Existing studies have shown the dialectics of protest and resistance embedded in Nigeria's hip-hop culture. Contributing to the growing body of research hereon, this study examines the thematic preoccupations of five purposively selected songs by four Nigerian hip-hop artistes: Eedris Turayo Abdulkareem Ajenifuja (Eedris Abdulkareem), Folarin Falana (Falz), Olanrewaju Abdul-Ganiu Fasasi (Sound Sultan), and Innocent Idibia (Tuface). It scrutinises the historiography involved as well as the artistes’ stylisation of power and resistance, drawing analytical insights from Foucault's theory of power and knowledge. The selected artistes are of key relevance because their songs demonstrate how young Nigerians are critically responding to political marginalisation and oppression, particularly since the return to democracy in 1999. The study analyses how these artistes use hip-hop culture to engage with the establishment and demand social justice from political elites, following four thematic frames: power abuses and mass poverty; political/electoral violence; looting and the compromised legal system; and brain-drain ( japa ) syndrome. This article increases understanding, as such, of how hip-hop is weaponised to resist malfeasance and oppression.
Aboh et al. (Thu,) studied this question.