Popular Culture and Decolonisation: Themes, Tropes and Trajectories in Nigerian Hip Hop

Abstract

ABSTRACT Contemporarily, the drive for decolonisation following the virulence of the colonial experience on postcolonial societies has gained currency. This has been in the face of pervasive, hegemonic Global North structures that have de-centred non-Western epistemologies. This article engages Nigerian hip hop as a cultural product that has consciously or unconsciously been wielded as a tool for the contestation of (post)colonial subjugation and authorities. I ask if Nigerian hip hop artistes can be remarked as decolonisation activists. To what extent do their creative energies contribute to the discourses on decolonisation? To provide answers, the study interrogates the diverse ways through which Nigerian hip hop has successfully navigated its dispersal and resultant commercialisation, subliminally aiding the decolonisation advocacies. The study employs an eclectic mix of representative data, ranging from music lyrics, videos, existing interviews of hip hop artists and aficionados and news reports. More specifically, lyrics from twelve tracks and four music videos are discussed, while observations are asserted or rebutted with statements from interviews and news reports. Decolonisation through lyrics and visuality, and ramifications of spatial decolonisation were identified. The study further asserts that despite the manifestations of decolonisation in Nigerian hip hop, relics of colonial tropes manifest for instance in the need for validation and external acceptance through international awards. Critical takeaways are that cultural productions are not immune to the suffusing influences of politics. In addition, decolonisation should not imply the erasure of hitherto existing hegemonies; rather, cultural ecologies become enriched when previously suppressed products and epistemologies are enabled to thrive.