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The Textuality of Contemporary Hiplife Lyrics

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The Textuality of Contemporary Hiplife Lyrics THE TEXTUALITY OF CONTEMPORARY HIPLIFE LYRICS by PETER ARTHUR A thesis submitted to the University of Birmingham for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Centre of West African Studies School of History and Cultures University of Birmingham Edgbaston Birmingham, B15 2TT University of Birmingham Research Archive e-theses repository This unpublished thesis/dissertation is copyright of the author and/or third parties. The intellectual property rights of the author or third parties in respect of this work are as defined by The Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988 or as modified by any successor legislation. Any use made of information contained in this thesis/dissertation must be in accordance with that legislation and must be properly acknowledged. Further distribution or reproduction in any format is prohibited without the permission of the copyright holder. ABSTRACT This research looks at the textuality of hiplife - the Ghanaian version of hip hop - by investigating the hiplife discursive and non discursive practices. The thesis of this research is that hiplife provides the platform for self expression or a new culture for the Ghanaian youth. This ethnography of hiplife covers two main areas of investigation: hiplife as a syncretic and a protest culture. Chapter one presents the background and research design of the study while chapter two provides a broad scholarly exploration of hiplife, taking into account the history and culture of hiplife against the background of African hip hop literature. Chapter three explores the cultural production of hiplife while chapter four investigates the very core of hiplife rap, its oral rhythmic production. In chapter five, the hiplife culture, like all hip hop cultures, seeks to redefine the Ghanaian normative moral grounds. This redefinition normally presents the oppressed protest against the dominant: two artistes of the same moral ground protest against each other’s moral weakness in “dissing”. There is no higher moral ground. Chapter six, an extension of chapter five, presents an in-depth treatment of hiplife as a transgressive culture. This transgressive culture serves as the fodder for hiplife business in chapter seven. Chapter eight continues the study of hiplife as a protest culture, projecting the female rapper, within the context of the Ghanaian feminist debate, as a new breed of Ghanaian woman fighting the Ghanaian masculine hegemony. In investigating a culture like that of hiplife, I choose a qualitative methodology that meets the subtle demands of an enquiry on expressive culture. Using focus group discussions, interviews and participant observation to collect data from the whole country with emphasis on the four main cities in Ghana, this research analyses transcribed data and comes up with new findings about the social and economic realities of the hiplife culture, which can be seen as a metaphor of the contemporary Ghanaian social order. The generality of the old population in Ghana however consider its discursive and non discursive practices as imitation of a perceived Western moral degeneration and thus antithetical to the Ghanaian mainstream cultural decorum and propriety. This study, however, reveals that, contrary to this popular perception, hiplife has a strong traditional input that is re-invented in modernity and that what gives it its entrepreneurial appeal is located in its cultural shareability, both traditional and modern. Youth culture as seen in hiplife textuality, therefore, is not apocalyptic: it is only an attempt to leave the institutional pathways and develop new ones. The intended outcome of this research, therefore, is to promote the theory of performance in popular culture in literary studies in the Ghanaian universities, a study that has already started in the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Ghana, but with little success. The knowledge gained from this research can also add to a corpus of teaching materials to train young Ghanaian musicians for economic purposes. Again, information from this research is to help Ghanaian readers, and other readers for that matter, understand the realities of the hiplife culture within the context of globalization. DEDICATION Dedicated to Margaret Arthur, Nana Adwoa Arthur, Fiifi Arthur and Nana Yaw Arthur ACKNOWLEDGMENTS In the completion of this doctoral thesis, I am indebted to so many people. I first wish to acknowledge the support of the Holy Spirit and Mother Mary. I am also very happy to express my deep sense of gratitude to Prof. Karin Barber, my supervisor, whose guidance and care has not only made this thesis possible but has also given me the academic nourishment that has placed me among a group of intellectuals on Ghanaian modern youth culture. She has been a real mother to me. The contribution of Dr. Kate Skinner, my secondary supervisor, and all the staff of the Centre of West African Studies (CWAS), also deserves a special mention here. I am also indebted to Prof. Steven Okleme for his encouragement and to Dr. Frances Dadson, the former Head of the English Department, KNUST. I also owe a debt of gratitude to members of staff of the department of English for their moral support. My sincere gratitude also goes to Dr. Wilhelmina Donkor for her rich suggestions. I also wish to express my appreciation to the International Students Advisory Service of the University of Birmingham for helping me acquire my first visa to the UK to start my PhD. In the same vein, I am very grateful to the office of the British Canadian International Education (BCIE). It helped me acquire subsequent visas to the UK. It is also with a very grateful heart that I mention my sponsor, Mr. Tony Quaisie, the director of Top Cons Interior Decorations. His personal initiative has got me this far. Special thanks also go to my family, especially my wife, Mrs. Margaret Arthur, for standing solidly behind me in those difficult days. Various institutions and persons helped to make my fieldwork a successful exercise. The Tamale MUSIGA office, formerly headed by Mr. Dela, comes in here for a special mention. Black Moon and Black Shanti, the duo of the Abada group, enthusiastically offered to be my personal assistants in Tamale and apart from serving as interpreters in the Dagbani language, they provided a deeper insight into hiplife within the context of the Dagbani culture. I will never forget the contribution of Okyeame Kwame to this project. He worked with unparallelled commitment as my personal assistant in both Kumasi and Accra and made the network of and accessibility to the artists easier for me. I also owe a debt of gratitude to K. D., the recording engineer at the New Image Recording Studio, Takoradi. He linked me to the artistes, producers and the DJs in Takoradi. This research could not have been possible without meeting the right artistes, producers and DJs. Some of them were simply outstanding in their contribution. I here mention Reggie Rockstone, Joe Frazer, Kawastone, Aberewa Nana, Andy Dosty and Kaboom. The others are K. K. Kabobo, T. A. Scizo, the Bradez, Kobbie Wailor, Wofjay, Loving C, Richard Agyeman Berko and Abraham Ohene Gyan of OM Studios, Zapp Marlet and all the participants who represented the hiplife audience, both hiplife in-group and out-group, in my fieldwork. ABSTRACT DEDICATION ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS CHAPTER ONE ........................................................................................................................ 1 BACKGROUND AND RESEARCH DESIGN OF THE STUDY ........................................... 1 1.0. Introduction ..................................................................................................................... 1 1.1. Background of the study ................................................................................................. 2 1.2. The definition of hiplife .................................................................................................. 3 1.3 The study of hiplife .......................................................................................................... 7 1.4 Research design: Introduction.......................................................................................... 8 1.4.1 The Scope of Study ....................................................................................................... 8 1.4.2. Methodology ................................................................................................................ 9 1.4.3. Research Questions .................................................................................................... 10 1.4.4. Assumptions ............................................................................................................... 11 1.4.5 Biases .......................................................................................................................... 12 1.4.6 The researcher ............................................................................................................. 13 1.4.7 The Participants, informants and how they were reached .......................................... 14 1.4.8 Sites ............................................................................................................................. 15 1.4.9 Interviews .................................................................................................................... 16 1.4.10 Focus group ............................................................................................................... 16 1.4.11 Unstructured interviews
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