In an effort to keep your earbuds satisfied and keep up with the non-stop pace of the internetz, we give you Mixtape Monday’s and we’re sharing it with you every Monday, to help accommodate your week plans. This is the place on the songs you might have missed, and more importantly, the songs you really need in your life this week.

Hip hop music has been popular in Africa since the early 1980s due to widespread American influence. An early South African group was Black Noise. They began as a graffiti and breakdance crew in Cape Town until they started emceeing in 1989. Rap elements are also found in Kwaito, a new genre based on house music which developed in South Africa in the 1990s.

Although the History of South African hip hop in Cape Town can be tracked back to the early 1980s, cultural exchange between the United States, the West Indies, and South Africa was widespread since the 19th century. South African artists were influenced by minstrelsy and swing to bebop and beyond, which was partly in response to British imperialism. The political history of Africa plays a predominant role in South African music. In the late 19th century gold was discovered in Johannesburg, and people from different tribes began to migrate to the Johannesburg area. As a result of the rich diversity of various South African tribes, traditional music of South Africa mixed with European music led to the development of a different sound. The musical and social movement of hip hop in South Africa has grown exponentially in the last two decades, most notoriously in the form of home-grown Kwaito, which is actually a distinct musical genre in itself.

Much of hip hop and Kwaito in South Africa is derived from western beats and tunes mixed with localized rhythms and accents.

Now we’ve spent two to three paragraphs merely scratching the surface of this week’s edition of the South Africa Hip hop history just remember that your opinion always matters, drop us a comment if anything here pleases your ears. Don’t forget to click the music icon above to listen to the mix or press play on the side.

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