Source: Hip Hop African https://hiphopafrican.com/enny-i-want/

Enny is a British rapper born of Nigerian Heritage and raised in Southeast London, more specifically Thamesmead.

She is the daughter of Nigerian immigrants and identifies both with Nigeria culture and the diaspora alongside British culture. In fact, she really does allow her intersectionality in her culture and life shine through in her work.

It makes space for many women who look like her or have her experience in HipHop and/or the world. Emmy credits both her African and English cultures as her inspiration for her music and how it sets her apart.

Enny is a fairly newer artist, so I decided to use her 2021 music video “I want”. In the video Enny gives the viewer a huge glimpse into her British side of her culture.

Using a diner as her main set, she is already showing what being Nigerian in London can look like. Enny serving tables in the video is intentional, and it shows the experience of how many African immigrants have moved from motherland to better their circumstances and give a better life to their children, in fact like Enny’s parents.

Like her parents, many people came to these foreign lands and had to make due with what was available to them, like working a low income job, serving tables at a diner. It is interesting to see this homage being paid, but also how the move many immigrants made for opportunity, wealth and a better life, can sometimes have a negative effect on the generations to come.

In Enny’s lyrics the listener finds more understanding of her and what that experience must be like being a second generation immigrant.

A verse that stuck out was “I am lost in the stew. I’m lost in a concept of fixing a brew. Identity crisis for me and my crew. We’re black and we’re British and African too but so far removed. I’d like to go back to my mothers land.”

Here she talks about being “lost in the stew” and “a concept of fixing a brew” this can be interpreted as a lot of the discourse that can come with being a person of color in the world and that internal fight of caring enough to try to make a change.

When Enny refers to the “identity crisis for me and my crew” this is definitely in reference to the feelings that can come with being of mixed race, of mixed heritage or being a first or second generation immigrant.

Another consistent battle of resonating with the culture, history and memory of the homeland but being brought up in a different culture and indoctrinating that history can be confusing. She also references her “crew” frequently which usually is just considered her friends, whom probably could have a shared experience.

The “crew” could also be all the Nigerian/British citizens or even the whole African diaspora of people who go through this constant confusion of belonging and identity crisis. These same people who feel “so far removed” like Enny stated in the song.

The idea of culture shedding through the generations as a result of trying to better the circumstances of the people of said culture is an idea that can cause someone’s head to spin continuously. I believe that Enny displayed all of those thoughts while delivering a banger of a song quite well.