Sexism and Power Play in the Nigerian Contemporary Hip Hop Culture: The Music of Wizkid

Abstract

The proliferation of hip hop culture in Nigeria today is a trend which occurs as a result of adoption, adaptation and popularization of American hip hop music. Since its inception in the 1990s to date, the Nigerian hip hop culture has evolved among the youth. The impact of this form of cultural imperialism is evident in the manner in which Nigerian male and female artists copy their American counterparts in the objectification of women as sex symbols. A worrying trend in this popular culture is the sexist representation of women in the lyrics, videos and live performances. This attitude is alien, since women were not widely portrayed as mere sex symbols in the music genres that preceded hip hop in Nigeria. The sexist ideology expressed by most Nigerian hip hop artists has been an issue of academic inquiry in recent times; thus, a content analysis of Wizkid's music was undertaken for this study. Wizkid is one of the most popular Nigerian hip hop musicians. By focusing on a selection of his songs and music videos, this paper aims to ascertain the politics of overtly sexualized images of women in his music. It argues that sexual objectification of women in Wizkid's hip hop music serves as a means of boosting his social status and commercial viability in the Nigerian popular music industries.

Keywords:

• Objectification
• Sexism
• Nigerian Hip Hop
• Media
• Women
• Music

Notes on Contributor

Samson Uchenna Eze is a lecturer with the Department of Music, University of Nigeria, Nsukka. His research interest draws upon the relationship between music and society, popular music, popular music performance and ethnomusicology. He has worked with Prof Paul Basu of SOAS University of London in an anthropological exploration of Northcote W. Thomas's ethnographic sound recordings from southern Nigeria, 1910–1911. He has hitherto researched on glocalization trends in the Nigerian contemporary hip hop music; cult of personality in the Nigerian popular music scene; and also, on hip hop activism and quest for social change in Nigeria.

ORCID

Samson Uchenna Eze http://orcid.org/0000-0002-5834-8275