Hip Hop As A Cultural Performance Analysis

589 Words2 Pages

Hip-Hop as a Cultural Symbol and Performance 1. The success of hip-hop conveys a simple truth that African Americans strive to gain popularity and economic incentives throughout the world. It may be invisible in the film how economic pursuit and global acceptance emerge; however, Homegrown: Hip Life in Ghana clearly exhibits the intercontinental charm of hip-hop. It may also be obvious that African Americans need to uplift their cultural identity and reputation, but they possess the desire to make hip-hop their own cultural heritage. In the article by P. Khalil Saucier, he mentioned that the Africans mimicked the styles of the North Americans and that hip-hop occurred in various regions of the world (xix).However, in Africa, it became evolving on its own. For example, the rap group Vision in Progress (VIP) actually …show more content…

Partly, VIP rappers primarily assumed the hip-hop performance, but in the long run, they endeavored to promote hip-hop music in the international stage to claim their cultural identity or reputation. Even if some people noted that the African Americans mimicked the North American rappers through their styles and beats, the African Americans gave birth to hip life in Africa as it propelled first various performances in Capetown, Dakar, Lagos, and Accra (Saucier xiv). It meant that hip-hop dominated in Africa due to various influences, mainly Tupac Shakur, and that it became a cultural symbol in African lifestyle. It may be too difficult to separate cultural symbol and heritage from cultural and artistic performance of hip-hop, but it is easy to conclude that hip-hop makes the African identity. Hence, African-Americans unveil hip-hop to elevate their

Open Document