African hip hop

Hip hop music has been popular in Africa since the early 1980s due to widespread American influence. In 1985 hip hop reached Senegal, a French-speaking country in West Africa. Some of the first Senegalese rappers were M.C. Lida, M.C. Solaar, and Positive Black Soul, who mixed rap with Mbalax, a type of West African pop music. 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.

There also have been groups in Tanzania and other countries that emceed before 1989, although it is not very well known. During the late 1980s–early 1990s rap started to escalate all over Africa. Each region had a new type of style of hip hop. Rap elements are also found in Kwaito, a new genre based on house music which developed in South Africa in the 1990s.

Algerian hip hop music, as a genre, includes the hip hop music of both native Algerians and Algerians abroad. Algerians living abroad have contributed much to this genre, especially in France, where they are also considered part of the French hip hop scene. Some of these Algerians have become prominent. Algeria also has a hip hop scene, which, while less well-known internationally, is among the most developed in Africa and the Arab world.

Raï is a genre of music which developed in Algeria during the 1920s as rural migrants incorporated their native musical styles into the culture of the growing urban centers of western Algeria.

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