Indigenous hip-hop: Digital media practices among youth of the South African San People

Young people from the !Xun and Khwe communities living in Platfontein, a settlement in South Africa's Northern Cape, have adopted hip-hop as a platform through which to identify, express themselves and negotiate their restrictive peri-urban living conditions. Hip-hop enthusiasts in this First Peoples community, often unemployed school leavers, create their own music, produce music videos and albums. This is done in the face of extreme challenges, including limited access to computers, music production technologies, the internet and high data charges. This chapter explores their innovative use of digital media for music production and dissemination. The study concludes that hip-hop offers these young people a platform to voice complex issues of First Peoples culture and life from the bottom-up and the accompanying digital technology offers them the opportunity to control its dissemination.