The debate around the origin of hip hop is one that has been had for many years. Some people will bring up legendary names such as Run DMC, The Beastie Boys, and Kool Moe Dee as the originators of rap music. Those rappers may mean nothing to the new age fans of Pop Smoke, 6Lack, and Lil Durk. What we can all agree on, however, is that rap is a universal genre. From its origins in the United States, rap music created an identity for black youth all over the world.

In the US, we can distinctly pick out cities, boroughs & neighborhoods as synonymous with many artists seen as legends throughout the rap fraternity. Rap music has been territorial from as far back as we can trace it. The iconic “east coast vs west coast” beef headlined by Pac and BIG then followed up by another iconic standoff between G-unit and The Game (who was once a part of the group) are prime examples of how rappers always come out to rep their hood. At an even more granular level, if we look at the New York rap scene, we can single out rappers who unapologetically rep their hood. At every chance, Nas reminds his fans that he is from Queens. The Notorious BIG was a proud Bedstuy product and more recently, the Griselda Gang – Benny the Butcher, Conway The Machine & Westside Gunn have brought back the boom-bap rap style and carried Buffalo, NY with them in the process.

Throughout the United States, we have seen rappers come with different styles to represent their side of the country. The Gangsta Rap style associated with the west coast – specifically Los Angeles – with Dr Dre being somewhat the godfather of the sound. The Game then carried the baton and LA seemed to be coming back with a bang through Nipsey Hussle’s rise to stardom before his untimely death. We have seen the rise of trap music through the rappers coming out of the south; TI, Jeezy, Ludacris, etc. and the more conscious rap from the windy city with Common, Lupe, and “Roc-a-fella Kanye” dropping knowledge on their albums.

Rap In South Africa

In the South African context though, we cannot really identify the territorial aspect that is evident in the US. HHP came out with a bang to carry the Motswako sub-genre and make it a force to reckon with. Mafikeng gave us classic albums from Morafe, TUKS, DJ Lemonka, and Mo Molemi. We knew anything that was Setswana rap was coming all the way from the North West. KhuliChana carried the torch with his debut album “MotswakOriginator” and that was followed by Towdeemac’s less popular “Lesson One” album slash mixtape.

Unfortunately, until recently, for anyone to make it in the music industry in SA, they had to come to the city of lights to realize their dream. This to some effect diluted their sound. From KZN we saw Zakwe, Duncan, and DreamTeam. Authentic Zulu rap which had the potential to become their own rendition of Motswako but never really gained momentum. The big city itself had rappers who were proud to be products of the city of gold. The late PROkid was proud of his Soweto roots; The late Skwatta Kamp member “Flabba” ensured he stood out from the rest of the group – which was made up of individuals from different hoods in Johannesburg – and always rep’d Alexandra township whenever the opportunity presented itself. We saw the likes of H20, Amu, Wikid & Selwyn, Mizchif, Zubz, and many others give us classics and hits year after year. Then came the era of Teargas, AKA, GlitzGang, etc. A period that catapulted the SA rap scene to be a real force in the music industry. All the above mentioned never really gave an explicit and intentional representation of their hood. It was mostly passive and more about making it in the big city.

The SA rap scene has been on the up and up for a long time but I sometimes wonder how different it would be had they followed the US blueprint. The same way “Gqom” is associated with KZN and “dikosha” with Pretoria in the house music space, what sort of unique sound could we have had if rappers from each province had their own unique sound? I guess we might never know…or maybe the next generation of rappers will come out with a sound truly unique to their own territory and tell stories the youth of South Africa can relate to…