Hip hop identity in a township reality. - Poppunt

the Hoofweg Primary School in Wesbank, we met Clinton Cerf who is a cameraman
and a producer of hip hip documentaries. We also got in contact with Adam Haupt,
a lecturer at the University of Cape Town (UCT). He is the author of several articles
and papers on hip hop. UCT has a radio station with a weekly rap music program.
We were invited, by DJ Eazy, as guests of the ‘G.H.E.T.T.O. P.I.M.P. show’ (the
abbreviation stands for Giving Healing Education Through Teaching One Principles
to Improve Mental Position). Eazy is also one of the founders of the Faculty of Hip
Hop, an organisation that promotes positive hip hop and has the function of a
resource centre to people who want to start doing music, bring out a record, take
breakdance lessons and so on.
During the weekends, there were several performances (Zula Bar, Cool Runnings,
Chilli on Long, Marvel’s) and hip hop events (Hip Hop Indaba, Heritage Festival).
They took place in different areas of Cape Town, but mostly in the area around Long
Street, where a lot of bars and clubs are located.
It did not take much time before several people knew the purpose of our stay. That
helped to open a lot of doors as more people spontaneously approached us. People
gave us information about coming events, told us they were active in the scene and
wanted to be part of our research. In quite a short space of time it seemed that we
had become part of the Cape Town rap scene.
In order to make sure we would not waste or forget any information, we kept a
fieldwork diary, so when back in Belgium any details could be looked up again. Our
previous fieldwork experience taught us that important things can come from
seemingly trivial details.
The actual outcomes of our fieldwork were diverse but useful. Once back in
Belgium we narrowed down the topics we wanted to discuss. After this we started
our analysis and interpretation resulting in this thesis.
1.2. Methodology
Our methods of data collection consisted mostly of interviews with open, fixed
questions recorded using an MP3-player. All the interviewees knew that they were
going to be interviewed in advance, they also knew it was going to be recorded and
that we were going to use this information to help create a thesis. They all gave full
permission by signing consent forms approved by the UWC. Questions differed
depending on the sex of the interviewees; there was one series of questions for male
rappers and one for female rappers. The difference between the two series is to be