rap artists, there lies in its lyrics the experiences of African Americans with respect to issues such as internal colonialism, racism, class, politics, poverty, education, legal and economic disparities which are the burdens that have been transferred to them via their forefathers who were carried or brought to the Americas as slaves. In the light of this, the study examines the selected rap songs as a form of African American cultural expression, and demonstrates that such songs also contribute to the understanding of the African American predicament in the United States.
1.7 AIM AND OBJECTIVES
The aim of this study is to examine the relationship between African American identity and music, as music and songs are one of the media through which African Americans define who they really are. In the light of this, the objectives of the study are:
- To illustrate that African Americans, use music to negotiate and define their identity within the context of the social, cultural, political and economic contexts of the United States.
- To demonstrate that rap songs are used as a media to voice out and reflect the experiences and predicaments of African Americans.
- To look at the aesthetic features and the themes embedded in the rap lyrics. These aesthetic features include; the vernacular expression, figurative devices along with the techniques (call and response, improvisation, rhythm, toast and signifying) found in the lyrics. The themes include; racial oppression, marginalization, economic and legal disparities between whites and blacks e.t.c.
- To demonstrate that there exists a curious relationship between art and society, in this case, there is an obvious link between the contents of African American music and the context of their emergence.
1.8 JUSTIFICATION OF THE STUDY
Rap music is one of the genres of African American music which is a part of African American cultural heritage. The music developed into a distinct form in the 1970s, and research or critical works on this genre commonly focus on the offensive and profane use of words in the lyrics, with little attention being paid to its content and aesthetic features. Thus, the justification for this study lies in the notion that the lyrics of rap songs resonates the idea of postcolonial theory as the ideas revolves around human needs to define their identities It also looks at how music and songs are used in expressing identity related issues. This study contributes to the efforts of writers, critics or scholars who portray how the black identity can be glimpsed not only from African American literature but also by focusing on African American music and the songs that characterize it. A study like this will provide an insight into the cultural history of African Americans and thus serve as an invaluable repository for scholars who are interested in African American literature and culture.
1.9 SCOPE AND DELIMITATION
African American music includes Negro Spirituals, Gospel, Jazz, Blues e.t.c. This study however is limited to the rap genre because it provides social and critical commentary regarding African Americans and their community. The study pays close attention to how identity is expressed from the perspective of this genre. It also looks at the aesthetic features as well as the experiences of African Americans. The study is limited to a music group of rap artists, Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five. This is because this group is seen as one of the pioneers of rap music. The lyrics of the songs chosen for this study have been listened to orally and transcribed for interpretation. The songs focused upon include: ―The Message, ―Beat Street, ―White Lines, ―New York New York, ―Message II (Survival), ―It‘s Nasty, ―What If, ―I Am Somebody. The study is of the view that the selected eight songs sufficiently provide information about the African American experience in the United States.
1.10 METHODOLOGY
This study adopts the postcolonial theory in analyzing the selected songs. The major or key concepts of postcolonial theory that have been used in the study include: language, margin/centre, cultural differences and dislocation which are all features of postcolonial theory. These concepts overlap and interweave with one another. A feature common to the aforementioned concepts is that the concepts all revolve around human need to define their identities. The primary sources are the selected rap songs of Grand Master Flash and the Furious Five. The focus of the work is on the audio sounds of the selected songs which have been transcribed for analysis. The form of transcription and translation adopted here are verbatim scripts and intralingual translation. The rap songs transcribed for analysis include: ―The Message, ―Beat Street, ―White Lines, ―New York New York, ―Message (Survival), ―It‘s Nasty, ―What If, ―I Am Somebody. The secondary sources include literary sources and internet materials such as text books, journals, magazines and unpublished works.
1.11 GRANDMASTER FLASH AND THE FURIOUS FIVE
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five are an enormously respected group in the history of hip hop music. This group was formed in the South Bronx of New York City in 1978. The group is comprised of a DJ (Grandmaster Flash) and five rappers Melle Mel (Melvin Glover), Kidd Creole (Nathanial Glover), Cowboy (Keith Wiggins), Mr. Ness/Scorpio (Eddie Morris), and Rahiem (Guy Williams). As the group rose to fame in the early 80s, several record executives approached Grandmaster Flash about recording which he refused because ―he didn‘t think that people rapping…would even sell‖ (Miller, 1997). But it wasn't until the Sugarhill Gang's “Rapper's Delight” proved that hip hop music could reach mainstream that Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five group began recording. Their first single on Enjoy Records was “Supperrappin'”, released in 1979. Afterwards, they switched to Sylvia Robinson's Sugar Hill Records. The group rose to fame in the early 1980s with their first successful single “Freedom” and later on with ―The Message,” which is often cited as among the best hip hop song ever produced. However, in 1983, relations between Grandmaster Flash and Melle Mel began straining and the group disbanded. This resulted in the single “White Lines, (Don't Don't Do It)” which is credited to Melle Mel. Flash, Rahiem and Kidd Creole decided to leave Sugarhill and signed a new contract with Elektre and together they made the album They Said it Couldn’t Be Done. In 1987, a reunion occurred, and the Furious 5 fully rejoined with Grandmaster Flash and released a new album. Despite setbacks, Grandmaster Flash did continue his career in hip hop. Almost 10years after the release of On the Strength (Grandmaster Flash and the Furious 5‘s reunion album) Flash released Sal Soul Jam 2000. According to his official website, Flash has kept busy with performances and albums. In 1998, a year after Sal Soul Jam 2000 he performed at the Super Bowl. In 2005 Sean P. Combs (Diddy) requested he be the DJ for the MTV Music Awards. Along with performances Grandmaster Flash is being recognized for his contribution to hip hop.In 2007, Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five became the first rap group ever to be inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, making them the first DJ and rap group to be honoured (Grandmaster Flash.com).
1.12 DEFINITION OF CONCEPTS
Music: the rational organization of sounds and silences as they pass through time. It is concerned with combining vocal and instrumental sounds for beauty of form or emotional expression.
Song: is a composition made up of lyrics and music with the intent of the lyrics being sung for the purpose of producing a proportionate feeling or emotion in relation to a particular matter.
Lyrics: lyrics are a set of words that make up a song usually consisting of verses and choruses.
Beat: beat is defined as an even pulse in music that divides the passing of time into equal segments
Tempo: refers to the rate at which the speed occurs in music. The tempo of a piece of music is its speed. The tempo is classified as fast (allegro), medium/moderate (andante), and slow (adagio).
Stanza: a poetic unit of two or more lines with a consistent meter and rhyme scheme
Rhythm: is the organisation of time in music, dividing up long spans of time into smaller, more easily comprehended units. It can also be defined as the regular, repeated pattern of sounds in a song.
