Hip hop identity in a township reality. - Poppunt

occur, and that change has to come from the people in those townships. They need
to uplift themselves and reduce the poverty by becoming a working class.
“So that’s the kind of revolution / and most importantly to see the ghetto
becoming a working class empowerment / creativity productivity you know
creating our own products / exporting.”
Of course, not every song is about misery. Crosby also writes about the good times
he has, and about all things that men of his age are interested in: girls, cars,
parties and so on. It is important to include the fun things in life, and not to drown
in self pity.
The main function of music according to Crosby is spreading out a message, in his
case a message of optimism and positivity. Music is the perfect medium to do this,
since the power of words and music should not be underestimated:
“The other thing that I experienced as an artist is that your music is so
powerful for instance whatever you say people can follow that.”
“You gotta be careful to what you listen to because that can really change your
whole life.”
We will take a closer look at what this message consists of. We can state that the
main goal is to broaden the consciousness of the listeners. This can also be linked
to the language he raps in: English. Because he wants to reach as many people as
possible he did not choose his mother tongue to rap in because that restricts the
audience.
First of all he distances himself from any promotion of violent or criminal behaviour
in general.
“Yeah gangsterism is on its own I’m against that.”
There is enough of it already in the place he lives, so the last thing he wants to do is
make it worse. But he also seems to understand what people drive to turn to
gangsterism:
“Well I know what causes gangsterism is the pressures of life and all that /
not being able to afford things and the quickest way is to pull out a gun and
put it in somebody’s face or point it at somebody and demand something.”