Pub Date : 2022-11-04DOI: 10.1017/S0261143022000629
R. Quishpe, S. A. Escobar, J. F. Soto
Abstract Rap, as with other musical genres, can contain narratives about Colombia's armed conflict. Members of armed groups, such as the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia – Ejército del Pueblo (‘Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia – People's Army’; FARC-EP), and civilians have used rap as a means of expressing war-related issues and their causes and consequences. Following the signing of the peace agreement with the FARC-EP in 2016, Colombia's new transitional justice system mainly has focused on a restorative rationale rather than a retributive one. Transitional justice, as a set of mechanisms and processes designed to overcome a violent past, demands peace-building narratives that protect the memory of past horrors while setting the stage for reconciliation. This article analyses the interplay of transitional justice and rap from the personal experiences, perspectives and lyrics of two former combatants and two groups from civil society that rap based in Bogotá, other cities and rural municipalities. These cases provide insight into how rap can relate to transitional justice, sometimes acting as a supportive tool for its goals and sometimes by providing a counter-narrative.
{"title":"Freestyling in war and peace: rap and transitional justice in Colombia","authors":"R. Quishpe, S. A. Escobar, J. F. Soto","doi":"10.1017/S0261143022000629","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/S0261143022000629","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Rap, as with other musical genres, can contain narratives about Colombia's armed conflict. Members of armed groups, such as the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia – Ejército del Pueblo (‘Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia – People's Army’; FARC-EP), and civilians have used rap as a means of expressing war-related issues and their causes and consequences. Following the signing of the peace agreement with the FARC-EP in 2016, Colombia's new transitional justice system mainly has focused on a restorative rationale rather than a retributive one. Transitional justice, as a set of mechanisms and processes designed to overcome a violent past, demands peace-building narratives that protect the memory of past horrors while setting the stage for reconciliation. This article analyses the interplay of transitional justice and rap from the personal experiences, perspectives and lyrics of two former combatants and two groups from civil society that rap based in Bogotá, other cities and rural municipalities. These cases provide insight into how rap can relate to transitional justice, sometimes acting as a supportive tool for its goals and sometimes by providing a counter-narrative.","PeriodicalId":46171,"journal":{"name":"Popular Music","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2022-11-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"56804965","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"艺术学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-11-03DOI: 10.1017/S0261143022000563
Tilman Schwarze, Lambros Fatsis
Abstract UK drill music frequently features as a prime suspect in newsrooms and courtrooms that charge it with driving the ‘knife crime epidemic’ in Britain's major conurbations. Such prejudicial assumptions about the role of drill in inciting violence are largely unfounded, but nevertheless inform criminal justice policy that leads to unjust and discriminatory outcomes. While drill rappers consciously post violent content on YouTube to increase viewership and gain popularity, the role of YouTube in facilitating and profiting from this traffic in violent imagery is rarely questioned in criminal proceedings – enabling, as it does, the weaponisation of such videos as ‘bad character evidence’ in court. Drawing on a selection of YouTube videos that represent drill rappers as dangerous ‘criminals’, this article argues that such videos function as a resource for the criminalisation of drill by police and prosecutors who present drill lyrics as personal testimony that is robbed of its fictive qualities, and makes rappers vulnerable to prejudicial ruling and discriminatory treatment within the criminal justice system.
{"title":"Copping the blame: the role of YouTube videos in the criminalisation of UK drill music","authors":"Tilman Schwarze, Lambros Fatsis","doi":"10.1017/S0261143022000563","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/S0261143022000563","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract UK drill music frequently features as a prime suspect in newsrooms and courtrooms that charge it with driving the ‘knife crime epidemic’ in Britain's major conurbations. Such prejudicial assumptions about the role of drill in inciting violence are largely unfounded, but nevertheless inform criminal justice policy that leads to unjust and discriminatory outcomes. While drill rappers consciously post violent content on YouTube to increase viewership and gain popularity, the role of YouTube in facilitating and profiting from this traffic in violent imagery is rarely questioned in criminal proceedings – enabling, as it does, the weaponisation of such videos as ‘bad character evidence’ in court. Drawing on a selection of YouTube videos that represent drill rappers as dangerous ‘criminals’, this article argues that such videos function as a resource for the criminalisation of drill by police and prosecutors who present drill lyrics as personal testimony that is robbed of its fictive qualities, and makes rappers vulnerable to prejudicial ruling and discriminatory treatment within the criminal justice system.","PeriodicalId":46171,"journal":{"name":"Popular Music","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2022-11-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44679695","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"艺术学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-11-03DOI: 10.1017/S0261143022000575
A. Owusu-Bempah
Abstract This article explores the admissibility and use of rap music as evidence in English criminal trials. It presents findings from an analysis of over 30 appeal cases. As well as unpacking the link between rap, race and gangs that is prevalent in these cases, the article challenges the categorisation of rap as ‘bad character evidence’, and critiques the way in which questions of relevance and prejudicial effect have been addressed by the courts. In particular, when making admissibility decisions, the courts appear to give little consideration to the cultural context, artistic conventions or social influences within the rap music genre, or the racialised nature of rap evidence. It is argued that, if rap is to be admissible evidence, a much more rigorous and informed approach is required.
{"title":"Prosecuting rap: what does the case law tell us?","authors":"A. Owusu-Bempah","doi":"10.1017/S0261143022000575","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/S0261143022000575","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract This article explores the admissibility and use of rap music as evidence in English criminal trials. It presents findings from an analysis of over 30 appeal cases. As well as unpacking the link between rap, race and gangs that is prevalent in these cases, the article challenges the categorisation of rap as ‘bad character evidence’, and critiques the way in which questions of relevance and prejudicial effect have been addressed by the courts. In particular, when making admissibility decisions, the courts appear to give little consideration to the cultural context, artistic conventions or social influences within the rap music genre, or the racialised nature of rap evidence. It is argued that, if rap is to be admissible evidence, a much more rigorous and informed approach is required.","PeriodicalId":46171,"journal":{"name":"Popular Music","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2022-11-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42078637","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"艺术学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-11-02DOI: 10.1017/S0261143022000605
Latoya Reisner, Kamila Rymajdo
Abstract Focusing on Manchester, the largest city in the north of England, this paper explores why and how Black rap practitioners have been excluded from performing and promoting rap music in its city centre during the last 20 years. Discussing the intersecting factors of policing of venues and racial bias and class stigma among Manchester's venue owners and promoters, while also scrutinising the city's neoliberal urban expansion and gentrification, the paper analyses the ways in which Black rappers and practitioners have been marginalised but also how they have attempted to resist and overcome these conditions. Drawing on cultural studies, critical race theory and urban geography, while employing qualitative research methods of in-depth interviews, this paper builds on existing research on the marginalisation of Black rap musicians and promoters. It builds on and moves beyond the scholarly emphasis on the policing of rap genres in London to argue that discrimination faced by Black rap practitioners extends far outside the capital and is part of a wider problem of racial capitalism of which policing is but one agent.
{"title":"The 0161 rap gap: the marginalisation of Black rap musicians in Manchester's live music scene","authors":"Latoya Reisner, Kamila Rymajdo","doi":"10.1017/S0261143022000605","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/S0261143022000605","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Focusing on Manchester, the largest city in the north of England, this paper explores why and how Black rap practitioners have been excluded from performing and promoting rap music in its city centre during the last 20 years. Discussing the intersecting factors of policing of venues and racial bias and class stigma among Manchester's venue owners and promoters, while also scrutinising the city's neoliberal urban expansion and gentrification, the paper analyses the ways in which Black rappers and practitioners have been marginalised but also how they have attempted to resist and overcome these conditions. Drawing on cultural studies, critical race theory and urban geography, while employing qualitative research methods of in-depth interviews, this paper builds on existing research on the marginalisation of Black rap musicians and promoters. It builds on and moves beyond the scholarly emphasis on the policing of rap genres in London to argue that discrimination faced by Black rap practitioners extends far outside the capital and is part of a wider problem of racial capitalism of which policing is but one agent.","PeriodicalId":46171,"journal":{"name":"Popular Music","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2022-11-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43315319","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"艺术学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-11-02DOI: 10.1017/S0261143022000630
F. Addo
Rap has been a part of my life from very young; I personally attest to its therapeutic and artistic value. My first exposure was through my older sister, Cella. In addition to the R&B or UK garage kept on heavy rotation, hip hop albums like Nas’s God’s Son could also be heard blaring through my house via Cella’s CD player at any time. I particularly enjoyed ‘Book of Rhymes’, a song on which a young Nasir Jones recites verses from his old lyric books. With a cool cadence and calming tone, Nas meanders through topics ranging from the imperialism of the US army to social issues like drug addiction in local communities. Contrary to its caricaturing as ceaselessly confrontational and crass, rap is often conscious at least in its subtext, and has long offered insightful social commentary. My zealous appreciation for rap soon led me to try to write my own book of rhymes. I would find writing lyrics an avenue through which I could explore the fullness of my teenage sensibilities outside of the conservatism of my West African home. Similarly to how I’d first fallen in love with reading books and writing fiction, rap felt like a fresh, cathartic approach to storytelling. Rap has always helped me to process the things I’ve seen and experienced or even just heard about, and enabled a kind of escapism. Somewhere between a diary and an anthology of fantasy, I wrote some of my earliest verses by hand in a notebook intended to be kept strictly private. My verses explored everything from my wildly swinging emotions to my aspirations to eventually be able to buy everything I ever wanted from the Argos catalogue and my local JD Sports store. On one page I’d scribe a romantic ode to a crush, on the next I’d scribble quite specifically about desires to enact revenge against anyone who might have recently upset me. Perhaps as a form of adolescent rebellion against the arbitrary rules of respectability I felt were being thrust upon me by society, the verses I wrote were saturated with expletives to an almost comical extent. When my parents inevitably stumbled across my top-secret handiwork, they appreciated my talents for neither poetry nor humour. Their immediate disapproval was non-negotiable. They were shocked not only that the topics I engaged with seemed inappropriate for my age but also by my use of profanity and graphic lyricism. Although their reasoning that I must have been emulating the existing conventions of rap was correct, they could not reconcile with the possibility that I may also have been genuinely trying to address complex personal thoughts and grappling
{"title":"Resisting the criminalisation of rap","authors":"F. Addo","doi":"10.1017/S0261143022000630","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/S0261143022000630","url":null,"abstract":"Rap has been a part of my life from very young; I personally attest to its therapeutic and artistic value. My first exposure was through my older sister, Cella. In addition to the R&B or UK garage kept on heavy rotation, hip hop albums like Nas’s God’s Son could also be heard blaring through my house via Cella’s CD player at any time. I particularly enjoyed ‘Book of Rhymes’, a song on which a young Nasir Jones recites verses from his old lyric books. With a cool cadence and calming tone, Nas meanders through topics ranging from the imperialism of the US army to social issues like drug addiction in local communities. Contrary to its caricaturing as ceaselessly confrontational and crass, rap is often conscious at least in its subtext, and has long offered insightful social commentary. My zealous appreciation for rap soon led me to try to write my own book of rhymes. I would find writing lyrics an avenue through which I could explore the fullness of my teenage sensibilities outside of the conservatism of my West African home. Similarly to how I’d first fallen in love with reading books and writing fiction, rap felt like a fresh, cathartic approach to storytelling. Rap has always helped me to process the things I’ve seen and experienced or even just heard about, and enabled a kind of escapism. Somewhere between a diary and an anthology of fantasy, I wrote some of my earliest verses by hand in a notebook intended to be kept strictly private. My verses explored everything from my wildly swinging emotions to my aspirations to eventually be able to buy everything I ever wanted from the Argos catalogue and my local JD Sports store. On one page I’d scribe a romantic ode to a crush, on the next I’d scribble quite specifically about desires to enact revenge against anyone who might have recently upset me. Perhaps as a form of adolescent rebellion against the arbitrary rules of respectability I felt were being thrust upon me by society, the verses I wrote were saturated with expletives to an almost comical extent. When my parents inevitably stumbled across my top-secret handiwork, they appreciated my talents for neither poetry nor humour. Their immediate disapproval was non-negotiable. They were shocked not only that the topics I engaged with seemed inappropriate for my age but also by my use of profanity and graphic lyricism. Although their reasoning that I must have been emulating the existing conventions of rap was correct, they could not reconcile with the possibility that I may also have been genuinely trying to address complex personal thoughts and grappling","PeriodicalId":46171,"journal":{"name":"Popular Music","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2022-11-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46378290","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"艺术学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-11-01DOI: 10.1017/S0261143022000642
Eithne Quinn, Joy White, J. Street
The state's coercive engagement with Black youth expressive culture, and rap music in particular, is a topic of mounting public and scholarly concern. Rap lyrics and videos made by defendants and codefendants are regularly used as evidence in court cases in ways that incite bias against young people in the dock. At the same time, the performance and circulation of rap music are increasingly monitored and constrained by the police and other bodies. Thus, as this special issue explores, the prosecuting and policing of rap music serves as a double-punch against Black youth: the state both showcases rap music as criminal evidence in the courtroom to lock down prosecutions and, at the same time, surveils rappers and suppresses the music's creation and dissemination and, in so doing, the income streams of those who make it.
{"title":"Introduction to special issue: Prosecuting and Policing Rap","authors":"Eithne Quinn, Joy White, J. Street","doi":"10.1017/S0261143022000642","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/S0261143022000642","url":null,"abstract":"The state's coercive engagement with Black youth expressive culture, and rap music in particular, is a topic of mounting public and scholarly concern. Rap lyrics and videos made by defendants and codefendants are regularly used as evidence in court cases in ways that incite bias against young people in the dock. At the same time, the performance and circulation of rap music are increasingly monitored and constrained by the police and other bodies. Thus, as this special issue explores, the prosecuting and policing of rap music serves as a double-punch against Black youth: the state both showcases rap music as criminal evidence in the courtroom to lock down prosecutions and, at the same time, surveils rappers and suppresses the music's creation and dissemination and, in so doing, the income streams of those who make it.","PeriodicalId":46171,"journal":{"name":"Popular Music","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2022-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43150981","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"艺术学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-10-28DOI: 10.1017/s0261143022000484
A. Zak
{"title":"Inventing Elvis. An American Icon in a Cold War World. By Mathias Haeussler. New York: Bloomsbury, 2020. 240 pp. ISBN 9781350107670","authors":"A. Zak","doi":"10.1017/s0261143022000484","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/s0261143022000484","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":46171,"journal":{"name":"Popular Music","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2022-10-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49163524","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"艺术学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-10-01DOI: 10.1017/S0261143022000538
D. Weinstein
Peter Stanfield provides a chronological description of The Who ’ s rise to mega-fame in the fabled 1960s, focusing on the influence of Pop Art on the band. A thoughtful reading of the book, however, provides far more than that. Hint: the good stuff is hidden in plain sight, including in its title.
{"title":"A Band with Built-in Hate: The Who from Pop Art to Punk. By Peter Stanfield. London: Reaktion Books. 2021. 280 pp. ISBN 978-1-789-14277-8","authors":"D. Weinstein","doi":"10.1017/S0261143022000538","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/S0261143022000538","url":null,"abstract":"Peter Stanfield provides a chronological description of The Who ’ s rise to mega-fame in the fabled 1960s, focusing on the influence of Pop Art on the band. A thoughtful reading of the book, however, provides far more than that. Hint: the good stuff is hidden in plain sight, including in its title.","PeriodicalId":46171,"journal":{"name":"Popular Music","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2022-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41590398","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"艺术学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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