Nii Kotei Nikoi | Hiplife Music Videos and Social Media

Nii Kotei Nikoi is Assistant Professor, Global Media and Digital Studies, at The College of Wooster. Nii Kotei studies African popular culture. He is interested in how meaning-making practices inherently relate to broader questions of power among axes of social difference and hierarchy (race, ethnicity, class, gender, sexuality, nationality and language). His research is theoretically informed by critical cultural studies, cultural production, political economy of communication, and decoloniality. He employs qualitative and visual methodologies to examine these concerns. His creative practice draws on my background in graphic design and documentary photography. Currently, his research examines development discourse in Ghanaian popular culture.

Further Reading:

Clark, Msia Kibona. "Hip Hop as Social Commentary in Accra and Dar es Salaam." African Studies Quarterly 13.3 (2012)
Oduro-Frimpong, Joseph. "Glocalization trends: The case of hiplife music in contemporary Ghana." International journal of Communication 3 (2009): 22.
Osumare, Halifu. The hiplife in Ghana: West African indigenization of hip-hop. Springer, 2012.
Shipley, Jesse Weaver. Living the Hiplife: celebrity and entrepreneurship in Ghanaian popular music. Duke University Press, 2013.
Nikoi, Nii Kotei. "Hiplife Music in Ghana: Postcolonial Performances of the Good Life." International Journal of Communication 14 (2020): 19.