The Hip Hop Music Genres of Gangster Rap and Trap in Turkiye: New Rap’s Ghetto Music

İlknur Karanfil ()
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İlknur Karanfil: İstanbul Gelişim Üniversitesi, İktisadi İdari ve Sosyal Bilimler Fakültesi, Siyaset Bilimi ve Uluslararası İlişkiler Bölümü, İstanbul, Türkiye

Journal of Economy Culture and Society, 2022, vol. 66, issue 66, 55-72

Abstract: Hip hop music rose to prominence in Turkey in the second half of the 2010s, surpassing pop music. The emergence of the trap subgenre made hip hop music more popular among youth. This music genre developed in African-American ghettos and became localized to Turkey with the name varoş and a focus on ghetto culture. The trap hip hop culture in Turkey is rooted in the struggles of young men, which originates from social inequality in the slums where the lower classes reside. The main narrative of this music is about how these young men survive and become financially independent by resorting to crime and violence. This study aims to analyze how the neighborhood discourse that represents the youth here is constructed in these songs as a response to the social inequality embodied in the slums. The study will examine lyrics from five popular next generation rap songs in Turkey. “Şehrimin Tadı” [taste of my city] that contributed the most to the Turkish rapper Ezhel’s popularity; “Heyecanı Yok” [no excitement] by Gazapizm; and the songs “İşler Legal” [jobs are legal], “Kime Ne” [Who Cares] and “Hiçbir Şeyim Yok” [I have nothing] by Khontkar have been selected due to being top hits and reflecting the concept of ghetto well. The study conducts a discourse analysis on the open coding of the selected songs’ lyrics.

Keywords: Hip hop music; Gangster rap; Trap hip hop; Popular culture; Class inequality (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ist:iujecs:v:66:y:2022:i:0:p:55-72

DOI: 10.26650/JECS2021-994962

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