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Every Hood Has Its Own Style” Notes Introduction: “Every Hood Has Its Own Style” 1 . S a i d i y a H a r t m a n , Lose Your Mother: Journey along the Atlantic Slave Route (New York: Ferrar, Straus and Giroux, 2007), 6. 2 . I b i d . , 7 . 3 . Jesse Weaver Shipley, “Aesthetic of the Entrepreneur: Afro-Cosmopolitan Rap and Moral Circulation in Accra, Ghana,” Anthropological Quarterly 82, no. 3, Summer (2009): 643–644. 4 . I b i d . , 6 6 1 . 5 . I would like to thank the Fulbirght Scholars Program, particularly the Council for International Exchange of Scholars for executing my 2008 Fulbright grant in Ghana that yielded this research. I also would like to thank the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs of the US Department of State as the governmental arm that allocates the funding for these important international educational exchange grants. 6 . S. Craig Watkins opens his Representing: Hip Hop Culture and the Production of Black Cinema (Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1998), ix. 7. Bruce Ziff and Pratima V. Rao, eds., Borrowed Power: Essays on Cultural Appropriation (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1997), 1. 8 . I b i d . , 5 . 9 . Ghana still has several important active gold mines even after centuries of the former Gold Coast that was plundered of this much sought-after natural resource. 10 . Dr. Nkrumah also earned a theology degree from Lincoln Theological Seminary in 1942, and received MA degrees in education and philosophy from the University of Pennsylvania in 1942 and 1943. 11 . Shipley, “Aesthetic of the Entrepreneur,” 645. 12 . Kwame Anthony Appiah, In My Father’s House: Africa in the Philosophy of Culture (New York: Oxford University Press, 1992), 175. 1 3 . K e v i n K . G a i n e s , American Africans in Ghana: Black Expatriates and the Civil Rights Era (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2006), 5. 14 . A couple of texts on Ghana’s history would provide the curious a detailed historical record. For an examination of precolonial times through the 184 Notes 1980s Rawlings military rule see F. K. Buah, A History of Ghana, Revised and Updated (Oxford: Macmillan Education, 1998). A more recent histori- cal account from independence to the Kufuor presidency is J. G. Amamoo, Ghana: 20 Years of Independence (Accra: Jafint. Ent., 2007). 15. Ishmael Mensah, “Marketing Ghana as a Mecca for the African-American Tourist,” June 10, 2004, http://www.modernghana.com/news/114445/1 /marketing-ghana-as-a-mecca-for-the-africanamerica.html. 16 . Michael Scherer, “Obama’s Statement at Cape Coast Castle,” Time.com , July 11, 2009. http://swampland.blogs.time.com/2009/07/11/obamas- statement-at-cape-coast-castle/. 17 . Blitz the Ambassador (Samuel Bazawula), Telephone Interview, September 24, 2009. 18 . Ta-Nehisi Paul Coates, “Ghana’s New Money,” Time.com, August 21, 2006. http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1229122,00.html. 19 . Interestingly enough, the style of “sakura” shaven heads is not that foreign to Ghanaians, as the Ashanti, one of the main ethnic groups, tradition- ally have shaven heads among the men, and very closely cut hair for the women. The shaven heads among the sakura boys of Accra, however, did not fit the traditional cultural usage, and therefore they were criticized. “Flippin’ the script” becomes relative. 20 . Shipley, “Aesthetic of the Entrepreneur,” 646. 21 . John Collins, Personal Interview, University of Ghana, Legon, September 23, 2008. 22 . Shipley, “Aesthetic of the Entrepreneur,” 646. 2 3 . I b i d . 24 . Terry Bright Ofosu, “Dance Contests in Ghana” (MA Thesis, School of Performing Arts, University of Ghana, Legon, June 1993), 23. 2 5 . I b i d . , 2 7 . 26 . Ofosu says in his thesis, “In the early 80s a group of promoters came together to organize ‘Ceazer 83/84’ a ‘Breakdance’ contest at Black Ceazers Palace [in the Osu district of Accra]. This contest was won by Reginald Ossei [Reggie Rockstone] . ” (25). Rockstone was originally a part of a breakdance collectively known as “the Gravity Rockers.” 27 . Reggie Rockstone, Personal Interview, Accra, Ghana, November 23, 2008. 2 8 . I b i d . 2 9 . I b i d . 30 . Reggie Rockstone, Personal Interview, Accra, Ghana, September 29, 2010. 31 . Diamond mining in Akwatia continues until today. For a recent study of the diamond mining industry there see Kaakpema Yelpaala, “Mining, Sustainable Development, and Health in Ghana: The Akwatia Case-Study,” 2003.http://www.watsoninstitute.org/ge/watson_scholars/Mining.pdf. 3 2 . R e g g i e R o c k s t o n e , P e r s o n a l I n t e r v i e w , A c c r a , G h a n a , S e p t e m b e r 2 9 , 2010. 3 3 . I b i d . Notes 185 34 . Reggie Rockstone, Personal Interview, Accra, Ghana, November 23, 2008. 3 5 . I b i d . 36 . Re g g i e R o c k s t o n e , P e r s o n a l I n t e r v i e w , A c c r a , G h a n a , S e p t e m b e r 2 9 , 2010. 37 . Abraham Ohene Djan, Personal Interview, OM Studios, Accra, Ghana, September 24, 2010. 38 . Lord Kenya recorded in Ayana Vellisia Jackson, “Full Circle: A Survey of Hip Hop in Ghana.” Accessed October 14, 2010. http://www.avjphotog- raphy.com/AVJ_hiplifeessay.htm. 3 9 . T o n y M i t c h e l l , Global Noise: Rap and Hip-Hop Outside the USA (Middletown, CN: Wesleyan University Press, 2001), 1–2. 40 . In October 2008 at the 8th Annual Waga Hip Hop Festival in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso King Ayisoba was the only Ghanaian fea- tured in this regional Francophone hip-hop festival. He performed in this costume and represented a bridge between the contemporary hip-hop style and an ancient African persona. He is at the far end of the roots indigeniz- ing process going on in hiplife. 1 “Making An African Out of the Computer”: Globalization and Indigenization in Hiplife 1 . Catherine M. Cole, Ghana’s Concert Party Theatre (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2001), 20. 2 . Ibid., 21. 3 . M i c h a e l W a n g u h u , Hip-Hop Colony (Chatsworth, CA: Emerge Media Group, LLC., 2007), DVD documentary. 4 . C o l e , Ghana’s Concert Party Theatre , 21. 5 . Ronald Robertson, “Glocalization: Time-Space and Homogeneity- Heterogeneity,” in Mike Featherstone, Scott Lash, and Roland Robertson, eds., Global Modernities (London: Sage Publication, 1995). See also my exploration of the “glocal” in relation to hip-hop in The Africanist Aesthetic in Global Hip-Hop (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2007), 64–66. Also, for an explanation of Pierre Bourdieu’s concept of habitus in relation to hip-hop, see 55–57. 6 . P i e r r e B o u r d i e u , Outline of a Theory of Practice, trans. Richard Nice (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1977), 86. 7 . Alastair Pennycook and Tony Mitchell, “Hip Hop as Dusty Foot Philosophy,” in H. Samy Alim, Awad Ibrahim, and Alastair Pennycook, eds., Global Linguistic Flows: Hip Hop Cultures, Youth Identities, and the Politics of Language (New York: Routledge, 2009), 28. 8 . Zine Magubane, “Globalization and Gangster Rap: Hip Hop in the Post- Apartheid City,” in Dipannita Basu and Sidney J. Lemelle, eds., The Vinyl Ain’t Final: Hip Hop and the Globalization of Black Popular Culture (London: Pluto Press, 2006), 210. 9 . I b i d . 186 Notes 10 . Daara J quoted in Pennycook and Mitchell, “Hip Hop as Dusty Foot Philosophy,” 32. See also similar sentiments critiquing American mate- rialism and violence by Tanzanian hip-hop youth in Sidney J. Lemelle, “‘Ni Wapi Tunakwenda’: Hip Hop Culture and the Children of Arusha,” in Dipannita Basu and Sidney J. Lemmelle, eds., The Vinyl Ain’t Final: Hip Hop and the Globalization of Black Popular Culture (London: Pluto Press, 2006), 230–254. 11 . Pennycook and Mitchell, “Hip Hop as Dusty Foot Philosophy,” 32. 12 . See a specific example of rap-like practices among the Ekiti Yoruba in Halifu Osumare, The Africanist Aesthetics in Global Hip-Hop: Power Moves (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2007), 33–35. 13 . Daara J Interview, March 3, 2005, quoted in Pennycook and Mitchell, “Hip Hop as Dusty Foot Philosophy,” 32. 14 . Tope Omoniyi, “So I Choose to Do Am Naija Style,” in Alim, Ibrahim, and Pennycook, eds., Global Linguistic Flows , 176–1777. 15 . Pennycook and Mitchell, “Hip Hop as Dusty Foot Philosophy,” 25. 1 6 . O s u m a r e , The Africanist Aesthetic in Global Hip-Hop, see for example Chapter 1, “Phat Beats, Dope Rhymes, and Def Moves,” 33–35, where I explore the Ekiti Yoruba’s alamo rhythmic speech and its relation to the rap aesthetic. 1 7 . O s u m a r e , The Africanist Aesthetic in Global Hip-Hop , 70. In addition, Ghanaians in general identify with African Americans’ antiracist strug- gles. Although race manifests differently throughout most of Africa and unequal power among ethnicities plays a much larger role in their lives, European dominances culturally and economically pushes the racial dimension on the continent. 18 . For a good exploration of “authenticity in relation to race and culture” see R. A. T. Judy, “On the Question of Nigga Authenticity,” 105–118; and Robin D. G. Kelley, “Looking for the ‘Real’ Nigga: Social Scientists Construct the Ghetto,” 119–136, both in Murray Forman and Mark Anthony Neal, eds., That’s the Joint! The Hip-Hop Studies Reader (New York: Routledge, 2004).
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