“Ta fram ditt vapen, jag ser aina kommer” : En kvantitativ studie av svensk gangsterraps språkbruk från 2001 till 2021

Sammanfattning: This study examines how the language in Swedish gangsta rap has changed over the last 20 years. More specifically, the aim is to test a formulated hypothesis whether there has been an increase in the total amount and frequency of references to the subjects “weapons”, “violence” and “drugs” in the lyrics, as well as answer the research question whether there are correlations between certain subjects regarding frequencies and amount of references. Furthermore, the analysis seeks to explore in what way language is used to represent gangsta rap as a music genre and societal phenomena by applying Stuart Hall's theory of representation as the study’s theoretical framework. The study is comparative and a quantitative content analysis was chosen as a methodological approach to analyze a sample in total of 20 Swedish gangsta rap songs from each year of 2001, 2011, and 2021. The results showed that weapons was the only subject that continually increased in the total amount of references from 2001 to 2021. The total amount of references to violence had its peak in 2001 while the total amount of drug references was highest in 2011. A positive correlation was found between the variable of the song’s release year and total amount of violence references. Additionally, a stronger positive correlation was found between frequency of violence references and weapon references. These correlations indicate that an increase of one variable correlates with an increase of another variable. The examined changes of the total amount and frequencies of references from 2001 to 2021 have brought knowledge about to what degree these subjects characterize gangsterrap as a subgenre during these specific years. Finally, the result can contribute to an understanding in how language use in Swedish gangsta rap can represent the genre as a societal phenomena.