Rap in Greece: Gendered configurations of power in-between the rhymes

Abstract

Hip hop culture in Greece – and especially rap music – seems to be going through a period of bloom. Since 2010, a new generation of Greek-based non-commercial rap artists has surged in popularity, making rhymes and tunes about their everyday experiences (drugs, sex, nightlife, violence, poverty), while self-producing their records and maintaining a critical stance towards mainstream culture and media. In the lyrics of most artists of the genre, misogynist and homophobic assumptions are frequently reproduced, despite the rappers’ expressed militancy against all forms of authority. The article examines this dissonance – created when sexist language is employed in critiques against power – and traces the intersections of gender, sexuality and political resistance within contemporary non-commercial rap in Greece. The authors focus on the produced masculinities and femininities, on the political subjects interpellated by the lyrics and on points of destabilizing regulatory gender norms. More specifically, they highlight the ways in which heteronormative masculinity is reinforced (even) in ‘politically conscious’ Greek-speaking rap and, within the same music genre, we look for its undoing.