Hip hop identity in a township reality. - Poppunt

pills in their socks / guys who / and I really know what he is talking about /
more than the guys from the States.”
Shaun, also a U.N.I.C. group member, claims it is necessary for him that his hip
hop contains a message in any sort of way. Under ‘message’ he also categorises
things as for example being in love and talking about it in a song, because people
who hear the lyrics can also learn from that. If they are ever in the same situation,
they can think about what Shaun said in his lyrics and do the things he has done.
As seen in the chapter about language use, he uses Xhosa to rap, because he
makes music for the people around him who live in similar circumstances. If he
spreads a message they need to be able to understand him.
Like others, Shaun does not have a fixed list of topics he writes about. When he
sees something he wants to write about, he does so. When he has a concept inside
his head, he will try to formulate a song about it. He simply makes songs about
everything that seems to be relevant for him, and the inspiration mostly comes out
of the township he lives in.
“There are a lot of concepts you know / so my music is not basic on / I don’t
write about one thing I write about everything that’s relevant everything that’s
around me I experience and I see.”
Since the conditions he lives in can not be called optimal, it is a necessity to spread
a positive message, and to use the music in order to educate his listeners. The
spread of AIDS needs to be prevented, and the same goes for poverty and
criminality. The system needs to be criticised. Some underground American rappers
give their opinion about the system they live in, in their songs, and Shaun says he
can relate to them, although both ‘systems’ are not totally comparable. He mostly
prefers South African rap to American rap, because the situations the South
Africans are rapping about are similar to the conditions he is in at the moment,
though he can get meaning from the Americans’ lyrics.
“That relate to me you know it relates so much because situations that they’ve
been to / that’s what I’m in now.”
Eavesdrop, one of the few ladies we interviewed, sees rapping as a combination of
the things she always loves doing: keeping a diary and writing down the things that
happen, and singing. Writing songs is a way to cope with things she is exposed to
through her life. Her lyrics can be compared to a kind of fairytale she tells the
people, but it is not fiction; they are true, real life stories processed into a lyrical