Straight Outta Kathmandu (Notes on Hip-Hop in Nepal)

Uniq Poet and Bluesss: Straight Outta Kathmandu (2019)

They 'hip to the hop like a black man do ...'

 

 

I. 

 

In one of D. H. Lawrence's most amusing and, in my view, most important articles, he complains about the way in which "two little white-haired English ladies" [1] staying in the room next to his at a hotel in Geneva, continually interrupt his contemplation of the world by transporting him off his balcony; "away from the glassy lake, the veiled mountains, the two men mowing, and the cherry-trees, away into the troubled ether of international politics" [2].   

 

His point being that he is "not allowed to sit like a dandelion on his own stem" [3] and muse over the things that directly concern him, or that are actually present. Why, he wonders, do so many modern people insist on talking about abstract ideas and caring about people they've never met and places they'll never visit, rather than live on the spot where they are ...? 

 

 

II.  

 

I was reminded of this at a recent SIG meeting [4] where the topic for discussion was hip-hop and youth culture in post-war Nepal ... 

 

Obviously, no one present had any direct experience or knowledge of the topic, but most had done the required reading beforehand [5] so conversation (of sorts) became possible and, despite what Lawrence says above, I found it quite interesting and took away four main points from the essay by Kritika Chettri:

 

(i) Globalisation needn't simply be read as a euphemism for Western imperialism; it is not just an attempt to impose cultural homogeneity, but can provide agency to local actors by exposing them to alien ideas, such as hip-hop, and new technologies. 

      

(ii) In Nepal, these local actors were at first the privileged urban youth based in Kathmandu who had the resources and opportunities to access the culture of hip-hop (its music and fashions). However, hip-hop soon spread like Maoist wildfire amongst the rural youth as well and took on a different character; one related to the folk culture and oral traditions of Nepal, but now in relation to global modernity. 

 

(iii) Hip-hop in Nepal allows for a reinterpretation of national political discourse, but from a different cultural perspective; it is, as Chettri writes, 'a ready vehicle for voicing youth concerns'. Nevertheless, the same old issues to do with class, caste, ethnicity, gender, etc., soon arise. 

 

(iv) Unfortunately, in Nepal as elsewhere, hip-hop remains a scene dominated by a lot of angry (and often misogynistic) young men and some of the language - not so much of delinquency, but of militant asceticism - is profoundly depressing. The author ponders (somewhat wistfully) at the end of her essay whether the introduction of more female rappers will bring about change and make Nepalese hip-hop a bit more progressive. 

      Personally, I doubt it; this is a country where, for example, arranged marriage (often with child brides) is still the norm and where there are still witch hunts in which elderly, usually lower caste women are beaten, tortured, force fed excrement, and sometimes burnt alive. I suspect it's therefore going to take more than spitting a few bars or busting some rhymes to change things anytime soon.              

 

  

Notes

 

[1] D. H. Lawrence, 'Insouciance', in Late Essays and Articles, ed. James T. Boulton (Cambridge University Press, 2004), p. 95.

 

[2] Ibid. 

 

[3] Ibid., p. 96. 

 

[4] The Subcultures Interest Group (SIG) is an informal collective operating out of the University of the Arts London (UAL), concerned with what we might briefly describe as the politics of style and offering resistance to temporal colonisation; i.e., the imposition of a perpetual present in which it becomes increasingly difficult to imagine a future (or remember a past) that is radically different. I have published several SIG-themed posts here on Torpedo the Ark, which can be read by clicking here.

 

[5] Kritika Chettri, 'Straight Outta Kathmandu: Hip-hop and Youth Culture in Post-war Nepal', in Music, Subcultures and Migration, ed. Elke Weesjes and Matthew Worley (Routledge, 2024), pp. 203-216.  

 

 

Musical bonus: 'Straight Outta Kathmandu', by Uniq Poet and Bluesss (ft. MC Dave), taken from the album Blue Up High (2019): click here to play on YouTube.      

 

  

And They Dance by the Light of the Moon ...

A Buffalo Gal as imagined by Mclaren and Westwood

 in their Nostalgia of Mud collection (1982/83) 

I.

Buffalo Gals is a popular 19th-century American folk song, written and published by the blackface minstrel John Hodges (aka Cool White) in 1844, although earlier versions are likely to have existed.

Contrary to what many people believe, the song doesn't refer to a particularly tough breed of cowgirl who hunted bison on the Great Plains. Rather, it refers to the dancing girls who performed in the many bars, concert halls, and brothels in the notorious Canal district of Buffalo, New York. 

However, the song continues to incite many imaginative interpretations. For example, some insist that it takes its inspiration from an old legend that tells of how the spirits of wild animals sometimes take the form of attractive young women, in order to seduce innocent cowboys sleeping beneath the stars.


II.

Unsurprisingly, when I hear the words Buffalo Gals, I also think of the 1982 single by Malcolm McLaren and the World's Famous Supreme Team, produced by Trevor Horn, that combines scratching with square dancing in a fabulously eccentric hip-hop manner - much to the horror of the record company bosses who were initially reluctant to release the track.        

In many ways, this song was more groundbreaking than Anarchy in the UK, helping as it did introduce hip-hop culture to a wider (whiter) audience; the video for the song not only featured breakdancing - courtesy of the Rock Steady Crew - but also showed rappers and graffiti artists in action.

Oh, and of course, it also featured models wearing McLaren and Westwood's latest fashions from their brilliant Nostalgia of Mud collection; a collection which attempted to show how haute couture and other aspects of Western culture retained primitive roots; or how even modernity essentially lives off the traditions it insists it has left behind.

Further, as Yvonne Gold, the make-up artist who worked on the McLaren-Westwood fashion shows, points out, the soft, unstructured tailoring with exposed seams that characterised the above collection was the antithesis of the yuppie power suit:   

"Buffalo girls wore hip-slung dirndl skirts over padded petticoats, with baby-sling-bags across their backs and hoodies topped with Buffalo hats, or T-shirt Grecian toga dresses with conical vintage satin bras worn over the top."

She continues: 

"The legacy of raw-edged, reversed-seamed sheepskin coats lives on as a classic, and wearing a hoodie under a tailored jacket or a bra as outerwear has become standard. The conceptual black painted strip mask is still seen on catwalks in infinite variations. Three and a half decades later, the iconic Buffalo hat has been revitalized by [musician] Pharrell, and you can find entire ensembles in the collections of international museums and individual collectors [...] keeping the Buffalo legacy alive."

It's such a pity, therefore, that the McLaren-Westwood design collaboration ended soon afterwards. We can only dream of what might have been, for whilst, obviously, we know how Westwood's career in fashion developed post-Malcolm, we don't know what sartorial innovations the latter would have produced had he continued working in the rag trade.*

* Having said that, see the astonishing post by Paul Gorman on McLaren's 'lost collection' intended to accompany his album Fans (1984): click here.

See: Yvonne Gold, 'Vivienne Westwood's Radically Chic Nostalgia of Mud', Another Magazine (15 March, 2016): click here to read online.

Play: Malcolm McLaren and the World's Famous Supreme Team, 'Buffalo Gals' (1982), single from the album Duck Rock (Charisma Records, 1983): click here.