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African hip hop

Hip hop (or rap) has been popular in Africa since the early 1980s due to widespread American influence. The first Hip-Hop group from Africa was Black Noise, a group from Cape Town, South Africa. They began as a graffiti and breakdance crew until they started emceeing around 1989. The government of South Africa's apartheid era tried to ban rap due to its part in the struggle for the freedom of all races. Later the government made Hip-Hop legal in 1993 by playing rap music on radio and rap videos on T.V.

In 1985 Hip-Hop reached Senegal, a French-speaking country in west Africa. Some of the first Senegalese rappers were M.C. Lida, M.C. Solaar, and Positive Black Soul, who mixed rap with Mbalax, a type of music that has been played in West Africa for centuries. During the late 1980s-early 1990s rap started to escalate all over Africa. Each region had a new type of style of Hip-Hop like Kwaito (South Africa), Zougolu (Cote'd Ivore), Zouk (Central and West Africa) and Taarab (East Africa). Some African rappers have been popular and reside in Europe.

These are some of the African rappers that are known: