Hip hop identity in a township reality. - Poppunt

If he does not understand the language a rapper is using, he will concentrate on the
flow and will at least be able to tell if that person is a good rapper or not, even
though he can not understand what the rapper is saying. He does think it is a bit
stupid if you do not know what the person on stage is singing about, and
sometimes translations are necessary.
Bad Luck from the Driemanskap group raps in English and in Xhosa, preferring the
latter. Asked whether his audience would not be larger if they only rapped in
English, he did not think so. From his own experience he could tell that language
was not a barrier for people liking their music or not. When they go and perform in
clubs uptown with a multiracial public, they all enjoy it, because they can all feel
how the audience responds, indicating it is not really about what is said, but how it
is performed.
Shaun from the U.N.I.C. group also chooses to rap in his mother tongue Xhosa. He
made that choice because he thinks it is the easiest way to reach the people who
actually live the situations he writes about in his lyrics.
“Because when I started writing I started writing in Xhosa / so I find out that I
think it’s the easy way to reach these people living out the situations that I
write about / because people around me in Eastern Cape people in skwatta
kamps you know / yeah so that’s why I want them to understand it.”
On the other hand, he and his group also make music just to dance to, and in that
case, lyrics and messages do not really matter.
“On the other side there’s music to dance to it’s not about you know it’s not
about lyrics and message and stuff it’s all about like dancing.”
To illustrate, he mentions situations where people could not understand what he
was saying, but they would still come to him and compliment him on the way he
raps and his flow, because they could see he is doing it with his heart and with a lot
of passion. Although they do not understand his lyrics, they do feel it.
Dirty Tale is a youngster living in Wesbank, and is not part of the group of
acquaintances quoted above. He raps in Xhosa, which is his mother tongue, and in
English. He raps in Xhosa, because he is ‘a Xhosa person’ and wants to touch the
people and wants them to feel he is connected to them. But he recognises English
as an international language, which brings us to the reason why he uses it as a
second language in his lyrics. He feels he has to use English, for it is an
international language.