Rapping Islam: A Comparative Study of Hip Hop Culture in Indonesia, Tunisia and the United States

Abstract

The thesis analyses Muslim youth hip hop cultures in three countries of Indonesia, Tunisia and the United States. Hip hop and its Islamic roots have often been mentioned by African-American hip hop pioneers and the Muslim hip hoppers in Muslim countries. Hip hop often represents marginal youths’ symbolic resistance against racism, police brutality and poverty in an American context. Its marriage to Islamic ideology creates a space for further research and investigation. The hip hop prophecies of liberty, hope and success together with Islamic standards and moral values of redemption, equality and promoting virtue and preventing vice1, have shaped vibrant youth scenes in post-Suharto Indonesia (1998 onwards), post- Ben Ali’s Tunisia (2011 onwards) and the United states in the time of Obama (2009-2017). The thesis is built on data from ethnographic fieldwork that was carried out for 13 months (July 2014-august 2015) in Indonesia, Tunisia and the United States. Data collection was done through interviews with 56 participants in the hip hop scene in the three countries (musicians, venue managers, home studio owners, break dancers, graffiti artists, and rappers); through participant observations at hip hop gigs, graffiti art exhibitions, and recording studios. There was also a considerable amount of data gathered from Internet Websites, rap lyrics, news articles and other similar texts.