Out of all of the songs that I have taken a listen to by JZyNO over the last few days, "Joy", was truly my favorite. This song resonated with me on a personal level as I am sure it does with most of its listeners.

This song delivers a powerful and inspiring message about emotional resilience. The song is a call to listeners to rise up in the face of hardship and to be grateful for where there are and not where they think they should be. This powerful message can apply to anyone no matter where they are in life. Somewhere, somehow, everyone always desires more. JZyNO appeals to Liberian society and the broader African diaspora. He encourages his people, our people, to choose joy. This is a choice of resistance. His words are a call-to-action to actively seek joy which is not something that can be taken from someone; joy is an everlasting thing.

"Joy" reflects all the hardships our people face: economic uncertainty, personal loss, and social pressure but pushes back against it. It is important to acknowledge the adversity but to not sit in it. Joy's uplifting beat and inspiring lyrics, "The devil keeps fighting, and they can keep hating, but nobody stand in my way," is just the song to jam in your car when you need a pick-me-up. JZyNO encourages his listeners not to ignore the challenges that life throws at them; those are inevitable. The music video of the song is even set with him singing and dancing in a trench like those used in World War II. This motivational anthem reaffirms our right to choose joy and the path that we want to take.

This resonated with me well as someone who moves through life always remembering that it is what you make it. Perception is everything; the way that you view a situation determines your feelings towards it. And if you're anything like me, those feelings can determine your mood for the day and impact how you do other things. "Joy" by JZyNO is a reminder to ground oneself.

This episode of The Hip Hop African Podcast features Dokta, a pioneering Senegalese graffiti artist, cultural organizer, and hip-hop activist whose work has been central to the development of African graffiti and street art since the late 1980s. Coming to hip-hop through graffiti, breakdancing, and MCing, Dokta represents an early generation of African hip-hop practitioners who understood the culture as a tool for education, community engagement, and social critique.

“I don’t make art just to make it beautiful. I make art to talk to the people.”

As a founding member of the Doxandem Squad and the creator of FESTIGRAFF, one of Africa’s most significant international graffiti festivals, Dokta has helped position African graffiti within global hip-hop networks while maintaining its grounding in local realities. In this conversation, he explains how graffiti in African contexts functions differently than in Europe or the United States—serving not only as visual culture, but as a form of public pedagogy that speaks directly to everyday social and political conditions.

“Graffiti is respect—respect for the community, and respect given back.”

Dokta discusses mentoring youth, resisting artistic imitation, and the responsibility of hip-hop artists to remain accountable to the communities they represent. His reflections offer valuable insight into African hip-hop as a lived practice, an archive of urban experience, and a form of knowledge production.

In this episode of The Hip Hop African Podcast, Dr. Msia Kibona Clark sits down with South African hip hop pioneer DJ Ready D — legendary turntablist, founding member of Prophets of Da City (POC), cultural educator, community builder, and one of the most important figures in shaping Cape Town’s hip hop identity.

“We were the first generation, so nobody understood this music — they watched their kids transform in front of their eyes.”

Ready D reflects on discovering hip hop during the final years of District Six, just before families were forcibly removed under apartheid. He discusses how hearing Rapper’s Delight for the first time created an unexpected bridge between U.S. hip hop and his own lived experiences, and how the trauma of displacement and the political climate of the 1980s deepened his connection to the culture.

From the rise of Cape Town’s early B-boy crews, to the formation of an African-centered hip hop movement, to his powerful contributions as a DJ, radio host, mentor, and intergenerational collaborator, Ready D offers a rare and deeply personal account of hip hop’s development in South Africa. He also looks forward — reflecting on the evolution of DJing, the challenges of the contemporary scene, and the community-based projects he’s building today.

“If you want to be good, you must be prepared to be a student for life.”

This is a rich conversation about culture, politics, craft, and legacy — from one of hip hop’s most respected global pioneers.