Gangsta Rap Research Articles

Ideology of rap music and its linguistic representation in the lyrics of English song discourse

The article gives characteristics of rap as a music style and considers the process of its birth and formation of its ideology in late 1970-ies – early 1980-ies within the framework of a wider subcultural trend known as hip-hop. The main ideological principles of the early rap in the interpretation of one of its principal ideologists Africaa Bambaataa, as well as their linguistic representation in song lyrics are given. Further on, the article discusses such an important principle of rap ideology as its protest nature, which is also illustrated with fragments from song lyrics. Special emphasis is laid on anti-commercial nature of rap, which is also reflected in its lyrics. After that the principle of reliance on one’s community, also extremely important for understanding the ideological foundation of this music style, is discussed and provided with examples. Then the article presents and illustrates the principle of freedom, which has a very broad understanding in rap ideology. Distinction between «conscious rap» and «gangster rap» is made and the ideological principles of «gangsta rap» are presented and illustrated with examples from song lyrics. The final part discusses the reasons for rap’s popularity and the conclusion summarise the main points of the article.

Finnish and Swedish ‘gangsta rap’ as a window on the dismantlement of the Nordic welfare state

Sweden, often cited as an exemplary welfare state, has experienced a significant increase in gang-related gun violence in recent years. In parallel, Finland debates the growing problem of youth violence and street gangs. The media discourse surrounding these issues often focuses on ‘gangsta rap’ and certain artists within the genre. Despite rap music’s popularity and expression of underprivileged and racialised youth globally, it has earlier been subject to policing and criminalisation, now introduced in the Nordic countries. Using Finnish and Swedish media discourse and rap lyrics and videos as data, this article contributes to prior understanding by 1) linking narratives of ‘gangsta rap’ to the dismantling of the Nordic welfare state, 2) highlighting the racist targeting of ethnic minorities through the public discussions of rappers and 3) discussing similarities and differences between Sweden and Finland, adding nuance to understanding how rap and its criminalisation vary across countries.

Idoya Puig and Karl McLaughlin, eds. Spanish Golden Age Texts in the Twenty-First Century: Teaching the Old Through the New; Alba Carmona. Las reescrituras fílmicas de la comedia nueva: Un siglo en la gran pantalla

Idoya Puig and Karl McLaughlin, eds. <i>Spanish Golden Age Texts in the Twenty-First Century: Teaching the Old Through the New</i>; Alba Carmona. <i>Las reescrituras fílmicas de la comedia nueva: Un siglo en la gran pantalla</i>

Crime as Pop: Gangsta Rap as Popular Staging of Norm Violations

Crime is quantified extensively, mostly in order to prevent it, therefore assuming it as something purely negative. With the concept “Crime as Pop” we argue that such a view is one-sided, since crime is often staged as something that can be attractive and that can be used constructively for different purposes. We investigate this perspective by studying gangsta rap, which we consider a pop-cultural phenomenon that young people relate to in the context of interactive practices of identity construction. The stories told in gangsta rap are used by the youth recipients in a situation- and location-specific manner to present themselves in a certain way. Young people reproduce motifs of success that often characterize gangsta rap. They portray themselves as agentive and stage forms of resistance against people and institutions to which they might otherwise appear passive and powerless. Young people’s engagement with gangsta rap thus shows how the pop-cultural phenomena can be appropriated in many different ways. “Crime as Pop” illustrates the contingent connections of cultural phenomena and their appropriation that require detailed empirical reconstruction.

"Smoke the Weed" for the Planet: Snoop Lion's Green Reincarnation of Hip Hop

While early hip hop could still offer social commentary, global issues began to disappear from the genre by the late 90s and early 2000s. Due to gangsta rap’s emphasis on authenticity and on the individual’s ‘realness,’ issues of social and environmental justice seem to have become increasingly inaccessible to rap music: any attempts to address wider, ‘real’ issues, if they were to happen, took the risk of appearing not ‘real’ but inauthentic, cynical capitalizations on social issues at best. This paper seeks to outline how Snoop Lion’s Reincarnated (2013) and in particular its eighth track “Smoke the Weed” employs the imagery of Reggae and Rastafarianism to reconstitute, transform, or “reincarnate” hip hop and thereby once again open it up to social and environmental commentary. While at first sight it is merely another glorification of recreational marihuana use in line with Snoop Dogg’s earlier, pre-Lion oeuvre, “Smoke the Weed” offers a highly complex critique of the environment and humans’ place and agency within it. “Smoke the Weed” can be seen to discuss, primarily through the metaphors of seeds, plant-growth, and marihuana use, the interconnection between (the necessity for) social action and (the necessity for) environmental action. Snoop harnesses the performativity of gangsta rap to offer a sincere, if never really ‘authentic,’ vision of green street consciousness. Through his clear lack of ‘realness’ as a Reggae artist, Snoop Lion can mobilize ‘naturalness’ for hip hop.

Norteño Corporeality: Body, Gender, Sound, and Economy in Commercialized Norteño Music Videos

ABSTRACT This article analyzes norteño corporeality, or how bodies physically engage with norteño music and visually display norteño identities. Through a comparison of more than 75 mainstream videos, it explains how current norteño corporeality differs from earlier corporealities, why it differs from tejano ones, and why it strongly resembles those of gangsta rap. Using an interdisciplinary approach, the article focuses on the banal and the ordinary in musical performance; in so doing it shows how gender and race interact with and are affected by neoliberalism in the US-Mexico border area.

Review: To Live and Defy in LA: How Gangsta Rap Changed America, by Felicia Angeja Viator

Review: <i>To Live and Defy in LA: How Gangsta Rap Changed America</i>, by Felicia Angeja Viator

Editors’ Note

Editors’ Note

To Live and Defy in La: How Gangsta Rap Changed America

To Live and Defy in <scp>La</scp>: How Gangsta Rap Changed America

Review: To Live and Defy in LA: How Gangsta Rap Changed America, by Felicia Angeja Viator

Review: <i>To Live and Defy in LA: How Gangsta Rap Changed America</i>, by Felicia Angeja Viator

Review: To Live and Defy in LA: How Gangsta Rap Changed America, by Felicia Angeja Viator

Book Review| February 01 2021 Review: To Live and Defy in LA: How Gangsta Rap Changed America, by Felicia Angeja Viator TO LIVE AND DEFY IN LA: How Gangsta Rap Changed America. By Felicia Angeja Viator (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2020, 337 pp., $35.00 hardcover). Gerald Horne Gerald Horne Gerald Horne holds the Moores Profe:essorship of History and African American studies at University of Houston. He has authored more than thirty books, including Jazz and Justic Racism and the Political Economy of the Music, and is currently researching U.S.-Southern African relations since the so-called “Anglo-Boer War” and the political economy of jazz from the 19th century to the present. Search for other works by this author on: This Site PubMed Google Scholar Southern California Quarterly (2021) 103 (1): 146–148. https://doi.org/10.1525/scq.2021.103.1.146 Views Icon Views Article contents Figures & tables Video Audio Supplementary Data Peer Review Share Icon Share Twitter LinkedIn Tools Icon Tools Cite Icon Cite Search Site Citation Gerald Horne; Review: To Live and Defy in LA: How Gangsta Rap Changed America, by Felicia Angeja Viator. Southern California Quarterly 1 February 2021; 103 (1): 146–148. doi: https://doi.org/10.1525/scq.2021.103.1.146 Download citation file: Ris (Zotero) Reference Manager EasyBib Bookends Mendeley Papers EndNote RefWorks BibTex toolbar search Search Dropdown Menu toolbar search search input Search input auto suggest filter your search All ContentSouthern California Quarterly Search This content is only available via PDF. © 2021 by The Historical Society of Southern California. All rights reserved.2021 Article PDF first page preview Close Modal You do not currently have access to this content.

Fenomeno Speranza: la voce dura della banlieue casertana

Speranza, an Italian-French rapper, in recent years has made a name for himself within the newItalian dialectal rap scene. His music portrays life in the Campania province of Caserta with a style that is reminiscent of gangsta rap reworked to be both ironic and irreverent. This article analyzes a corpus of six songs released by the campanian artist on YouTube between 2017 and 2019. The description of a harsh reality, implemented through a particular verbal violence, is the main feature of his rap music, interesting both on a textual and musical level.

When We Come Together, We Build Theory

Research Article| January 11 2021 When We Come Together, We Build Theory: Working the Second Shift in the Undercommon Enclave Bryan J. McCann, Bryan J. McCann Bryan J. McCann is associate professor in the Department of Communication Studies at Louisiana State University. He affiliates with the African and African American Studies Program and the Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Program. He is author of the book The Mark of Criminality: Rhetoric, Race, and Gangsta Rap in the War-on-Crime Era (University of Alabama Press, 2017). Search for other works by this author on: This Site PubMed Google Scholar Serap Erincin, Serap Erincin Serap Erincin, an artist scholar from Istanbul, is assistant professor of Performance Studies and affiliated faculty in Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at LSU. She publishes widely on experimental performance and social justice performance and is the editor of Solum and Other Plays from Turkey and and a special issue of Liminalities: A Journal of Performance Studies on silence and stillness. Her multimedia performances and installations engage narratives of human rights violations and environmental concerns. Search for other works by this author on: This Site PubMed Google Scholar Ashley Noel Mack, Ashley Noel Mack Ashley Noel Mack is assistant professor in the Department of Communication Studies at Louisiana State University. They affiliate with the African and African American Studies Program and the Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Program. Their work has appeared in journals such as Communication and Critical/Cultural Studies and Women’s Studies in Communication. Search for other works by this author on: This Site PubMed Google Scholar William O. Saas William O. Saas William O. Saas is assistant professor in the Department of Communication Studies at Louisiana State University. He is a research fellow for the Global Institute for Sustainable Prosperity. His work has appeared in journals such as Advances in the History of Rhetoric and Rhetoric & Public Affairs. He co-hosts the podcast Money on the Left. Search for other works by this author on: This Site PubMed Google Scholar Journal of Autoethnography (2021) 2 (1): 113–118. https://doi.org/10.1525/joae.2021.2.1.113 Views Icon Views Article contents Figures & tables Video Audio Supplementary Data Peer Review Share Icon Share Twitter LinkedIn Tools Icon Tools Get Permissions Cite Icon Cite Search Site Citation Bryan J. McCann, Serap Erincin, Ashley Noel Mack, William O. Saas; When We Come Together, We Build Theory: Working the Second Shift in the Undercommon Enclave. Journal of Autoethnography 11 January 2021; 2 (1): 113–118. doi: https://doi.org/10.1525/joae.2021.2.1.113 Download citation file: Ris (Zotero) Reference Manager EasyBib Bookends Mendeley Papers EndNote RefWorks BibTex toolbar search Search Dropdown Menu toolbar search search input Search input auto suggest filter your search All ContentJournal of Autoethnography Search Situated in a forum dedicated to the reflexive analysis of academic labor, this piece takes stock in the salience of space and place for the kinds of work we can collaboratively perform, and when and where such work can occur. Much of what follows approximates conversations we have had with each other and fellow activist colleagues in campus hallways and offices, at each other’s houses, in local coffee shops or hotel bars at national conferences, and increasingly over digital environs to think through manifestations of injustice in a multitude of forms at the University. For us, the second shift is often a matter of survival for it is where we address the work that is met with dismissal, condescension, or retaliation during the first shift. And here we find ourselves recording these utterances and thoughts on the written page. As we have discussed this project amongst ourselves, we have also... You do not currently have access to this content.

‘When whites catch a cold, black folks get pneumonia’: a look at racialized poverty, space and HIV/AIDS

ABSTRACT This paper explores the lived experiences of former NBA player Magic Johnson, and the late ‘Godfather of Gangsta Rap’ Eazy E to examine how their everyday realities as Black men with different socio-economic opportunities around the Civil Rights era affected their fight against HIV. Johnson contracted HIV nearly 30 years ago, and continues to live a healthy, productive life. Eazy E on the other hand, contracted the virus around the same time and later succumbed to AIDS. The differences in the lived experiences of the two men warrant scholarly attention, particularly now amidst the Covid-19 pandemic. Their differences in social position, stemming from the uneven inequities of the culture and racialization of poverty, much like the wider global epidemic of HIV/AIDS itself, are crucial in the spread and survival rate of those that contract HIV. Overall, then, this paper aims to address the following research question: how do social issues of space and racialized poverty affect the lived experiences of African Americans with HIV? This paper will examine the production of social space and spatial structural violence, as well as racialized poverty, and their effects on likelihood of infection and survival of HIV and infectious disease more broadly.

‘We [mostly] carry guns for the internet’: Visibility labour, social hacking and chasing digital clout by Black male youth in Chicago’s drill rap scene

Much negative attention has been given to the ‘drill’ music genre, a subgenre of gangsta rap that was born in Chicago’s underground hip hop scene in early 2010s. Previous scholarship has highlighted how social media has shifted how gang-affiliated youth in Chicago carefully manage their street reputations, communicate with peers and fuel gang rivalries through platformed creation. Yet still, in the context of drill, I argue that social media self-branding practices also provide these youth a way out of containment and sequestration to gain visibility in the music industry and empower their neighbourhoods. Based on interviews with drill recording artists and their support workers, I explore the content and character of their work, the centrality of work ethic to their racial identity construction and the way they use social media work to build and maintain status, authenticity and cultivate connections with fans, friends and other cultural producers. Bridging traditional theories of urban sociology with emerging new media scholarship, I suggest this group of artists is a representative case of how the digital practices of disadvantaged Black youth have typically gone mischaracterized in the literature. This study offers new insights into ‘capping’ as an important tenet to hip hop’s visibility labour on social media and how the ‘always on’ nature of digital labour adds another dimension to the typical utilization of street authenticity in narratives of hip hop music. This article concludes by illuminating the many deep contradictions and misconceptions about technological ingenuity, Black youth agency, hip hop culture and street credibility in urban communities.

The Mark of Criminality: Rhetoric, Race, and Gangsta Rap in the War-on-Crime Era

The Mark of Criminality: Rhetoric, Race, and Gangsta Rap in the War-on-Crime Era

Swearing as a method of antipedagogy in workshops of rap lyrics for ‘failing boys’ in vocational education

ABSTRACT Public debates in Finland on the unwillingness of boys to learning literacy have called for masculine role models to promote reading. This article analyses a privately funded project where two adult males lead a series of gangsta rap workshops during the Finnish language and communication lessons. The workshops were aimed at students in male-dominated fields in vocational education and training (VET). From a methodological perspective, this study contributes to the field of feminist ethnography, and the article draws from sociolinguistic research on swearing. The analysis demonstrates how the workshop leaders profile the students as ‘laddish’, which justifies the leaders’ swearing and thus creates an affiliation to working-class, anti-school masculinities. The article concludes by reformulating the concept of antipedagogy that intersects the ‘failing boys’ discourse with neoliberal mentalities of education. This involves a necessity for leaders to please by performing ‘laddism’ and drawing distinctions within the educational context.

Pop Culture's Influence on Recreational Marijuana Use &amp;amp; Legislation: A Case Study on Snoop Dogg

Marijuana has taken a long journey through the court of public opinion; from condemned fringe use in minority communities and by jazz musicians through the 20s and 40s, to its heyday in the 60s and 70s era of Woodstock and Bob Dylan, only to be villainized again in the 80s and 90s. Today, the public perception of marijuana is dawning a new era of acceptance, in no small part thanks to its normalization in rap music and white America’s embrace of men like Calvin Broadus, also known as Snoop Doggy Dogg. Modern popular culture has slowly changed the public perception of recreational marijuana use and paved the way for legalization. Social scientists have been able to link the lyrics in popular music to the attitudes in popular opinion, and this paper will focus on the influence of hip hop, gangsta rap, the cult of celebrity, and Snoop Dogg himself on modern legalization efforts and cannabusiness.

‘Kollegah the Boss’: A case study of persona, types of capital, and virtuosity in German gangsta rap

AbstractThe article begins with a short history of German gangsta rap, followed by an overview of central theories and key concepts in hip-hop studies. It then focuses on a case study of a German gangsta rapper called Kollegah, who became one of Germany's most commercially successful artists of the past few years. The case study is divided into three parts: the first involves a deconstruction of both his artistic persona and his strategies of appropriating hip-hop cultures. This is followed by a closer look at two Kollegah productions, focusing on his rhyming and signifying skills. By adding a cursory qualitative media analysis of both Internet fan forums and print and television artefacts about Kollegah, very contradictory reactions can be depicted. The article is finally able to illustrate that this artist makes great use of a (typically German?) flavour of virtuosity and that he can draw from a very unique set of capital. Kollegah is viewed as representing a successful strategy of cultural appropriation and the use of different types of capital within the network of music business in its post-digital era.

Отзвуки «блэкфейса» и менестрель-шоу в современной американской культуре: репрезентация афроамериканских женщин в гангста-рэпе

Отзвуки «блэкфейса» и менестрель-шоу в современной американской культуре: репрезентация афроамериканских женщин в гангста-рэпе