Cue Online (Grahamstown)
Celeste Kriel
14 July 2009
While hip hop has its roots in activism, these days it’s more about being the “badass baller”, owning the biggest Benz and a whole lot of sex.
The modern promotion of consumerism in hip hop culture is a far cry from hip hop’s original intentions.
At Think!Fest, Adam Haupt, senior lecturer in the Centre for Film and Media Studies at UCT, will discuss the two sides of the hip hop fence: the noble pursuit for justice and equality on the one side; and the quest for a flashy lifestyle on the other.
Hip hop started as a sub-culture: “It is similar to the black consciousness movement that was expressed in jazz,” says Haupt.
With hip hop, youths used creative elements such as dance, music, poetry and graffiti to challenge the mainstream mentality of the time, and to act against repression of many kinds.
Hip Hop’s roots
Originally an American genre, South Africans adopted it during apartheid and made it our own.
Our problems were unique, and so was the music that originated from that era. Local hip hop artists mixed English with vernacular to produce a cultural expression of defiance.
But, how does activism turn into consumerism? Here comes the catch: hip hop was spawned in the ghettos where the products of apartheid – poverty, crime and gangsterism – are rife.
Hip hop was not only a prolific way to the unheard, but it was also a fun way to reclaim spaces in the ghetto without resorting to violence.
“Hip hop included dance, visual art and music and, because of that, it was not just about expression, it was about playing and fun,” says Haupt.
Gradually, hip hop became commodified. It was popularised at house parties and expanded into an arena for all kinds of creative expression, not just to one that questions the status quo.
Aspirations were born out of despair, and these were inevitably incorporated into hip hop art forms, especially music.
Aspirations, ironically, were based on capitalist ideas and the very values many hip hop activists are trying to denounce. Haupt will be getting to grips with these issues and more in his Think!Fest talk.
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