Hip Hop Music Overseas

Author, Roni Poet

Africa

It would appear that the growth of Hip Hop in other countries loosely mirrors the growth of Hip Hop in the U.S. This is evident in the separation of commercialized Hip Hop known as "pop" rap from authentic Hip Hop as a tool to give people a voice for resistance.  Once Hip Hop became commercially viable the art-form and culture was turned into a commodity - a means of promoting materialism - what the dominate culture wants to sell such as designer clothes, cars, and so forth. For example, in the Tanzanian music industry "calls for authenticity are closely related to discussions of the capitalist commodification of popular music in Tanzania, and beyond" (Clark, 2013) Artists in Tanzania are standing up to question Hip Hop cultural authenticity and to distinguish themselves apart form "pop" rap which they call Bongo Flava. (Clark, 2013)

Europe

Hip Hop culture has grown in France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and Greece.  They face some of the same struggles within their Hip Hop culture as faced in the U.S. For example, when it comes to gender issues the culture is still dominated by males. There is also a “generational conflict” with “old school” Hip Hop fans versus “new school”. The early nineties Hip Hop was one of political and social protest whereas newcomers are more technological and commercial including topics on everyday life.

Many European artists have taken a page from Wu-Tang Clan’s book and have formed artist collectives such as Freestyle Productions in Greece. Who’s down with Wu-Tang Clan? The world!

Small grassroots labels that are mostly or exclusively handling rap release most of the records. The release of rap records is growing steadily.

Although they respect the creation and history of Hip Hop as it has developed in the U.S., they still seek to create a native art form within their own culture using there own language for example. They are facing “a symbolic struggle for cultural autonomy, whereby simple imitation of the “mother” culture is rejected in favor of a creative integration of rap into the host culture” (Androutsopoulos, 2003) An example of the appropriation of Hip Hop culture by Europe and the development of a new native genre can be seen in  “Fly Cat, Articolo 31 claimed “spaghetti funk” as their own genre creation, which integrates Italian melody into rap music” (Androutsopoulos, 2003) Although many European rappers use their own dialect they still use some African American vernacular, which is viewed as a “‘resistance vernacular,” i.e., a positively valued linguistic code” (Androutsopoulos, 2003)  At the same time there is a global Hip Hop culture that includes elements such as graffiti, tattoos, and sampling (albeit they are sampling more local sounds). Interestingly, even Europe knows that “sampling is a constitutive structural part of rap music, it is naturally found in all local variants of the genre” (Androutsopoulos, 2003). Whereas, in the U.S. copyright laws are trying to do away with this part of Hip Hop, but that’s another topic for another blog post….

In Europe “gangsta rap” hasn’t really caught because the rappers there don’t identify with that lifestyle as being authentic to their experience. However, data does show that rap with a message or protest content is still continuing. On the other hand, these types of songs are decreasing while songs about love and sex are increasing.  (Androutsopoulos, 2003).

Dynamax, U.S. Ambassador of Hip Hop & Cultural Specialist

Asia

South Korea is a strong cultural force in Asia. In South Korea K Pop was popular but declined due to file sharing, over-saturation, and other reasons. In its decline K Rock thrives as the most popular. However, Hip Hop is on the rise as one member of the pop group Seo Taiji and the Boys, Yang Hyun Suk, was more interested in Hip Hop. After the group’s breakup he formed his own level YangGoon Entertainment. In 2000 Wu-Tang Clan album (again with Wu-Tang ruling the world J) broke South Korea’s top-30 charts, having had little promotion. It is clear that as far as fashion Hip Hop rules the style of the Korean youth showing that Hip Hop is indeed more than just a music genre but a culture being spread all over the world. Hip Hop dance is becoming popular as well (Russell, 2003). 

2NE1

Pioneers of Hip Hop in U.S. Share with the World

The pioneers and new generations of Hip Hop in the U.S have been doing their part to spread the music and culture, performing overseas and establishing relationships with overseas music stakeholders. For example, Dynamax is an American Hip Hop artist from the Bronx who is also part of Afrika Bambaataa's (one of the founders of Hip Hop) Zulu Nation. Dynamax serves as US Embassy’s Hip Hop Ambassador and Cultural Specialist in 12 African Nations. Dynamax was signed to Universal France and has helped pioneer Hip Hop culture in Europe working with producers and artists such as Dee Nasty known to be "the godfather of the French Hip Hop scene in France"(Djouls, n.d). He started a radio station in Paris called Générations 88.2 - the first international radio show -“Live From New York”. Dynamax has been living in France teaching the basics of Hip Hop to elementary school students, creating a whole new generation of Hip Hop fans overseas. (Djouls, n.d).

References

Androutsopoulos, J., & Scholz, A. (2003). Spaghetti Funk: Appropriations of Hip-Hop Culture and Rap Music in Europe. Popular Music & Society, 26(4), 463-479.

Clark, M. (2013). The Struggle for Hip Hop Authenticity and Against Commercialization in Tanzania. Journal Of Pan African Studies, 

6(3), 5-21.

Russell, M. (2003). K-Rock, Hip-Hop Making Noise In South Korea. Billboard, 115(6), APQ-1.

Djouls. Dynamax - Equilibrium - Paris DJs. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.parisdjs.com/index.php/post/Dynamax-Equilibrium