Constructing and Stylizing Corruption in Nigerian Hip-Hop Music: A Critical Stylistic Analysis of Selected Songs of Innocent Idibia (2FACE)

Abstract

The corruption index of almost all the African countries over the years have continued to soar in a geometric progression while the development of the continent is in arithmetic progression. It stands to wonder if this cankerworm has been institutionalized in the continent. This study therefore explores how Nigerian hip-hop songs construct and stylize corruption using the theoretical approach of critical stylistics. The study also investigates the satirical representation of corruption and decadence in the political terrain among African political leaders. The data for the study were drawn from selected musical lyrics of Innocent Idibia popularly known as 2FACE (E be like say and for instance) which were accessed from the internet. The study shows how the artiste represents African political leaders and the decadence in her polity among the rest of the world, using linguistic resources. In constructing the leaders, the hip-hop songs deployed the use of language in packaging up information that links the leaders with activities which evidently portray them as being corrupt. The relational process of identifying the leaders with acts considered to be cruel and evil; and the tool of implying and assuming reveal the implicit linguistic items which politicians use to encode their shady and pretentious activities while raping and maiming the masses who elected them.