When the "Microphone” Poet Speaks: Hiplife Rapper's Construction of Reality

Abstract

The expression "the youth of today” in Ghana is gradually beginning to have meanings other than a group of people belonging to a generation. The youth in Ghana is now believed to be notorious for being a generation that is irresponsible in their cultural expression. This paper argues that this notion of being irresponsible in their cultural expression, especially the manner in which it expresses its worldview, attributed to it by the old generation, is a mistake. The paper uses the example of a music video, "the Crusade”, by Donzy and Kofi Kinata to demonstrate that the youth, unknown to many members of the old generation, have a very complex way of expressing and constructing reality. This study draws on the Performance Theory and uses semiotics and discourse analysis to show how the hierarchy in the divine chain of being and discrepancies within the same binary system are used to frame meaning. These framing of meanings make it very clear how certain pastors have turned themselves into pastorpreneurs, using the word of God to enrich themselves. In this hidden transcript approach, the youth may not openly criticise these pastors but they use music as a platform for such an attack.