Emile YX: Hip-hop Romanticizes Poverty

Hip-hop is often sold as music that is extremely political, opinionated and most of all, as a genre that remains true to the struggles of the poor. Words like gangsters, poverty and ‘ghetto’ have become synonymous with hip-hop. Most hip-hop heads from rap stars, emcees and deejays to beat-boxers, b-boys and graffiti artists will tell you some depressing story of how tough it was growing up in the ghetto and how they led a life of drugs and crime until they found solace in hip-hop and miraculously changed their wayward lifestyles. It gives them what they call ‘street cred’ and moves them a notch up the food chain in a highly competitive industry. While some of these musicians’ personal anecdotes are indeed true, surely they can’t all have had a despondent and misguided upbringing? Arts Review caught up with the godfather of South African hip-hop and founder of Black Noise, Emile YX to unpack his life story and it’s nothing like the rags-to-riches tales we’ve heard from most hip-hop musos.

Read more on: http://www.artsreview.co.za/sound-bites/2009/11/08/emile-yx-hip-hop...