Abstract :
African American and Senegalese hip-hop are permeated with various kinds of ideological resistance strategies against racial and economic oppression. These musical forms use narrative tactics as well as cultural and political concepts that dismantle various local and transnational subjugations that have confronted African Americans or Senegalese during the past decades in the West. Subversive songs allow black musicians from both sides of the Atlantic Ocean to denounce the consequences of racism, globalization, and capitalism on their respective communities. By interpreting selected African American and Senegalese hip-hop songs, this essay reveals the drastic social and economic conditions that have led people of African descent from the two sides of the Atlantic Ocean to oppose dominance through music. Referring to specific hip-hop songs of African American and Senegalese artists, such as Dead Prez, Tupac Shakur, Xuman, and Bibson, this essay discusses their lyrics (from historical, cultural, and theoretical perspectives) as resistances against systemic forms of racial and economic oppression that have impaired the modern lives of blacks of both Africa and the West.
