Hip hop identity in a township reality. - Poppunt

further on in this chapter, these themes are intrinsically connected. When we add
the part on code-switching and crossing, it seems that all of our findings, in one
way or the other, have something to do with the issue of identity.
We started with analysing the different reasons our interviewees have for choosing a
particular language to rap in. For a certain group of them, it was essential to rap in
their mother tongue, mainly as a way to show their pride about who they are and
where they come from. In a society dominated by English, they want to prove that
Xhosa and Afrikaans are not inferior languages, but are deserving of an equal
status. The language they rap in also depends upon the public they want to reach.
This coincides with the topics they write about. If they want to reach their ‘own’
people with their positive message, they will rap in their mother tongue, because
that is the language these people understand best. Since it is their ultimate aim to
change things in their environment, it is vital these people understand the message
that they want to spread. When they only want to rap about fun times they might
turn to English as a way to reach a bigger audience, which is not confined to their
‘own’ people. In that respect, the content of the songs determines the play list. They
feel that there is a time and place for making fun and a different one for discussing
more serious matters. For instance, when young people go out they want to have
fun and might not be willing to listen to some conscientious lyrics at that time,
while they might do so when they are at home. That is a reason why they do not
only write songs about big and urgent township issues, because you cannot always
be aware. If they aim towards a mixed audience they need to differentiate the topics
they write about, since those people living in other conditions and will not always
be able to empathise with what is being said. They would constrain their audience if
they only rapped about conscientious issues. The fact that some of our interviewees
only have a limited knowledge of English creates a problem that they can only talk
about a limited number of issues. The last thing we can link together is their
position towards gangsta rap. Since they all try to a large extent to spread a positive
and conscientious message, they cannot be categorised as gangsta rappers. They
are very delicate upon this matter though. For them, gangsta rap is a valuable
genre, because it tells something about the deprived neighbourhoods the American
rappers have to live in. Since the living conditions of our interviewees are similar,
they can understand what they are rapping about.
This is what they told us about their rap music, and the things mentioned above
already indicate something about the identity they want to express to the outside
world. In chapter five we attempted to reconstruct how they told us these things.