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Hip-Hop: A gift and a curse

For those who know me, they know Hip-Hop is my life. I listen to music more hours then I sleep. When I’m bored I write graffiti pieces on sheets of paper. Occasionally I would go to a Turf dancing battle. You could imagine my joy to see the Hip-Hop scene present in Senegal.

I remember the first hint of Hip-Hop I saw was aerosol painting on the walls in Mermoz, a neighborhood in Dakar. It wasn’t anything fancy but I knew Hip-Hop was the culprit. Later on that day when I got to know some people my age, I found out that Hip-Hop was very alive in Senegal.  Every concert a known artist has in Senegal gets sold out instantaneously (likely American artists?). Even in the Senegalese dance classes I saw elements similar to our dances in America. The best Hip-Hip influence I’ve seen is when my brother rapped a freestyle verse in Wolof, a major language of Senegambia. This energy made a big part of me feel at home.

Little did I know I was going to feel even more at home; although, this time it wasn’t heart warming. I was having a conversation with a good friend I made about the kind of wives we wanted. He asked me what race and I said, “I don’t even care I don’t discriminate”. He started to laugh and at the end of his laugh he responded, “My n*gga” in a laughing voice. The first reaction I had was complete confusion as if I had never heard that word in my life. The second reaction I had was to just ignore it as I do on a regular basis. The third reaction that came out of my mouth because I was sick of that words pollution. I explained to him the history of the word and how some people take offense. After that he never said it again. On a separate altercation, I was talking with another fellow host brother and he told how he was a gangster and all the bad things he did.
He was dressed like 50cent and used all of the destructive diction there is in rap music. I thought I would never witness this in Africa.

Everything in the above paragraphs is an influence of the Hip-Hop Culture. That’s why I call it a gift and a curse. Hip-Hop today has the power to influence the world. It’s up to the Hip-Hop generation to choose what that influence will be. We can influence people to be prisoners or politicians, Hate speakers or revolutionary public speakers, gangsters or Panthers. Above all Hip-Hip artist must decide between making money or positive change.

Lucias Potter

About Lucias Potter


From Oakland, California, Lucias attended Mandela High School Law and Public Service Academy where he played leadership roles in multiple school- and community-wide organizations. Passionate about social justice, he is a tireless advocate for the rights of people of all colors and sexual orientations. He is currently a Lead Student organizer in Youth Together, where he educates his peers about the inequities of the education system; a Student Ambassador for Project Soar; and a founding member of the Homie Empowerment Project based in East Oakland. In his free time, Lucias enjoys writing poetry inspired by current events.

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