Critical Review on "The Rapper as Modern" by Patricia Tang

In Tang's article, she examines the development of the hip-hop scene in Senegal by connecting the ways in which American hip-hop has been influenced by its African roots, and has then come full circle to influence Africa with an emergence of its popularity within 1980s Senegal. In examining the outburst of Senegalese rappers, she distinguishes the connections that are made between the traditional concept of "griot" or "djelly", and the notion of the "modern griot".

Tang portrays the notion of griot, as it is traditionally known, as a historically situated, romanticized concept "from which the modern griot has evolved over time" (81). However it is noted that the concept of griot has been falling out of popularity due to the negative connotations surrounding it.While hip-hop in America is viewed as the evolution of the African griot, couldn't it be argued that it is actually the Senegalese rappers who have evolved the role of griot into the "modern griot"? American artists, such as Kanye West, do not seem to even recognize the negative conception of griot that has been increasingly attributed to the term. In fact, Kanye West seems to further the negative image of the griot by associating the term with his own public statements and actions. Thus, shouldn't the Senagalese artists coin a new term for the "modern griot", just as they have done with mbalax, to distinguish it from the connotations and image of a traditional griot?