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‘Brains, means, lyrical ammunition’: hip-hop and socio-racial agency among African Students in Kharkiv, Ukraine

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 September 2011

Adriana Helbig
Adriana Helbig
Affiliation:
Department of Music, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh E-mail: anh59@pitt.edu
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Abstract

In the last decade, multi-racial hip-hop scenes in Kharkiv, a predominantly Russian-speaking eastern Ukrainian city close to the Russian border, have fostered the development of socially-conscious hip-hop among African students. Drawing on musical elements from their respective home countries, the US and local hip-hop traditions, African male youths use Ukrainian-, Russian- and English-language lyrics to express concerns about socio-economic status, personal struggle and racial inclusion. This study analyses how African musicians use hip-hop as a social means through which to fight the escalating violence against dark-skinned foreigners and migrants. It draws on ethnographic data to identify several ways in which African-performed hip-hop has influenced contemporary public opinions regarding ‘black’ identity in eastern Ukraine.

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Type
Articles
Information
Popular Music , Volume 30 , Issue 3 , October 2011 , pp. 315 - 330
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2011

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Discography

Tanok Na Maidani Kongo. Zroby meni hip-hop (‘Make me a hip-hop’). Moon Records. 2006.Google Scholar
Ukrainskymy slovamy: Zbirka ukrainsko-movnoho hip-hopu (‘With Ukrainian words: a collection of Ukrainian-language hip-hop’). Age Music, 2006; Energetyka, 2006.Google Scholar
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