Keeping it real: amaXhosa iimbongi making mimesis do its thing in the hip-hop and rap music of the Eastern Cape
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.21504/amj.v8i4.1865Abstract
Hip-hop and rap music are present in many cities in the Eastern Cape but this article is restricted to an analysis of the rap music and hip-hop scene in Port Elizabeth and Grahamstown.3 Although the intention of this article is musicological, it is necessary to look at rap music in its contexts, that is, the hip-hop movement locally and globally, and as but one aspect in relation to the other performance and ideological aspects of the hip-hop movement.4 For this reason I attempt to integrate the discursive attributes of the movement into a narrative where the aesthetics of hip-hop performance in the Eastern Cape and South Africa, and by extension, other parts of the globe, is the main concern.References
Bakker, Egbert J. 1999 "Mimesis as performance: Rereading Auerbachs first chapter", Poetics Today, 2o(i):ii-26.
Benjamin, Walter 1970 "On the mimetic faculty", In Hanna Arendt (ed.) Illuminations, New York: Schocken Books, pp. 333-336.
Campbell, Kermit Ernest 2005 Getting our groove on: Rhetoric, language, and literacy for the hip-hop generation, Detroit and Michigan: Wayne State University Press.
Carmody, Pâdraig 2002 "Between globalization and (post) apartheid: The political economy of restructuring in South Africa", Journal of Southern African Studies, 28(i):255-275.
De Klerk, Vivian 2003 "Towards a norm in South African Englishes: The case for Xhosa English", World Englishes, 22(4):463-48i.
2006 "Codeswitching, borrowing and mixing in a corpus of Xhosa English", International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, 9(5):597- 614.
Emerson, Rana A. 2002 "Where my girls at?: Negotiating black womanhood in music videos", Gender and Society, i6(i):ii5-i35.
Furniss, Graham and Liz Gunners 1995 "Introduction: power, marginality and oral literature", in Graham Furniss and Liz Gunners (eds) Power, Marginality and African Oral Literature, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 1-19.
Goodwin, Andrew 2005 "Rationalization and democratization in the new technologies of popular music: Popular music and communication", in Simon Frith (ed.) Popular music: Critical concepts in media and Cultural Studies, Abingond, Oxon: Routledge, pp. 147-168.
Herbert, Robert K. 1990 "The sociohistory of clicks in southern Bantu", Anthropological Linguistics 32(3/4):295-3i5-
Jorritsma, Marie R. 2008 "The hidden transcripts of sacred song in a South African coloured community", African Music, 8(2)^6-75.
2008 "Mothers of the church: the music of coloured women's societies and South African gender issues", South African Music Studies (SAMUS), 28:73-93-
Kaschula, Russell H. 2002 The bones of the ancestors are shaking: Xhosa oral poetry in context, Cape Town: Juta.
Keyes, Cheryl 2002 Rap music and street consciousness, USA: University of Illinois Press.
Leu, Lorraine 2006 "Music and national culture: Pop music and resistance in Brazil", P: Portuguese Cultural Studies, 36-44.
Mbuli, Nonkululeko 2008 "The role of hip-hop/rap music in Grahamstowns black youth culture", Unpublished Essay.
Morgan, Marcyliena 2005 "After...Word! The philosophy of the hip-hop battle", in Derrick Darby and Tommie Shelby (eds) Hip-hop and Philosophy: Rhyme 2 Reason, Chicago: Open Court, pp. 205-211.
Potter, Russell A. 1995 Spectacular vernaculars: Hip-hop and the politics of postmodernism, Albany, NY: State University of New York Press.
Schumacher, Thomas 2005 '"This is a sampling sport': Digital sampling, rap music and the law in cultural production", in Simon Frith (ed.) Popular music: Critical Concepts in Media and Cultural Studies, Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge, pp. 169-190.
Stephens, RJ. 1998 '"Rappin and stylin out in the USA: Images of rap artists as contemporary tricksters and griots", Challenge-Atlanta, 9(2):25-56.
Taussig, Michael 1993 Mimesis and alterity: A Particular history of the senses, New York: Routledge.
Watkins, Lee 2000 Tracking the narrative: The poetics of identity in the rap music and hip- hop culture of Cape Town, Unpublished M.A. Dissertation: University of KwaZulu-Natal.
2001 '"Simunye, we are not one: Ethnicity, difference, and the hip-hoppers of Cape Town", Race and Class, 43(i):29-44.
2004 "'Rapp in the Cape: Style and Memory, Power in Community", in Sheila Whiteley (ed.) Music, Space and Place, United Kingdom: Ashgate, pp. 124-146.
(Forthcoming) "A genre coming of age: Transformation, difference, and authenticity in the rap music and hip-hop culture of South Africa", in Eric Charry (ed.) Hip hop Africa and Other New African Music in a Globalized World (Working Title).
Williams, Raymond 1977 Marxism and Literature, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Windsor, W. Luke 1996 "Autonomy, mimesis and mechanical reproduction in contemporary music", Contemporary Music Review, is(i):i39-i50.
Benjamin, Walter 1970 "On the mimetic faculty", In Hanna Arendt (ed.) Illuminations, New York: Schocken Books, pp. 333-336.
Campbell, Kermit Ernest 2005 Getting our groove on: Rhetoric, language, and literacy for the hip-hop generation, Detroit and Michigan: Wayne State University Press.
Carmody, Pâdraig 2002 "Between globalization and (post) apartheid: The political economy of restructuring in South Africa", Journal of Southern African Studies, 28(i):255-275.
De Klerk, Vivian 2003 "Towards a norm in South African Englishes: The case for Xhosa English", World Englishes, 22(4):463-48i.
2006 "Codeswitching, borrowing and mixing in a corpus of Xhosa English", International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, 9(5):597- 614.
Emerson, Rana A. 2002 "Where my girls at?: Negotiating black womanhood in music videos", Gender and Society, i6(i):ii5-i35.
Furniss, Graham and Liz Gunners 1995 "Introduction: power, marginality and oral literature", in Graham Furniss and Liz Gunners (eds) Power, Marginality and African Oral Literature, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 1-19.
Goodwin, Andrew 2005 "Rationalization and democratization in the new technologies of popular music: Popular music and communication", in Simon Frith (ed.) Popular music: Critical concepts in media and Cultural Studies, Abingond, Oxon: Routledge, pp. 147-168.
Herbert, Robert K. 1990 "The sociohistory of clicks in southern Bantu", Anthropological Linguistics 32(3/4):295-3i5-
Jorritsma, Marie R. 2008 "The hidden transcripts of sacred song in a South African coloured community", African Music, 8(2)^6-75.
2008 "Mothers of the church: the music of coloured women's societies and South African gender issues", South African Music Studies (SAMUS), 28:73-93-
Kaschula, Russell H. 2002 The bones of the ancestors are shaking: Xhosa oral poetry in context, Cape Town: Juta.
Keyes, Cheryl 2002 Rap music and street consciousness, USA: University of Illinois Press.
Leu, Lorraine 2006 "Music and national culture: Pop music and resistance in Brazil", P: Portuguese Cultural Studies, 36-44.
Mbuli, Nonkululeko 2008 "The role of hip-hop/rap music in Grahamstowns black youth culture", Unpublished Essay.
Morgan, Marcyliena 2005 "After...Word! The philosophy of the hip-hop battle", in Derrick Darby and Tommie Shelby (eds) Hip-hop and Philosophy: Rhyme 2 Reason, Chicago: Open Court, pp. 205-211.
Potter, Russell A. 1995 Spectacular vernaculars: Hip-hop and the politics of postmodernism, Albany, NY: State University of New York Press.
Schumacher, Thomas 2005 '"This is a sampling sport': Digital sampling, rap music and the law in cultural production", in Simon Frith (ed.) Popular music: Critical Concepts in Media and Cultural Studies, Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge, pp. 169-190.
Stephens, RJ. 1998 '"Rappin and stylin out in the USA: Images of rap artists as contemporary tricksters and griots", Challenge-Atlanta, 9(2):25-56.
Taussig, Michael 1993 Mimesis and alterity: A Particular history of the senses, New York: Routledge.
Watkins, Lee 2000 Tracking the narrative: The poetics of identity in the rap music and hip- hop culture of Cape Town, Unpublished M.A. Dissertation: University of KwaZulu-Natal.
2001 '"Simunye, we are not one: Ethnicity, difference, and the hip-hoppers of Cape Town", Race and Class, 43(i):29-44.
2004 "'Rapp in the Cape: Style and Memory, Power in Community", in Sheila Whiteley (ed.) Music, Space and Place, United Kingdom: Ashgate, pp. 124-146.
(Forthcoming) "A genre coming of age: Transformation, difference, and authenticity in the rap music and hip-hop culture of South Africa", in Eric Charry (ed.) Hip hop Africa and Other New African Music in a Globalized World (Working Title).
Williams, Raymond 1977 Marxism and Literature, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Windsor, W. Luke 1996 "Autonomy, mimesis and mechanical reproduction in contemporary music", Contemporary Music Review, is(i):i39-i50.
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Published
2010-11-30
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“Keeping It Real: AmaXhosa Iimbongi Making Mimesis Do Its Thing in the Hip-Hop and Rap Music of the Eastern Cape”. 2010. African Music : Journal of the International Library of African Music 8 (4): 24-47. https://doi.org/10.21504/amj.v8i4.1865.
