Paper short abstract:

This paper reflects on how rap in Dakar (Senegal) has become a space of redefinition of discourses, careers and identities for young urban men and women, through breaking the existing aesthetic and moral canons, on one side, and coping with social constraints and dominant views, on the other.

Paper long abstract:

What does it mean to be a young male in contemporary urban Senegal? Rap seems to offer some answers: the diffusion and the success of the hip hop movement in Dakar - and to a lesser extent, in the whole country - in the last two decades has provided several repertoires for creating and performing new artistic, generational/gendered and political identities. Fractures with the existing canons have arisen, both in terms of aesthetics (from musical expression to style and fashion) and in terms of political and moral values (from rebellion to individualism and self-promotion). At the same time, young rappers have been busy to cope with social constraints and dominant discourses in many (more or less) subtle ways: some of them, for example, have appeared unexpectedly conservative about religious issues, the defense of Senegalese culture or the condemnation of deviant sexualities.

This paper will draw material from ethnographic researches to attempt a reflection on how rap in Dakar has become in the last years a rich "terrain of contestation" (to use J. Fabian's expression) and redefinition of discourses, careers and identities for young urban men - and, in a different way, women.