Grabbar från förorten och extraordinära rövarbröder från Södermalm - Konstruktion av kulturell identitet i svensk hip hop

Sammanfattning: Title: Guys from the suburb and extraordinary robbers from Södermalm. The construction of cultural identity in Swedish hip hopmusic. Aim: The aim of the essay was to investigate how texts from three Swedish Hip Hop artists construct representations of reality. The main focus of the essay was to look at the (re)construction of cultural identity within the Swedish Hip Hop culture. Questions that have been dealt with are: ethnicity, globalisation and different aspects of identity. Material: Besides dealing with literature concerning theories of identity and social theory the empirical part of the essay is based upon texts from three Swedish artists. These are Petter, Ken and The Latin Kings. The texts were chosen were following one criterion: they have all been released as singles. Method: Discourse analysis was used as methodological and theoretical framework. Results:The texts were above all ambiguous in their character. They often contradicted each other in a comparative perspective. Nevertheless, the texts construct identities and social patterns that constitute and reproduce what could be called various Hip Hop-identities/cultures within a Swedish context. These identities are best understood when considering what is specific for the Hip Hop culture in a global perspective. In the analysis, different patterns were found that were to a lesser or a greater degree in common for the three artists. These were: negative and positive representations of the own neighbourhood, the construction of a sense of community between artist and audience, ambiguous representations of women, Hip Hop as resistance, the claim to authentic expressions and identities.