Digital hustling: ICT practices of hip hop artists in Grahamstown

Abstract

Hip hop artists are early adopters of digital media in the township areas of Grahamstown. This article describes the emergence of particular media ecologies that depend on a do-it-yourself ethic where young people are always ‘hustling’ to get hold of data bundles, software and computer parts, and assembling them in novel ways. This mobile-first generation are increasingly adopting desktop and laptop computers to supplement their media production, and could provide insights into the evolution of low-income digital media practices and the transition from mobile-only to mobile-first (computer-second) practices, as well as how the computer’s increased affordances for production influence such digital media practices. Living in backyard shacks made from corrugated iron and mud, where there are makeshift electrical connections criss-crossing the roof and no flowing water inside, here there is indeed Internet connectivity, although exclusively through the mobile phone. These hip hop artists are supported by various digital service providers, such as WAP-site designers who hack together sites that function both to promote and distribute local media as well as pirated content, to backyard computer repairers who cannibalize parts from discarded old PCs to create workable township machines. This article will provide a digital ethnography of these young people and how they work collectively to record and mix music, design posters, album covers and avatars, and then distribute these through their phones via Bluetooth and online social media. The article will tie these digital practices to the identity formation of these young people, who resist ­succumbing to the despair of unemployment through embracing notions of themselves as artists, hustlers and ‘explorers of technology’, identities they attribute to the local culture of hip hop music production and its values of consciousness, creativity and resilience.

Mobile Phone Visual Ethnography (MpVE): Bridging Transformative Photography and Mobile Phone Ethnography

“…For example, mobile phone ownership strengthens social ties that create access to jobs and business opportunities (Burrell and Oreglia 2015; Ilahiane 2011; Ilahiane and Sherry 2009; Rangaswamy and Nair 2010; Srinivasan and Burrell 2015). Similarly, mobile phones give voice to vulnerable populations, such as women (Doron 2012; Kwami 2016; Velghe 2014), migrant workers (Barber 2008; Horst and Taylor 2014; Peng and Choi 2013; Thompson 2009), and youth (Kumar 2014; Schoon 2014). While mobile phone adoption may also carry negative consequences, empowerment undoubtedly remains one of it hallmarks.…”

Global Hiphopography

“…Despite the book's novelty, a stellar and sophisticated contribution alongside "second wave" monographs like Mitchell (2001) and Fernandes (2011), Williams and Singh have less to say on Hip Hop culture's response to the "technological turn," and the politics of technology (Schoon 2017), to the politics of The United Kingdom's racialized war on drill (de Lacey 2022), Singapore's ongoing censorship of rap, and the impact of COVID-19 pandemic (Bienvenu 2021). However, one monograph cannot do it all, nor should it, but it seems an oversight to have not considered some of these elements when speaking about the necessity of being "an active part in the ongoing Hip Hop cultural production".…”