The power of hip hop: More than just guns and girls

When you hear the words “hip hop”, you may think about girls, guns and the other usual stereotypes that haunt the genre. Your mind is much less likely to wander to the dusty tomes of academia. Yet if the Power of Hip Hop proved anything, it’s that through a unique mix of academic presentations and live performances, hip hop’s capacity for facilitating social change across the world is undeniable.

The two-day event, co-organised by Index on Censorship and In Place of War, began with a day of academic presentations that proved hip hop is as worthy an avenue of study as any other musical genre. A new paper by Veronica Mason, a lecturer at London Metropolitan University who spoke at the event, will be the first inter-generational study of hip hop in academia, and having a platform to share that with other hip-hop academics is invaluable.

Then came a day of performances from the likes of Zambezi News, two satirists and hip hop artists from Zimbabwe who had the whole venue laughing over their impression of Mugabe, and Shhorai, a Colombian MC and microbiology researcher. Shhorai rhapsodised about being in the UK, telling Index how willing Londoners are “to give you a hand, to smile, to help you”. In fact, this solidarity that In Place of War has helped to cultivate over the past decade seems to have generated a real sense of female solidarity in Shorrai: “We need to support each other because it’s the only way that we’re going to move forward.”

When asked what the Colombian touch in hip hop was, her answer was immediate: “The best exponents of Colombian hip hop are great freestylers. But there are very few women because the battles are sexist. The guys just say ‘it’s a gathering of witches, nothing more.’”

But no one had anything negative to say in RichMix when she performed along with Poetic Pilgrimage, a frank, Muslim female duo. In fact, the audience went on to happily digest what was an appropriately heavy second day of the event when figures like Afrikan Boy and Rodney P freestyled about the recent shootings in the US. Having talked about how “music is my visa”, the gang-ridden streets of Afrikan Boy’s youth seemed closer than ever as he talked about seeing Alton Sterling’s bereaved son break down at the press conference. “I had to just sit down and cry those tears. It struck me as a father. I thought – my life’s going to get taken away for that?”

“No justice, no peace, persecute the police,” was the thoughtful, provocative refrain of his rap that held the audience in the palm of his hand.

A genre that began with a party Bronx in the 1970s has, without a doubt, gone on to transform lives across the world. Whether you grew up in Colombia or London, Zimbabwe or Bristol, it is a genre that enriches the impoverished, educates the deprived and represents the unrepresented. After such an empowering weekend, all that’s left to wish for is that their voices will be heard.

More from the Power of Hip Hop:
– Poetic Pilgrimage: Hip hop has the capacity to “galvanise the masses”
– Colombian rapper Shhorai: “Can you imagine a society in which women have no voice?”
– Zambezi News: Satire leaves “a lot of ruffled feathers in its wake”
– Jason Nichols: Debunking “old tropes” through hip hop


Zambezi News: Satire leaves “a lot of ruffled feathers in its wake”

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One of the great difficulties with satire is that often those who actually get it are those who are already on board with the message. This has been the case for Zambezi News, Zimbabwe’s leading satirical show.

Co-founder Samm Farai Monro, aka Comrade Fatso, says: “An old member of parliament may not understand our show or some of the content will go over their head, but this isn’t our target audience; our aim is reaching young Zimbabweans.”

Zambezi News parodies the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation, “the state-controlled propaganda mouthpiece”, for its uncritical approach to Robert Mugabe’s government. Unsurprisingly, you won’t find the show on Zimbabwean television, and the cast is frequently harassed by state officials.

The show shot its first season in 2011 and self-promoted through independent radio and activists groups. “When we first started the show, we printed thousands of DVDs and distributed them ourselves across the country,” he says. “But now with the advent of social media and people’s access to the internet through mobile phones, we can distribute through Facebook and WhatsApp to get the message out there.”

The snubs by the state clearly haven’t hurt Zambezi News. The show has been viewed by six million Zimbabweans, and the cast have performed in Sweden, South Africa, Swaziland, the USA and with Index on Censorship in London.

Still, given the treatment of critics and dissidents in Zimbabwe, there is no doubt that Monro and his comedy troupe are risking their freedom and even their lives to make some of the hardest hitting satire in Africa. In 2010, artist Owen Maseko exhibited paintings critical of Mugabe, depicting government-led massacres in the country in the 1980s. As it’s against the law to insult the president’s authority, Maseko was arrested, interrogated and faced a possible 20-year prison sentence.

Other critics, such as activist Itai Dzamara, who had told the country’s 92-year-old dictator that he was too old to run the country and was causing Zimbabwe’s economic woes, have been disappeared. Dzamara was abducted in March 2015 never heard from again.

For Zambezi News co-founder Tongai Makawa, aka Outspoken, the danger satirists specifically find themselves in around the world “is a testament to the power of the medium”.

“Satire affords ordinary people an opportunity to connect with a message or conversation in lighter terms outside of the regular intellectual jargon that you find these politicians spouting on a daily basis,” he says. “It allows that engagement to keep flowing without people disconnecting or just feeling depressed or hopeless.”

Satire also has a knack of being able to bend its targets out of shape. “There is a group of government supporters who are really disgruntled by what we do,” says Makawa. “With satire, there has to be a degree to which people agree with you, while at the same time leaving a lot of ruffled feathers in its wake.”

Makawa and Monro have certainly ruffled many feathers, in whatever medium they are working in. Both have backgrounds in spoken word, hip hop and as activists. They run Magamba, “a cultural activist network”, which uses arts and culture in the struggle for social justice in Zimbabwe, and Shoko Festival, Zimbabwe’s “biggest festival of urban culture”.

“Shocko is about creating a space for free expression, debate and giving people a platform to talk about social and political issues, often using the vehicle of hip hop,” says Monro.

Long before his involvement with Zambezi News, Monro’s band Chabvondoka saw their debut album House of Hunger — which mixes hip hop with traditional African music such as Chimurenga to discuss political and social issues — banned from state-controlled radio and TV.

“We released the album two weeks before the presidential elections at the time, and it’s heavily critical of the government,” says Monro. “The symbolism behind the album was a book by Dambudzo Marechera, the great Zimbabwean writer, which talked about how Rhodesia was a house of hunger, but we’ve still got that situation in places.”

An estimated 1.5 million people – 16% of the population – were projected to be food insecure in 2015, a 164% on the previous year. And while the white colonial rulers of the past may be gone, the oppressors have “now been painted black and we still have the same structure of repression in places,” Monro adds.

The repression has also taken the form of an intensified campaign of artistic censorship by the government since the early 2000s, especially against defiant art.

“Hip hop, by its nature, has always been a defiant genre, something that speaks against the status quo and gives an alternative voice to a group of people who don’t have any other means of channelling their feelings,” says Makawa.

Although busy making with comedy — the pair have just toured a new show and have recently begun recording more Zambezi News— Makawa and Monro still have time for the music.

“I’ve grown to understand that we live like those superheroes who have to do admin work by day and their activism by night,” says Makawa. “I still write rhymes and think about concepts for music, so it really doesn’t ever die, it’s there gathering dust until that time when you need it.”

Monro has just completed his second album, which he has been working on for three years, due to be released later this year. He has kept his skills sharp by making hip hop “a big part of Zambezi News”.

“On the show we have these characters called the Even Mo Lil Swaggery Boys, who are like our alter-egos, a gangster rap crew, and on every season of Zambezi News we record a few hip hop tracks that take the piss out of different issues from elections to power shortages,” he says. “It’s just another way of using hip hop and satire to communicate the important political messaging and get dressed in very silly, over-bling outfits at the same time.”

Also read:
Poetic Pilgrimage: Hip hop has the capacity to “galvanise the masses”
– Colombian rapper Shhorai: “Can you imagine a society in which women have no voice?”
– Jason Nichols: Debunking “old tropes” through hip hop


8-9 July: The power of hip hop

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A conference followed by a day of performance to consider hip hop’s role in revolutionary social, political and economic movements across the world.

8-9 July: The power of hip hop

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Since its birth in the Bronx in the 1970s, hip hop has made its mark. Today, graffiti artists, MCs, breakdancers and DJs across the world are still using the medium to empower themselves, from women in Columbia and political movements in Burkina Faso, to aiding the fight for free speech in Zimbabwe and challenging religious stereotypes in the UK.

Index on Censorship has teamed up with In Place of War to create two unique full-day events that provide an opportunity to listen to, learn from and collaborate with 14 world-changing hip hop artists from eight different countries.

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The Power of Hip Hop: Exchange / 8 July

A multi-disciplinary full-day academic conference that considers hip-hop’s role in revolutionary social, political and economic movements across the world.

The Power of Hip Hop: Exchange will explore the role, challenges and potential of hip-hop culture in facilitating positive social change in global contexts, and its role as a site of resistance and identity.

The day features academic panels, keynote papers, artist performances and practitioner presentations. This event harnesses In Place of War’s vast international network of grassroots artists and University of Manchester origins, to explore issues including hip hop and gender, race, religion, commerce, and conflict.

When: 8 July 2016, 10.00 – 18.30 (registration 9.30)
Where: Richmix, London (map)
Tickets: £45/£36 concessions – lunch, refreshments and delegate packs included (buy online)
Promo Code: “hiphop15” (£15 ticket). Can be redeemed online at checkout, over the phone or at the box office.

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The Power of Hip Hop: Live / 9 July

A day of TED-style talks and live performance. Join 14 of hip hop’s most revolutionary artists from across the world for a mix of music, dance, rap, DJing, VJing, exhibitions and satire.

From local grassroots initiatives to multi-national citizen movements, you’ll hear stories of how hip hop is changing the world first-hand. You’ll encounter the artists performing live. And you’ll have chances to meet the speakers throughout the day, before a DJ set and drinks to end it.

Featuring Index on Censorship’s inaugural Music in Exile fellow Smockey (Burkina Faso), Rodney P (UK), Zambezi News (Zimbabwe), Wade Waters (USA), Poetic Pilgrimage (UK), SYMBIZ (Germany), Shhorai (Colombia), Afrikan Boy (UK/Nigeria) and more.

When: 9 July 2016, 12.00 – 19.30 (doors 11.30)
Where: Richmix, London (map)
Tickets: £20/£15 concessions (buy online)
Promo Code: “hiphop10” (£10 ticket). Can be redeemed online at checkout, over the phone or at the box office.

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27 Aug: The Revolution Will Be Televised & Zambezi News

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The Bafta-winning duo Heydon Prowse and Jolyon Rubinstein, of BBC Three’s comedy series The Revolution Will Be Televised are joining their award-winning Zimbabwean counterparts Zambezi News for a very special one-off show at The Comedy Café Theatre, London.

Featuring Zambezi News Live – a 30 minute satirical sketch performance from Comrade Fatso, Outspoken and Michael K that hilariously tackles issues from race to sex, politics to sport and hip-hop to land reform. The story of Zambezi News, the comedians poking fun at power in Zimbabwe, was covered in the latest issue of Index on Censorship magazine.

The Zimbabweans will then be joined onstage by Heydon and Jolyon to share stories, swap jokes and explore experiences of censorship and free speech on both sides of the Sahara.

When: Thursday 27th August, 8.00pm
Where: The Comedy Cafe, 68 Rivington St, Shoreditch, London, SE2 (Map/directions)
Tickets: Sold out

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Presented in partnership with The Comedy Cafe Theatre

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Stand Up For Satire in Support of Index on CensorshipIndex on Censorship has been publishing articles on satire by writers across the globe throughout its 43-year history. Ahead of our event, Stand Up for Satire, we published a series of archival posts from the magazine on satire and its connection with freedom of expression.

14 July: The power of satirical comedy in Zimbabwe by Samm Farai Monro | 17 July: How to Win Friends and Influence an Election by Rowan Atkinson | 21 July: Comfort Zones by Scott Capurro | 24 July: They shoot comedians by Jamie Garzon | 28 July: Comedy is everywhere by Milan Kundera | Student reading lists: Comedy and censorship