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A Pursuit of Nationalism? Rebranding Nigeria in Hip Hop’s Vibes

The paper argues that over time, the mobile telephony and the internet have assisted in facilitating a free-flow of routine digitized communication in which everyone engages in Nigeria. Imbued with committed determination to portray the inherent positive qualities embedded in their respective countries, artists often use their songs for a relentless pursuit of implicit nationalism. These songs serve as archival tool for re-evaluation, repudiation and condemnation of the prevailing, inimical trends that tend to compromise cherished communal values of their respective milieux. In the light of the foregoing, we consider in this paper, the [re]presentation of Computer Mediated Communication in Nigerian Hip hop. To this end, six purposively selected songs by six Nigerian hiphop artists are subjected to textual analysis. We noted in the paper that the cross re-territorialisation of CMC in Hip hop ranges thematically from internet crime, romance to prayer cum religion. Notably, the paper appropriates ‘slangification’– a means to code online criminal activities as it downplays overt sensationalism of sexual perversion. Findings in the paper function as signifiers that counteract the negative identity which well-meaning Nigerians have had to contend with. In conclusion, the paper ostensibly tends to repudiate a dismay labelling of Nigeria as a nation of scammers and internet fraudsters.


Introduction
Following the introduction of mobile telephony and Internet services into Nigeria, computer mediated communication (CMC) has witnessed rapid popularization. Given the astonishing range of its signification, studies on CMC in the country are evolving to accommodate a wide-range of its platforms and influences. Hardly surprising that there should an overwhelming subscription to its utilization, the ubiquity of computer mediated communication and its realisations in virtually all spheres of the human society are proof of its importance. One of the most recent medium through which CMC-related discourse is being projected is via the mainstream cultural push of the Nigerian Hip Hop music. While Nigeria has been negatively perceived as the headquarters of computer scam mails and the hub of dubious online activities in Africa, its vibrant Hip Hop artists are not less determined to embark upon a 'naming and shaming' of this perception for the rebranding of its global image. This attitude derives from the youth's pursuit of nationalism to rescue contemporary Nigeria from the traps of social vices. In the words of Stuart Hall 'nationalism is capable of being inflected to very different political positions, at different historical moments and[that] its character depends very much on the other traditions, discourses and forces with which it is articulated' (Hall 1993:355). Similarly, Jude Akudinobi has argued that 'African nationalism is a synthesis of various intellectual histories, protest traditions, specific cultural institutions, and unique lived experiences' (Akudinobi 2001:124). Correspondingly, Joanna Sullivan (2001) opines that 'the health of the nation depends on each citizen's desire to identify with the entire population of the nation despite racial, ethnic, or religious differences' (Sullivan 2001:71). Suffice it to say that in the face of debilitating moral crises, the Hip hop artists are becoming increasingly important in the formulation, nurturing and sustainability of the campaign for moral regeneration in the contemporary Nigeria. To them song/music serves as a symbol of national cohesion appropriated for the reconstruction of national identity (Akingbe 2014:19). This is in conformity with the submission of Anthony D. Smith who contends that '[t]he power of nationalism is not only a matter of ideology. Perhaps even more potent than nationalist principles have been national symbols. These give concrete meaning and visibility to the abstractions of nationalism' (The Nation 2000:73). As a tool for drawing attention to varied shades of political developments, the Nigerian Hip Hop rhythms have often evolved strident articulation of nationalism. This notion is further underscored by Akingbe and Onanuga (2018:18) who have reiterated the symbolic grounding of the Nigerian Hip hop in nationalist discourses. To claim Hip Hop as a privileged platform for inaugurating social regeneration by the Nigerian youth is not to shy away from the prevalence of corruption, ethnic chauvinism and political inequity nurtured by the power elite which continue to compromise the Nigerian sovereignty. For the negotiation of cultural rebranding, the Nigerian Hip Hop artists' intervention is inextricably intertwined in an intricate discourse of social reengineering of the country. In this paper, we shall analyse the portrayals of CMC media and it's utilization in the Nigerian Hip Hop. This is in recognition of the influential role Hip Hop plays particularly in the mirroring of social realities, especially, a construction of identities and as a catalyst for social change. While Hip Hop undoubtedly fulfils entertainment roles, it has also malleably been recast to perform educational and political functions (Slavicek 2007;Chesley 2011). The implication is that Hip Hop is a cultural form of expression rooted in individuals singing about their lived experiences (Rose 1994:24). Olusegun-Joseph in an examination of the intersection of CMC and hip hop asserts that, the intervention of Computer Mediated Communication constitutes 'creative arsenals by which the youth inscribe their difference as well as contest the master narrative' (2012: 3). Arguing for a post-modernist approach to the appraisal of Hip Hop, Olusegun-Joseph continues that hip hop 'is an arguable consumerist youth global culture emphasising the end of all forms of metanarratives, discursively privileging the multiple centres of subjectivities, hybridities and low cultural tastes' (2012: 5).

History and Trends in Nigerian Hip hop
In assessing the roots of Nigerian Hip hop (NHH), some scholars have designated it as nothing more than a cheap mimicry of American hip hop (Adelakun 2013;Shonekan 2015). Appealing to a similar line of thought, Akpan (2006:100), in line with Rose's (2008) submission that American Hip Hop promotes 'caricatures of black gangstas, thugs, pimps, and "hos"', submits that NHH is 'sexually indulgent western songs' which are 'turning Nigerians into voyeurs'. Omoniyi (2006) counters this saying that NHH is counter-hegemonic because of its exclusion of such rife 'Afro-American idiosyncrasies like gangsterism, heavy sexualization, misogyny, and monolingualism ' (198). Instead, Omoniyi considers NHH a vantage outlet for entertainment, advertising, propaganda, youth self-assertion, communication and selfimaging.
While Nigerian Hip hop variously called Gbedu, Afro-beats and Naijapop was introduced to Nigeria in the late 1980s to the early 90s (Agbo 2009;Joseph 2006), Gbogi (2016) identifies four distinct periods between its introduction and eventual domestication. Subsequently, morphing from being a foreign introduction struggling against the pervasive influence of indigenous Nigerian genres, the rave-making Hip Hop has occasioned a trans-Nigeria influence and now attracts significant scholarly enquiries. Most of these studies however, have been concerned with analysis of the language use and sociological implication of the genre. For instance, Akande (2012; 2013), Taiwo (2009), Olatunji (2007), Omoniyi (2006) and Onanuga (2010) focused on the linguistic peculiarities of NHH and identified code alternation, discourse markers, proverbs, allusions to Nigerian locations and socio-political events.
The multifarity of the thematic concerns in Nigerian Hip hop have also been sampled with the most recurrent being love/romance, socio-political criticism, dissing, epicureanism, self-praising, crass materialism and sudden wealth (Babalola & Taiwo 2009;Inyabri 2016;Akingbe & Onanuga 2018) and rather interestingly, religious allusions (Babalola & Onanuga 2012). Thus, since music, like literature, is reflective of the happenings around it, music artists have found it adaptable in mirroring issues of national and social importance. This explains why during the military era, many songs were antimilitary and protestant in nature. The introduction and attendant spread of the use of mobile telephony and simplified access to Internet facility have further occasioned music artists as archivists of social events to document the changes occasioned by and the resultant influences of the technological wave.

Computer Mediated Communication (CMC)
CMC has been variously defined, with most of these definitions revolving around its concern with the mediation of technology in the interactional activities and processes of the users. December (1996:1) describes CMC as 'the process by which people create, exchange, and perceive information using networked telecommunications systems that facilitate encoding, transmitting, and decoding messages'. However, like December, Romiszowski and Mason (2004: 2) have noted that contemporary definitions of the field incorporate the 'social aspects of the communication, rather than the hardware or software' and encompass its pragmatic import. Herring, Stein and Virtanen (2013: 2) accede to this when they submit that CMC is an 'emergent field' and that 'the 'pragmatics of CMC' is still in flux'. Early CMC studies were dominated by 'a fascination with superficial features, such as acronyms, abbreviations, and emoticons' (Herring, Stein & Virtanen 2013: 1) and were contextualised in online textual domains such as emails, SMS, newsrooms and chatrooms. Subsequent CMC studies have however adopted sociolinguistic outlooks with interests in language choice and code-switching alongside variationist studies on participants' status, gender and mode. In addition, studies of language use online is becoming intensely diverse, posing significant challenge for researchers (Crystal 2011). Herring identifies ten media factors and eight social factors to consider in exploring language use in computer-mediated environment (see Herring 2007).
The present study however leans on the 'waves' approach as discussed by Androutsopoulos (2006). In identifying three distinct waves in the researches on CMC, he identifies the first wave as being concerned with the presentation of language use as 'distinct, homogeneous, and indecipherable to "outsiders"' (Androutsopoulos 2006: 420). The second wave however paid significant attention to 'the interplay of technological, social, and contextual factors in the shaping of computer-mediated language practices' (Androutsopoulos 2006: 421). In the third wave, he identified the focus of such researches on 'the role of linguistic variability in the formation of social interaction and social identities on the Internet' (Androutsopoulos 2006:421). Of the 3 rd wave, Bolander and Locher (2014: 16) say, furthermore, notions of 'emergence' and 'performativity' are increasingly emphasised, especially in connection with an epistemological shift towards social constructivist understandings of language use and practice. Zappavigna (2012: 2) in recognition of the varied and constantly evolving CMC practices, employs the term 'social web' to draw attention to 'a shift toward the internet as an interpersonal resource rather than solely an information network', thus contextualizing 'the Internet as a site for the performance of social relationships and not solely a virtual space catering to information sharing' (Bolander & Locher 2014: 16). We thus seek to extend the re-contextualisation of CMC, in the spirit of the Internet of things which is concerned with the interconnectedness of Internet-based communicative devices in an endless array of possibilities, in its manifestations in the selected Nigerian Hip Hop songs.

Methodological Details
Six Nigerian hip hop songs with CMC concerns were purposively selected for the study. These songs are: Bluetooth by 9ice, Lovey-Dovey by Sunny Nneji, Facebook Love by Essence; Yahooze by Olu Maintain, Alertby Orezi; Pick Up by Adekunle Gold. In making a case for the human side of social relationships, the song concludes that deceit and insincere love are end-products of the relationship between technology and human associations. Sunny Nneji in this song thus advocates that 'computer no fit take the place of lovey-dovey', insisting that modernity should not truncate 'normal' communication.

S/N Track
Facebook Love is a collaborative song by Essence and Jaywon, both Nigerians. The song is a depiction of friendship and love on social media. The anonymity and unverifiable self-presentation afford participants, ostensible chameleonic identities online and in the song, the male and female deceptively present themselves as people they are not. They consequently embark on a relationship based on lies. Eventually truly falling in love, they both are in a quandary and privately considers to reveal the truth about their identities. It is at this crossroad of regret that the song ends, leaving the listeners to mull over the situation.
Olu Maintain was a member of the Maintain group, one of the trailblazers of Nigerian Hip Hop. When the group had a split he went solo, using the nom-de-guerre Olu Maintain. Yahoozee is arguably his most popular track. The song is a documentation of the era of the clash of internet technology and dubious money making scams among Nigerian youth. Pursuing nationalistic favour, the song raises a counter-glorification of materialism. The song caricatured trenchantly impact of the online '419' scams, unjustifiably subscribed to by the majority of Nigerian youth in the early 2000; to shamelessly illustrate the Machiavellian philosophy of 'the end justifies the means'. Decontextualizing the Yoruba expression 'ise' (work), Olu Maintain avers that unlike majority of the underprivileged Nigerians who have to struggle all their lives to eke out living; his life is not cut out for a laborious toil, but for merrymaking. He substantiates his predilection for hedonism as he frolics with exotic drinks and brandishes exotic cars. To further mock the practice of internet scam, he displayed foreign currencies as his regular staple.
Nationalism is steeped in Orezi's You Garrit which is bifocal. In one breath, it talks about money and girls. In another, it brings focus on the abashed reliance on online financial scams to make money by many young people who engage in it. The rendition of these concerns eloquently condemns the unbridled lust for the acquisition of wealth regardless of how illicit, especially among young people. Orezi's lampooning of internet scam portrays it as a widespread erosion of social values.
Adekunle Gold's is one of the wave-making contemporary Nigerian hip-hop artists. Signed to the YBNL label, he has had a number of hit singles like Sade, Ready and Ariwo Ko. His songs reveal a montage of Yoruba language and cultural practices leveraged upon universal hip hop features. Blending nationalism with social discourse, Adekunle Gold's Pick Up focuses on controversial multifaceted desires, all of which are linked to overt reliance on Oluwa (God) for personal success. The song declaims that one would obviously have to rely on a compassionate God to turn things around, from the young man who wants to be as rich as Dangote (the richest African alive), to the man who wants to marry a beautiful lady and, to a man who wants to record exceptional achievements as his contemporaries. On the verge of blackmailing God (Please do not put me to shame, he says), the artist entrusts his future to the metaphorical immediacy and synchronicity that mobile telephony provides.
Significantly, Nigerian Hip hop enjoys socio-cultural capital as it revels in demotic yearnings and events. Consequently it discusses issues and concerns that stride romance, crime, social/ commercial success. How the embroildery of CMC encompasses a realisation of these thematic constructs is the focus of the paper.

Digital Discourse in Nigerian Hip hop -Features, Scope and Linguistic Analysis
The interactive coupling of CMC and Hip hop is rather expected; as both have had massive influence on the human society and enjoy appreciable following. The malleability of hip hop is evinced by Brunson (2011: 7) who posits that hip hop images 'reside within media the way organisms reside in a habitat'. Olusegun-Joseph (2012:8) corroborates this dualism when he says: In Nigerian hip hop culture, websites, multi-function cell-phones, the DVD, on-line hip hop magazines/journals, on-line videos/YouTube facilities, Facebook, Skype and several other CMC devices construct a space of global youth exchanges where subjectivities are sanctified, shared, made art and commoditized. This also creates a sense of youth cultural contact and seeming omnipresence since the communitarian base of traditional media such as the TV and radio is overtaking by a multi-space of individualised communication.
The brewing embrace of CMC in Nigerian Hip Hop was first signalled in this data by Olu Maintain's Yahoozee. Yahoozee is a corruption of the name Yahoo! which refers to the very popular search engine with an email platform Yahoo! The song enjoyed so much popularity in the early days of Internet availability to the extent that Internet fraudsters in Nigeria are tagged Yahoo-Yahoo or Yahoo boys. Although their acts are closer to Jonathan Swift's original depiction of Yahoos in Gulliver's Travels (1726), the knack of the fraudster to hustle and keep late nights in order to snare prospective victims online and afterwards lavish the gains from the 'work' is caricatured in the song. An excerpt from Yahoozee below makes this clear: The use of 'client' as reference to the victim desensitizes the scammer's fraud. It is also a legitimizing tool as it ironically presents internet fraud as acceptable and legal. The song raises concern about how illicit money is laundered by the internet fraudsters. Arguably, the debased lifestyle accrued from the internet scam has invoked a dollarization of social engagement in Nigeria. This notion is grounded in the exemplary Hip Hop's songs rhythm, to reflect how money realised from the online scam is spent: The dollar is ostensibly a currency of international trade. It also links Nigerian Hip Hop to its original rootsthe United States of America. Nigerian online scammers target foreign currencies specifically because they get better value when converted to the Naira. Adekunle Gold's Pick Up is reliant on the mobile device/phone-call metaphor. This is used to re-enact the connective and communicative function of mobile telephony. Playing on the subverted religious persuasion that God is the primary determinant of success, the phone call to God is expected to trigger off instantaneous dividend of miracle. However, like with prayers where one may not be certain of prompt response, a desperate step has to be taken, to place a call hypocritically to God. Through unusual anxiety, the persona in the video harasses God to answer his requests and not to consider his calls as 'flashing'. Understandably, flashing refers to a popular African mobile phone culture where 'a mobile phone user makes a call but cuts it after one, two or three rings mostly because he/she does not have enough pre-paid credit to pay for a call' (Taiwo 2013: 65). The artist thus wishing for a positive change in fortunes, appeals to God not to keep him waiting endlessly. Bordering on anxiety that resorts to blackmail, he urges God to 'pick up the call': Ma majeki anybody bere nipe (Do not allow anyone to demand) Ni bo lo lorunwawa(nibo lo lorunwa) (where my God is) No put me to shame oh (Please do not put me to shame) Ejo baba answer my call oh (Please God, answer my call) Interestingly, while the persona is anxious almost to the point of desperation for success, he is reluctant to make money through dubious means. His subsequent action portrayed in the video, shows the persona working as a driver, notices that a passenger had left behind a briefcase containing humongous amount of money. Instead of making away with the money, he traces the owner and returns the briefcase. His belief and assurance in God precludes the persona from indulging in untoward practices. This humanitarian action embarked upon by the persona, strikingly debunks the purported and sweepingly generalised views which portray Nigerians as corrupt and untrustworthy. A Bluetooth is a connective device on mobile phones and computers. In couching the themes of wooing and sex in the domain of computer technology, the title of the track -Bluetoothinsightfully suggests the focus. Several other technology-related words are employed by the artist to reinforce the subject matter. Instances are: browse your features, that kain virus is what I want, one-on-one, connection, do and undo, let the light be blue (a play on the title -Bluetoothand blue movies), my versatility remains in your mind.
Browse refers to the artiste's interest in exploring the lady's body while virus is a microbiology term embraced in technology to refer to a software programme harmful to files on a computer. However, in referencing virus, the artist's sexual urge implies that he is undeterred by any virus the lady may be carrying. One-on-one, connection, and versatility are further indicative of the impact and influence of digital technology on social relations. Let the light be blue is a play on the title -Bluetoothand of course referential of blue movies. Colours are actually significant in love and sexual relationship as redlight district, blue movie, blue balls, red-blooded indicate.
Lovey-Dovey and Facebook Love are both concerned with the expression of love and the maintenance of relationships on digital platforms. Leaning on lexical items from the Internet, the intersection of Hip-hop and CMC is somewhat grounded. Some instances from digital discourse are: Facebook, online, wall, internet addict, yahoo bandit, profile page, buzz, account, poke, message (From Facebook Love) Facebook, BB (BlackBerry), Internet, computer, message, cyberspace (From Lovey-Dovey) In accommodating topics revolving around the addictive use of social media alongside its manipulative and deceptive utilization, these words entrench the discursive range of digital media in social interactions. Reinforcing the negative commentaries that often trail anonymity of the social network users, and these songs serve as cogent warnings on how users must exhibit care in the maintenance of 'friendship' online. Despite the dangers associated with the social network platforms, they however, also validate the human need for socialization and group affinity. Unarguably, these devices are constituents of the influence of CMC.
The distension of Hip Hop to accommodate CMC-related themes is expressed from technological devices to social networking platforms. Consequently, references ranged from the use of mobile telephone, personal computer to Bluetooth devices. The platforms referenced are both synchronous and asynchronous to encompass Facebook, emailing, phone calls, and instant messaging.

Identifying the Nexus
The traditional and primordial features of quintessential hip hop are identify-able in the songs considered in the paper. These include the struggle for material wealth, misogynist language and controversial love relationships. However, these viewpoints have been refreshingly re-enacted to foreground the recent influence of CMC on the spheres of human relationship. The cross re-territorialisation of both platforms relies on the exploitation of the widespread following they enjoy. However, imbued by the zeal of nationalism, the selected artists in their songs made mockery of glorification of scamming and online fraud espoused by the internet fraudsters. Most often, this fraud is conceptualized as a backlash designed for the repatriation of stolen African wealth experienced through the trans-Atlantic slave trade and during the ignoble colonial exploitation superintended by the West. As this philosophy erodes the culture of earning through legitimate work, many young people nowadays perceive the Internet site as a veritable source of sudden wealth. Invariably, the positivity that heralded the use of social networking platforms has given way to caution and distrust. Nevertheless, the sensitization reiterated in Facebook Love and Lovey-Dovey are timely, as violence emanating from online relationships are becoming increasingly dreadful.
Internet writing styles and notations have also crept into Nigerian Hip Hop lyrics, they are derived online and are usually rife with such established features of textese such as abbronymy. Oni (2011) has classified this approach to encompass realisations like numeralisation, acronymy, and other Internetbased shortenings. In addition, pseudonyms by hip hop artists further reveal the increasingly widespread counter-influences of the two phenomena instances to examine the songs of 2Face/2Baba, Face2Face, DaGrin, U & I, Bouqui. Raheem (2013) acknowledges and attributes this sociolinguistic trend to the influence of globalisation emanating from the spread of English language and the raging influence of the Internet.

Conclusion
The paper has asserted that Nigerian Hip hop's massive following is influenced by its subscription to CMC which has in turn strengthens the proliferation of identities and the assertion of viewpoints. Borne out of nationalism exemplified in their struggle against the image crises which portray the country as a hub of the internet scam, the Nigerian Hip Hop artists selected in the paper have emphasized the need to recreate the country's social values. More importantly, while responding to the nationalistic demand which task their collective creativity toward rebranding, the Nigerian Hip hop artists have recognised their significant roles in the reconstruction of identities among their mostly young listeners, especially as they enjoy widespread appeal in replicating the personal and group/shared experiences. This recognition is extended to their appropriation of common or shared experiences to further solidify their music base and conquer new ones. Fágersten says 'any individual speaker is not … completely autonomous in terms of his or her own discursive construction of identity; identities are rather co-constructed, negotiated, and even imposed through interaction ' (2006: 24). It goes without saying that, the Nigerian Hip Hop acts in their establishment of shared identities with their listeners superimpose the influence of CMC on their songs. Consequently, commonplace CMC-related themes and lexical items are employed to replicate and maintain social realities in their songs. The paper concludes that in pursuit of nationalism, the Nigerian Hip Hop artists through their creative skills perform interventionist duties in their songs to sustain the reconstruction and renegotiation of shared experiences and realities to their teeming listeners.
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