Stockholm university

Swedish gangsta rap exposes a dark side of the country some would rather ignore

Over the past 30 years, Swedish hip-hop has emerged and taken over the nation’s charts, writes Sjors Joosten in a new article in The Conversation.

The Cover of Swedish rapper Yasin’s second album
The Cover of Swedish rapper Yasin’s second album featured his passport stamped with “convicted in advance” on it. Byn Block Entertainment/Picture published in The Conversation


The article “Swedish gangsta rap exposes a dark side of the country some would rather ignore” is published on March 23 and is written by Sjors Joosten, PhD candidate at the Department of Sociology, Stockholm University.

He writes:

“’Sweden’s most wanted’, raps the controversial artist Yasin in his track 20 Talet. The rapper’s lyrics are without filter, direct, raw, born within a marginalised and often criminal environment, depicting a side of Sweden that might be unrecognisable to many. When people think of Sweden they are likely to think of social equality and prosperity, not poverty and crime. They are likely to think of the upbeat danceable grooves of ABBA not the hard-edged beats of Yasin.

However, there has been a growing scene of gangsta rap led by the likes of Yasin. Coming from multi-ethnic Stockholm suburb Rinkeby, the Swedish-Somali rapper is representative of a wave of Swedish rap that exposes the harsh reality of being a minority-ethnic Swede or immigrant growing up in the marginalised suburbs of the seemingly so egalitarian Scandinavian country.”

Read the article published in The Conversation: https://theconversation.com/swedish-gangsta-rap-exposes-a-dark-side-of-the-country-some-would-rather-ignore-169597

Read more about the collaboration between Stockholm University and The Conversation and how to pitch an article idea: https://www.su.se/english/staff/services/information-communication/pitch-an-article-idea-for-the-conversation-1.462268

More articles in The Conversation by researchers at Stockholm University: https://theconversation.com/institutions/stockholm-university-1019
 

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