A Nigerian literary researcher, Adefunke Eruobodo, has dismissed long-held perceptions that the Nigerian hip hop music genre is anti-intellectual, raw, loud, unserious, and mere noise, insisting that its lyrics are intellectually dense and culturally strategic.
This was revealed in a study conducted by Eruobodo, who shared her findings during a media interaction with our correspondent in Uyo on Saturday.
According to the scholar, in her study Hip Hop Literacy: A Critical Analysis of Code Switching in Asake’s Musical Video “Joha”, nothing in the song is accidental; the language is calculated, and the switches are strategic.
For years, Nigerian hip hop has been labelled “street”—raw, loud, and unserious. Its language has been mocked as broken English, its lyrics dismissed as noise, and its speakers casually excluded from discussions on intelligence, literacy, and learning.
But Eruobodo declared, “Nothing in the song is accidental. The language is calculated. The switches are strategic. ‘Joha’ is no longer just a song—it is a case file. Each lyric is data. Each language switch is evidence. Each response from the crowd is proof. The revelation is simple and explosive: Nigerian hip hop is not anti-intellectual. It is intellectually dense, culturally strategic, and linguistically elite. We have been dancing to literacy all along—and calling it noise.”
Erubodo, who disclosed that the study was published in the International Journal of English Language and Communication Studies, said its findings are radical and deeply uncomfortable for anyone who still believes intelligence wears only one accent.
She asked, “What if we have been wrong all along? Most investigations often begin with a simple question. This one is unsettling: what if Nigerian youth are not linguistically deficient, but linguistically superior to the systems judging them?”
According to her, the study shows that “Joha” deploys six languages in just under three minutes: Yoruba, Nigerian Pidgin English, Standard English, French, Spanish, and Igbo. She added:
“This is not showmanship. It is control.”
She posited that the use of different languages serves specific communication purposes: global languages lure international listeners; indigenous languages secure ownership; while Pidgin collapses class barriers and guarantees mass comprehension.
“Asake uses each language for a specific communicative purpose. Global languages lure international listeners. Indigenous languages secure cultural ownership. Pidgin collapses class barriers and guarantees mass comprehension. The result is a song that speaks to everyone—but never equally. That imbalance is the point. Code-switching as concealment and command.
“The research zeroes in on code-switching: the ability to move between languages mid-thought, mid-line, even mid-sentence. In classrooms, such behaviour is often penalised. In hip hop, it is power,” she added.
Her analysis shows that Asake uses code-switching to control access to meaning.
“Outsiders may hear the beat. Insiders hear the message. Certain lines are legible only to those who understand Nigerian street idioms, cultural metaphors, and linguistic shortcuts.”
This selective intelligibility, the study argues, is a form of resistance.
“It allows artists to speak boldly without fully exposing themselves. It is how critique survives in societies where visibility can attract danger. In other words, Nigerian hip hop is not careless with language; it is careful.”
Eruobodo concluded, “If literacy is defined as the ability to communicate meaning effectively to an intended audience, then Nigerian hip hop artists are highly literate. If literacy requires audience awareness, rhetorical skill, metaphor, timing, and linguistic dexterity, then ‘Joha’ qualifies easily.”
Read the full article here
