Hip Hop Africa explores a new generation of Africans who are not only consumers of global musical currents, but also active and creative participants. Eric Charry and an international group of contributors look carefully at youth culture and the explosion of hip hop in Africa, the embrace of other contemporary genres, including reggae, ragga, and gospel music, and the continued vitality of drumming. Covering Senegal, Mali, Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana, Nigeria, Kenya, Tanzania, Malawi, and South Africa, this volume offers unique perspectives on the presence and development of hip hop and other music in Africa and their place in global music culture.

Hip Hop Africa is recommended for scholars and students with an interest in contemporary African popular culture and urbanism. Given the breadth of its content, it will be a particularly useful resource for graduate and undergraduate courses on global hip hop, African popular music, and urban African culture.

Hip Hop Africa is a welcome addition to the literature on popular culture and music in Africa.

[R]eaders interested in contemporary African culture, hip-hop, world music, globalization, and youth cultural identities in the twenty-first century should find Charry's Hip Hop Africa to be a useful addition to their libraries.

Readers with interests in African hip hop and urban youth cultures will find this book indispensable.

[Eric Charry] has assembled remarkable essays by experts who offer deep historical and cultural connections showing how Africans shape rap to fit their local circumstances.

Impressively details hip hop's evolution throughout Africa . . . [and] presents important arguments in African hip hop scholarship, including discussions on African hip hop's linkages with US hip hop, and debates over authenticity and imitation. . . . . The authors in the volume provide extensive background information on hip hop's evolution throughout Africa . . . much of the volume's strength lies in its examination of local hip hop scenes . . . a good look urban music in Africa . . . a solid contribution to scholarship on African hip hop.2013

Eric Charry is Associate Professor of Music at Wesleyan University. He is author of Mande Music: Traditional and Modern Music of the Maninka and Mandinka of Western Africa and has published extensively on music in Africa.