Triangular relationships between commerce, politics and hip-hop : a study of the role of hip-hop in influencing the socio-economic and political landscape in contemporary society

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dc.contributor.authorSithole, Sipho
dc.date.accessioned2018-06-11T10:29:51Z
dc.date.available2018-06-11T10:29:51Z
dc.date.issued2017
dc.descriptionA PhD Thesis to the Anthropology Department, Faculty of Humanities: University of the Witwatersrand.en_ZA
dc.description.abstractThis study will argue that; (i) that the evolution of hip-hop arises out of the need by young people to give expression and meaning to their day-to-day socio-political and economic struggles and the harsh realities of urban life, and (ii) that hip-hop has become the audible and dominant voice of reason and a platform that allows youth to address their plight, as active citizens, and (iii) that, as a music expression, the hip-hop narrative can be used as an unsolicited yet resourceful civic perception survey to gauge the temperature and the mood of society at a point in time. My research question is premised on the argument that the youth looks at society and their immediate surroundings through the lens of rap music and the hip-hop culture. It presupposes that it is this hip-hop lens that has become the projector through which the youth views and analyses society and then invites the world to peep through, to confirm and be witnesses to what they see. It is not the purpose of this research to argue how much influence hip-hop has on young people, but instead to look at how youth is using hip-hop to express their discontent and what the various sites are where their relentless desire for a better life is being crafted and articulated. In my investigation, I have argued that it is at these social sites that open or discreet creative expressions are produced/created by the hip-hop generation as the subordinate group and directed to those perceived to be the gatekeepers to their aspirations and their rites of passage. In my investigation I have explored how, out of indignation and desire, the hip-hop generation has employed creative ways to highlight and vent their frustration at a system that seems to derail their aspirations. This is the story of hip-hop where Watkins (2005) argues that the youth have crafted "a vision of their world that is insightful, optimistic and tenaciously critical of the institutions and circumstances that restrict their ability to impact on the world around them" (p. 81) With regard to hip-hop in South Africa critical questions and a central thesis to this paper begin to emerge as to whether hip-hop, as an artistic expression and a seemingly dominant youth culture, has found long-hidden voices through which young people now engage with this art form to address and reflect on their socio-economic and political conditions as active citizens in search of a meaningful social contract. By investigating the triangular relationship between commerce, politics and hip-hop, this study looks at how creative, adaptive people with unrealised potential, who find themselves trapped by illusion and exploitation (realistic or perceived), always try to find a meaning to make sense of their worlds.en_ZA
dc.description.librarianAC2018en_ZA
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/10539/24636
dc.language.isoenen_ZA
dc.subjectYouth -- Political activity -- South Africa.en_ZA
dc.subjectSocial movements -- South Africa.en_ZA
dc.subjectHip-hop.en_ZA
dc.subjectYouth -- South Africa -- Social conditions -- 21st century.en_ZA
dc.subjectYouth -- South Africa -- Social life and customs -- 21st century.en_ZA
dc.titleTriangular relationships between commerce, politics and hip-hop : a study of the role of hip-hop in influencing the socio-economic and political landscape in contemporary societyen_ZA
dc.typeThesisen_ZA
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