The problem with mainstream hip hop

What does AKA adds to the conversation about rap music in South Africa?

AKA (Photo: Tseliso Monaheng).

When I told a friend I had just attended an album listening session by the rapper AKA, he asked: “What do you like about the guy?” He then answered his own question:  “I don’t know, I don’t get the guy; and maybe I never will.”  It felt like my friend should have added: “Is there anything of artistic value that he adds to the conversation on rap music in South Africa?” We continued driving, flouting conventional wisdom and indulging our pearls of rap wisdom. AKA stuck to the back of my mind; his significance, if any; his relevance, if any; his music – the musicality thereof, if any.

What, for instance, do I learn from listening to “Kontrol,” AKA’s chart-topping, South African house music-sampling duet with rapper Da L.E.S? Frankly, lines like ” … sip champagne/ when you order you should parlez vous Francais/ then we should take this back to my place, so whatchu say,” does not inspire much faith in his ability to pen anything different from what everyone else (read: radio-friendly rappers) is talking about. AKA does not, in short, engage me intellectually – and there lies the problem with mainstream artists.

We the music-consuming public get to interact with versions of themselves they [the artists] want exposed. Their perfectly-curated sense of self therefore cracks under public scrutiny; in searching for more substance to cling onto, we are left wanting, which then leads to accusations of overblown egos and lack of originality. The music becomes less and less a point of focus while the personality comes under intense scrutiny.

One might argue that social networks have eased barriers of entry in the fan-artist nexus. It’s become easy to pop a question to just about any public figure who’s active on either twitter or facebook and, in some instances, get a response. Moments after his listening session, I posed the question to AKA about how he handles the inevitable backlash from people who do not take kindly to his music. “I used to be that guy who thought I could fight everybody,” he said, and then added, “now, I just realise that silence is way more powerful than any response could ever be.”

AKA alludes to undergoing enormous growth in the two years since his debut album “Alter Ego,” but his periodic Twitter rants trump that claim. He recently got involved in a tweef (‘beef’ over twitter) with Cassper Nyovest, another South African emcee whose rise has been nothing short of magnificent to behold. Some quarters have interpreted this as a bad move from AKA, but he’s done it before (with L-Tido over at Facebook) and emerged a better artist.

AKA is a brilliant performer. He works the audience incredibly well regardless of whether he is solo, or performing with either Khuli Chana or Da LES (he appeared with both artists at two consecutive Cape Town International Jazz Festivals – with Khuli in 2013, and Da Les this year). He’s also a producer of note; his friend, the radio and television personality Sizwe Dlhomo, has spoken of how AKA would be holed up for hours in basement studios crafting music to what would become his debut EP 24/7/365. He did so with the production outfit IV League, a unit he’s no longer affiliated to.

With close to 265, 000 followers on twitter as of writing, AKA’s public life has become the focal point for social media-savvy South Africa. When questioned about his take on celebrity in one instance, he responded: “I’m just fucking good at what I do.”

Thinking back, the listening session I attended was an exercise in media engagement. AKA was jovial, affable. He performed for those gathered before him, alternating energetically between the stage and a coffee table to sing to his mother who was also in attendance. It was pop; it was spectacular; there was free food, an open bar, and a shattering level of product placement.

“These songs are a work in progress, you’re actually welcome to suggest changes,” he said invitingly.

As AKA readies for his album release, and with more number one singles (“Congratulate”, “Run Jozi”) to boost his (alter-) ego, the stakes have never been higher for any South African hip-hop artist. Will AKA live up to his potential greatness?

Further Reading

A power crisis

Andre De Ruyter, the former CEO of Eskom, has presented himself as a simple hero trying to save South Africa’s struggling power utility against corrupt forces. But this racially charged narrative is ultimately self-serving.

Cinematic universality

Fatou Cissé’s directorial debut meditates on the uncertain fate and importance of Malian cinema amidst the growing dismissiveness towards the humanities across the world.

The meanings of Heath Streak

Zimbabwean cricketing legend Heath Streak’s career mirrors many of the unresolved tensions of race and class in Zimbabwe. Yet few white Zimbabwean sporting figures are able to stir interest and conversation across the nation’s many divides.

Victorious

After winning Italy’s Serie A with Napoli, Victor Osimhen has cemented his claim to being Africa’s biggest footballing icon. But is the trend of individual stardom good for sports and politics?

Breaking the chains of indifference

The significance of ending the ongoing war in Sudan cannot be overstated, and represents more than just an end to violence. It provides a critical moment for the international community to follow the lead of the Sudanese people.

The magic man

Chris Blackwell’s long-awaited autobiography shows him as a romantic rogue; a risk taker whose life compass has been an open mind and gift to hear and see slightly into the future.

How to think about colonialism

Contemporary approaches to the legacy of colonialism tend to narrowly emphasize political agency as the solution to Africa’s problems. But agency is configured through historically particular relations of which we are not sole authors.

More than just a flag

South Africa’s apartheid flag has been declared hate speech by a top court. But while courts are important and their judgments matter, racism is a long and internationally entrenched social phenomenon that cannot be undone via judicial processes.

Resistance is a continuous endeavor

For more than 75 years, Palestinians have organized for a liberated future. Today, as resistance against Israeli apartheid intensifies, unity and revolutionary optimism has become the main infrastructure of struggle.

Paradise forgotten

While there is much to mourn about the passing of legendary American singer and actor Harry Belafonte, we should hold a place for his bold statement-album against apartheid South Africa.

The two Africas

In the latest controversies about race and ancient Egypt, both the warring ‘North Africans as white’ and ‘black Africans as Afrocentrists’ camps find refuge in the empty-yet-powerful discourse of precolonial excellence.