A capsule history of African rap \ Eric Charry -- Rap stories (Ghana and South Africa). The birth of Ghanaian hiplife : urban style, black thought, proverbial speech \ Jesse Weaver Shipley ; A genre coming of age : transformation, difference, and authenticity in the rap music and hip hop culture of South Africa \ Lee Watkins -- Griots and messengers (Senegal, Côte d'Ivoire, and Malawi). The rapper as modern griot : reclaiming ancient traditions \ Patricia Tang ; Promises of the chameleon : reggae artist Tiken Jah Fakoly's intertextual contestation of power in Côte d'Ivoire \ Daniel B. Reed ; Style, message, and meaning in Malawian youth rap and ragga performances \ John Fenn -- Identity and hybridity (Mali and Nigeria). Mapping cosmopolitan identities : rap music and male youth culture in Mali \ Dorothea E. Schulz ; Nigerian hip hop : exploring a black world hybrid \ Stephanie Shonekan -- East coast (Kenya and Tanzania). The local and global in Kenyan rap and hip hop culture \ Jean Ngoya Kidula ; Imitation and innovation in the music, dress, and camps of Tanzanian youth \ Alex Perullo -- Popular music panoramas (Ghana and Malawi). Contemporary Ghanaian popular music since the 1980s \ John Collins ; Popular music and young male audiences in contemporary Malawi \ Jochen Seebode -- Drumming (Mali). Urban drumming : traditional jembe celebration music in a west African city (Bamako) \ Rainer Polak -- Music for an African twenty-first century \ Eric Charry.