One of my co-workers, who is a f*$#king idiot, (dre if you see this you got owned, ilu :) ) has been chatting to a "hot woman" online for weeks before I convinced him he was being set up by 419 scammers. It revamped my 419 intrest and thanks to ghanamusic, I found a hiplife take on 'I go chop your dollar'. In case anyone is out of loop, chop ya dollar was originally a nigerian pop song performed by Nkem Owoh from the nollywood movie 'The Masters' written from the point of view of a 419 scammer and mocking the occidental mugus who fell for the schemes. As an northeast coast liberal with no small town or family values, its all robin hood / fair game to me.
At first I was gonna call out some Australian reporter for calling the scammers "internet gangsters" which sounded exaggerated/vaguely racist. But turns out there are crews who would love to be taken seriously as such. viola:
Were you wondering if the 419 celebratory phenom goes beyond Anglophone?
I heard that people thought Coupe Decale was all about 419 lifestyle.
Forgive my French, but Coupe means to blow/hit, and Decale run away? The interpretation was get rich by doing a hit and run on Europe.
Great post this one hits home, I feel like Africans in the U.S. when they try to get into business, sometimes these stereotypes filter in to people's minds, and just provides another path to discriminate.
no, i was more wondering if frenchies get as much 419 spam as anglos do. i dunno if its a big part of pop culture like it is here. I also wonder if like macs get less viruses that anglophones get more spam?
yeah i guess coupe decale celibrates 'the 419 lifestyle' but ive never heard it put like that! I always thought the hit and run idea was more about expat 'were here to get money anyway we can' than 419 specifically, but it certainly falls under that umbrella.
The 419 comments brought to mind a lot of convos i had in senegal about complex relationships with hip-hop. On one hand being proud of ingenuity and creativity, another part worrying they were being misrepresented by american and African HH artists, an issue with expats im sure.
An unabashed xenophile, my blog looks at emerging ideas and patterns in global pop music and its audience/reception. Unimpressed with majority music scholorship and journalism, I hope to bring my own perspective to the crowded behemoth that is music bloggery. Other intrests include tourism and nation branding, 'gayness' lived and concieved in pop, and the technologies that connect and divide us.
I recently worked for ACF doing sampling and mapping in Haiti, and will soon be heading back to school to officially pursue public health. I studied critical theory and religious studies at Hobart and William Smith in New York , as well as international relations and development at Université Gaston Berger de Saint-Louis in Senegal.
I do freelance and volunteer writing, grant-writing and french translation for non-profits in the tri-state area.
4 comments:
Were you wondering if the 419 celebratory phenom goes beyond Anglophone?
I heard that people thought Coupe Decale was all about 419 lifestyle.
Forgive my French, but Coupe means to blow/hit, and Decale run away? The interpretation was get rich by doing a hit and run on Europe.
Great post this one hits home, I feel like Africans in the U.S. when they try to get into business, sometimes these stereotypes filter in to people's minds, and just provides another path to discriminate.
no, i was more wondering if frenchies get as much 419 spam as anglos do. i dunno if its a big part of pop culture like it is here. I also wonder if like macs get less viruses that anglophones get more spam?
yeah i guess coupe decale celibrates 'the 419 lifestyle' but ive never heard it put like that! I always thought the hit and run idea was more about expat 'were here to get money anyway we can' than 419 specifically, but it certainly falls under that umbrella.
The 419 comments brought to mind a lot of convos i had in senegal about complex relationships with hip-hop. On one hand being proud of ingenuity and creativity, another part worrying they were being misrepresented by american and African HH artists, an issue with expats im sure.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/7670788.stm
:)
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