In model C schools, were the teachers all American? (again, no hate, just asking because I don't know).
not at all! not even one! read the text bruh.. i'll say it again.. What business of yours, or anyone else, the accent in which any NON-ENGLISHMAN speaks English? y shud i bother myself tryina figure out a 'South African English accent'
is it not good enough for YOU that i got my XHOSA on lock? accent, the works!!!
back to my question, I can speak YOUR language better than most people who come from English speaking homes.. How well do YOU know MINE?
p.s Its bad enuf that i was forced to be raised in an Africa where its near impossible to be someone if u can't read and/or write English, now i gotta explain why i speak it in a different accent.. by an englishman(no diss)!!! come on Damien... let it go! for real tho
No doubt. I co-sign this to the max. Koli should replace Dplanet as a moderator.
I don't see what my ability to speak isiXhosa has got to do with this debate. This isn't about a white foreigner telling South Africans how they should speak English - this is not what I'm doing. I am trying to understand why so many of our rappers adopt American accents and the impact this has on SA hip hop.
Generally-speaking, non-American rappers around the world adopt American accents because that is their reference to how Hip Hop 'should' sound. Sadly, this implies that speaking English with a non-America accent isn't cool - this is manifested in every form of copycat media we have in SA (from Tbo Touch to the Channel O voiceover saying, "proudly South African", with a strong American accent). We went through the same thing in the UK. It took more than 10 years for English people to accept English rappers rapping with an English accent (we had funny American accents in the UK too!). There are some insanely talented UK emcees, but I bet most of you don't like them because you can't get past the accent sounding 'funny' to you - I've heard that opinion expressed on AG many times. American even went through this phenomenon where cats would laugh at 'dumb country accents' from the South. They're not laughing now.
We're all conditioned to believe Hip Hop should sound a certain way - it's hard to break this conditioning and SA hip hop is still struggling to find its identity. Many of the Spaza cats I work with have spent years being looked down upon for rhyming in their mother tongues by English-speaking emcees. Explicit even came on AG to diss Rattex for 'sounding horrible' in English. Let's not even start on Afrikaans emcees, who a lot of English-speaking emcees still won't even give the time of day to.
What business do I have making comments about accents? Well,,, one of my businesses is a record label. There's no hiding from the fact that the 'American Accent' debate is an important one in South African hip hop, and for the South African public who we want to buy our music. I have to think about the direction the label is taking and make decisions about who to sign and what to release. I have to engage with this debate on a daily basis. The countless emails I get every day from people thanking me for pushing Spaza and Afrikaans hip hop because it makes them proud of where they come from makes me believe in what we're doing. Our growing fan base, ever-increasing sales, licensing and sponsorship opportunities also makes me believe.
However, if you believe my opinions aren't valid because I don't speak isiXhosa, just ignore them.
