Paper short abstract:

Hip-hop music and culture are often associated with hypermasculinity, while Swedish men in general are many times stereotypically linked to some kind of feminine masculinity. How are these masculinities negotiated within a Swedish battle rap league?

Paper long abstract:

The current working title for my dissertation is Between battle rap and feminist strategies. Making Swedish hip-hop music. By focusing on ethnographic fieldwork among artists, DJs, music producers as well as hip-hop camps where young girls are taught how to make hip-hop music, the study aims at examining the relationship between the processes of music-making and subject positions. How is music made today? Which various tools are used and how do these in turn affect the abovementioned processes? What role does the storytelling of various cultural belongings and experiences have as a part of the construction of authenticity among the practitioners, and how does this in turn affect the music-making processes?

This presentation will focus on a battle rap league in Sweden, which is the topic for one of the dissertation chapters. There are currently a couple of battle rap leagues in Sweden and my material is based on one of the biggest ones called O-Zone.

Within a Swedish context, the battle rap scene is overall a men's practice making it an appropriate empirical example for the study of gender practice and performance. The aim is to examine how various masculinities are practices and performed within this specific context. What does it take to be a Swedish battle rapper? Hip-hop music and culture are often associated with hypermasculinity, while Swedish men in general are many times stereotypically linked to some kind of "soft" or even a feminine masculinity. How are these masculinities negotiated within a Swedish battle rap league?