Of Commodities and Objects: Women and Their Representations in Nigerian Hip-Hop

Abstract

The ubiquity of music renders it a telling reflection of the representations of the viewpoints and concerns—ethos and mores—of the milieu within which it is produced. Hip-hop as a global genre has been domesticated in every society in which it has found expression. Despite its noteworthy contributions and roles, hip-hop has gained notoriety and has been trailed by allegations of glorifying crime, materialism, violence, drugs and misogyny. In the present study, I examine the portrayal of women by male artistes in Nigerian hip-hop videos vis-à-vis the sociocultural nuances of the Nigerian environment. The lyrics and videos of three songs by three popular Nigerian artistes constitute the data. Relying on the “social-based” theoretical dictates of multimodal social semiotics and the performativity theory, attention is paid to both linguistic and non-linguistic modes in the data. The linguistic features examined reflected demeaning language used in portraying rape/sexual assault, sexual conquest and physical violence against women. On the other hand, the non-linguistic modes framed women as hedonistic, money-driven, capricious, and covetous. Women are also presented as sexual objects to satisfy the lust of the patriarchal and phallocentric society. The gaze and demeanour of the female personas were found suggestive of complicity, geared at maintaining the status-quo. These findings are significant particularly as there is ample evidence to suggest that music wields considerable influence in framing the behaviour of its audience.