Rap Music in the Hip-Hop Culture among the Youth in Nairobi

Amateshe, Maurice (2012) Rap Music in the Hip-Hop Culture among the Youth in Nairobi. PhD thesis, Kenyatta University.

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Abstract

Since early 1990s; the music industry in Kenya witnessed an exponential infiltration of Hip-Hop culture and its element of Rap music, which claimed significant space on the Kenyan popular music landscape. The youth demographic assimilated this genre and the culture that came with it and established on it a fanatical following and adherence. Being a cultural force, this study sought to establish its exact point and process of entry into the music practice in Nairobi. Further, the study sought to study the new cultural identities that emerged as result of the new cultural force. In the realization from review of related literature that negligible effort had gone into transcription of Rap music, the study moved to fill this gap by transcribing and analyzing stylistic developments in a representative sample of the Rap music that was eventually practised in Nairobi after the assimilation process. An Oral Interview Guide (OIG) was used on a purposive sample of 41 Rap artistes, 9 Rap Music Producers and 5 DJs. The study also accessed a random sample of 100 popular music listeners within Nairobi area. Text transcriptions of 34 Rap songs was carried out, out of which, 9 Rap songs were selected for Music transcription. Participant Observation (PO) was used in cases where data were available during live concerts. Non-Participant Observation was also used where situational dynamics called for it. Analysis of purposively sampled existing discography and videography added to the information sources accessed by this study. Data{ collected through oral interviews was analyzed by the use of descriptive statistics. The descriptive analysis was appropriate for this study because it involved the description, analysis and interpretation of origins of Rap music in Nairobi, identities projected through Rap music and Hip-Hop culture and style of Rap music as practiced in Nairobi at the time of study. Results indicated that the origins of Rap music in Nairobi were~aprocess that could not be attributed to an individual. Rather, it was a process that was engendered through a collective participation by those who were exposed to a limited international media network existing in the early 1990s. The results also showed that various identities had been created by the youth to reflected tenets of the Hip Hop cultural force. However, from the music transcriptions carried out by this study, apart from language, musical style had changed very slightly. Rap music practiced in Nairobi was still largely patterned along the stylistic structures established by afro American originators and performers of the genre. The study therefore recommended that although artistes were free to explore and experiment with foreign Rap structures, there was need to strive to create a Rap music identity that could reflect Kenya's cultural diversity. In addition, the study recommended that since Hip-Hop culture had become an influential sub-culture, especially among the youth, there was need to explore strategies of harnessing this influence in communicating pertinent issues such as drug abuse, HIVIAIDS and economic empowerment among others. National communication and awareness policies too, needed to find ways of entrenching Rap music in communication policies

Item Type:	Thesis (PhD)
Subjects:	M Music and Books on Music > M Music
Divisions:	Africana
Depositing User:	Geoffrey Obatsa
Date Deposited:	02 May 2017 09:21
Last Modified:	02 May 2017 09:21
URI:	http://thesisbank.jhia.ac.ke/id/eprint/1473

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