By Nasta
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| A graphic representation of Africa courtesy of Blingee |
For long Hip-hop and rap as its key element has been under strong criticism for being disrespectful; disrespectful to authority, disrespectful to social norms and behavior, and disrespectful to women. While these criticisms may be and have for long been challenged, sometimes in the words of Chris Rock, it get’s hard to defend rap, especially when it shows its arrogant side where it is not supposed to.
Recently, a Hiphop agent stirred waters of controversy by taking his unwarranted cockiness to the motherland.
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| LL Cool J at 2011 BET Hiphop Awards |
During his acceptance speech for the ‘I Am Hip-hop Iconic ’ award at the 2011 B.E.T Hip-hop award which was aired on 11/10/2011 (a week after the event), Veteran Def Jam rapper LL Cool J doing a spoken word speech stated “…Did I mention, Life ain’t a sprint it’s a marathon, really stressful on your tendons, and with the shape the economy is today, you better run to the polls like skinny Kenyans; 26 miles in two hours and three minutes...”, of course his reference to Kenyans as an analogy was in relation to our athletes, who continue to set new records at the international stages. But the phrase “Skinny Kenyans” is what has raffled feathers, and brought back memories of instances when Hip-hop heads have acted in a manner perceived as being rude to Africa, and the African people.
Hiphop is a culture that has one of its prolific originators Afrika Bambata, named after the continent. Since its origin to date, Hip-hop has widely been considered as a black man’s music-a black man who draws his ancestry from the African people. Back in Africa, arguably in all of the 54 sovereign states, kids and the youth continue to draw inspiration from this art and culture, which has been in existence for slightly under 40 years.
We relate to the portraits of struggle and triumphs, painted by Hip-hop. How then could it be that this culture that we have so much in common with, and that we have come to embrace in totality as Africans, tends to forget the connection that we share with it? Would it be the case of a grown kid mocking the sagging breasts it once suckled?
Besides LL Cool J’s speech, B.E.T is under fire for the way it treated African nominees prior and during the ceremony. Just like in 2010 award ceremony, which saw the inauguration of BET Best International Act, African Category, African nominees were only given a few minutes coverage on 106 & Park. Ms. Uduak Oduok -A New York based entertainment lawyer and writer-whose company Ladybrille magazine covered last year’s ceremony, writes of how African nominees received a maximum of 2-3 minutes on the hourly B.E.T 106 & Park, and how the show’s host Nick canon, ridiculed Africa.
(Below is The Cipher at 2011 BET by Ghanaian MCs, that never aired on the final cut)
“The host acted with nothing short of “oshiness’ (foolishness) with his remarks of what kind of entertainment content Africans were exposed to in the continent” Uduak precedes to lament about the lack of interest in Africa’s acts by the media at the event, supposedly due to lack of media briefing regarding these artists by the B.E.T Network.
Away from B.E.T, Chinua Achebe the great Nigerian novelist who is revered all over Africa, recently made a polite request to Mr. Curtis Jackson aka 50 Cent, to drop ‘Things Fall Apart’ as the title of his upcoming film. This request was an attempt to protect the identity of Prof. Achebe’s 1958 novel which has the same title. As if to show his financial might, 50 offered Achebe one million dollars in exchange of the title. How shameful was it to see Chinua Achebe now 81, having to pull off his gloves to battle rapper 50 Cent, 45 years his junior through a court battle. 50 cent who is also an author, must had either been genuinely ignorant of just how important Chinua Achebe- who is regarded as the father of modern African literature is, or just arrogant towards Africans.
While such arrogance would be expected from the ‘Get Rich, or Die Tryin’' rapper, it would be totally unexpected for the living Hip-hop Legend, Nas, to be mentioned on the same breath with fidy, yet he gets to feature on this post.
Chris, a long time Hip-hop enthusiast and a member of the Kenyan hiphop duo Mujahidin, has over the years maintained that on the song ‘Revolutionary warfare’ off God’s son album, Nas was wrong to say “we are the lost children of Israel, in this western world region” when he is from African ancestral lineage. Chris still feels uneasy with the lines of the song, even after Nas paid homage to Africa on the single I Can’s third verse, and on his collaborative album with Bob Marley’s last born son, and even alluded in the song ‘Africa Must Wake Up’ that Africa is the mother of humanity.
Speaking of the collaborative album, it is said that South African emcee Hip-hop Pantsula aka HHP, paid Nas in excess of USD 10,000 for a verse by the Queens bridge emcee on HHP’s track Keledimo, only for Nas to later use the same verse on the Distant Relatives album. Although HHP played cool, sighting that using same verse in multiple songs was a common practice in rap, he still felt disrespected by his childhood idol, who has for long expressed his intense passion for the continent.
However Jay Z’s reference of ‘his African chick’ on the song ‘Girls, Girls, Girls’ has to be one of the most annoying things to ever been done by a hiphop artist. On the 2001 Blueprint’s single Jay Z states “I got this African chick with Eddie Murphy on her skull/ she like “Jigga Man why you treat me like an animal?”/ I am like excuse Ms. Fufu, but when I met your ass, you was dead broke and naked, and now you want half”
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| Jay Z at 'Girl, Girls, Girls' video shoot set |
Regardless of the cojones; just how low can one stoop to hit below the belt? With these lines, Jay Z, a metaphorical emcee displayed what his perception of Africa at the time was. Forget about him kissing the ground when he landed at Dar es salaam a few years ago, Jigga showed just how primitive he thought his motherland was, or rather how primitive his thought was.
Despite the continuous genuine love that the likes of Talib kweli, Common, Lupe Fiasco , Ludacris, and Dead Prez show to Africa, the occasional “slip-of–the-tongue” and other times outright foolish utterances and actions by Hip-hop crusaders, must be kept on constant check – if not for anything, to ensure that this Hip-hop connection with mama Africa is persistent. AFRICA STAND UP
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| Africa Stand Up by Nekolah |
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