Identity Construction Strategies in Muslim hip-hop. A multimodal analysis of the work of the German rapper Sahira

Abstract

The aim of Nadja Thoma's paper is to explore how young Muslim artists construct identity within contemporary hip-hop culture in Germany. Using the example of the rapper Sahira,the author focuses on the following questions: Which strategies are used to express religious identities in hip-hop? Which modifications of the traditional hip-hop culture can be observed within and through elements of Muslim culture and religion? The data used in the paper ranges from visual resources (a CD cover and the logo of the record label) to song lyrics and interview excerpts. In the first section of her paper the author offers an orientation towards hip-hop culture, introducing a number of important cultural concepts for the successive discussion. Then she provides an overview of discussions about the permissivity of music, especially hip-hop and Islam. Finally, Thoma deals with identity construction in German hip-hop culture and discusses of how cultural and religious identity is constructed in the work of the German rapper Sahira. At the conclusion, Nadja Thoma states, that multimodal analysis shows that German Muslim rap is the achievement of a recontextualization process, wherein a global cultural model has been adapted to a specific audience in a different reception country. Beyond the mere use of different languages as markers for ethnic belonging, Sahira uses religious visual codes and linguistic phrases in order to transgress ethnic differences and monocultural, monoreligious or Islamophobic conceptions which, in her opinion, could restrict communication. Furthermore, the different visual and linguistic elements are a demonstration of Sahira's ability to insert new elements into the existing hip-hop culture, one of the abilities which label someone a good and real rapper.