Hiphop - new media

Hiphop music is immensely popular in Africa especially among young people. Artists don’t mince their words. Society and politics are central themes in the work of many rappers.

Mr Devious - Cape Town


Their calling a spade a spade comes as a welcome exception in many countries where the media are constricted by a corset of political correctness.

Artists and young people share a common language, which is why rapping on the dangers of AIDS drives the message home more effectively than the umpteenth official safe-sex campaign.

This is what Bush Radio in Cape Town had at the back of its mind in 2000 when it started an information campaign on HIV/AIDS in its hiphop show entitled ‘Headwarmers’.

This successful initiative in the Cape laid the foundation for a series of exchanges between young hiphop artists from South Africa, the Netherlands and Tanzania.

NiZA wholeheartedly supports initiatives such as Bush Radio's hiphop show and the exchanges. NiZA considers music and hiphop to be new media, which offer better ways to reach young people than the traditional media. Therefore, ‘hiphop’ has a special status within NiZA’s Media Programme.

Hiphop - a new medium
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