The Rough Guide to Africa Rap (Rough Guide World Music CDs)

A musical revelation awaits listeners as they delve into The Rough Guide To African Rap, displaying the kind of grooves that are rocking twenty-first century urban Africa and the Diaspora. In Africa, wordplay has always been a great source of entertainment and social commentary, and rappers have responded to social and political issues by addressing such subjects as poverty, AIDS, famine, corruption and globalization at a time when the changing economic, political and media climate across Africa has resulted in less censorship and more freedom to be critical of people in power. Not all these tracks are strictly hip-hop but the rap element is ever-present. Some of the tracks are by world-renowned stars, while others have never been heard in the West. Rappers move easily across cultural divides; their community is a more global one and all these artists can hold their own whether outside Africa or within.