Hip Hop at Europe’s Edge: Music, Agency, and Social Change

324 Pages·2017·7.07 MB·English

by  Milosz Miszcynski

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Edited by
MILOSZ MISZCZYNSKI AND ADRIANA HELBIG
Indiana University Press
Bloomington and Indianapolis
This book is a publication of
Indiana University Press
Office of Scholarly Publishing
Herman B Wells Library 350
1320 East 10th Street
Bloomington, Indiana 47405 USA
iupress. indiana . edu
© 2017 by Indiana University Press
All rights reserved
No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or
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requirements of the American National Standard for Information
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Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data
Names: Miszczynski, Milosz, editor. | Helbig, Adriana, editor.
Title: Hip hop at Eu rope’s edge : music, agency, and social change /
edited by Milosz Miszczynski and Adriana Helbig.
Description: Bloomington ; Indianapolis : Indiana University Press,
2017. | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2016043843 (print) | LCCN 2016048153 (ebook) |
ISBN 9780253022738 (cloth : alk. paper) | ISBN 9780253023049
(pbk. : alk. paper) | ISBN 9780253023216 (e- book)
Subjects: LCSH: Rap ( Music)— Europe, Eastern— History and
criticism. | Rap ( Music)— Europe, Central— History and criticism. |
Rap ( Music)— Social aspects— Europe, Eastern. | Rap ( Music)—
S ocial aspects— Europe, Central.
Classification: LCC ML3531 .H567 2017 (print) | LCC ML3531 (ebook) |
DDC 782.4216490947—d c23
LC rec ord available at https:// lccn . loc . gov/ 2016043843
1 2 3 4 5 21 20 19 18 17 16
In loving memory of Urszula Miszczynska.
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CONTENTS
Acknowl edgments ix
Introduction / Milosz Miszczynski and Adriana Helbig 1
PART I. Hip Hop, Post- Socialism, and Democracy 9
1 Rapping into Power: The Use of Hip Hop in Albanian Politics /
Gentian Elezi and Elona Toska 11
2 Nothing Left to Lose: Hip Hop in Bosnia- Herzegovina /
Jasmin Mujanović 28
3 Rus sian Rap in the Era of Vladimir Putin / Philip Ewell 45
4 Rap Music as a Cultural Mediator in Postconflict Yugo slavia /
Alexandra Balandina 63
PART II. Hip Hop and Emerging Market Economies 83
5 Diesel Power: Serbian Hip Hop from the Plea sure of the Privileged
to Mass Youth Culture / Goran Musić and Predrag Vukčević 85
6 “The Underground Is for Beggars”: Slovak Rap at the Center
of National Popu lar Culture / Peter Barrer 109
7 Music, Technology, and Shifts in Popu lar Culture: Making Hip Hop
in e- Estonia / Triin Vallaste 128
8 Wearing Nikes for a Reason: A Critical Analy sis of Brand Usage
in Polish Rap / Milosz Miszczynski and Przemyslaw Tomaszewski 145
viii | ConTenTs
PART III. Hip Hop on the Margins 163
9 Cosmopolitan Inscriptions? Mimicry, Rap, and Rurbanity
in Post- Socialist Albania / Nicholas Tochka 165
10 Vio lence as Existential Punctuation: Rus sian Hip Hop in the
Age of Late Capitalism / Alexandre Gontchar 182
11 Unmasking Expressions in Turkish Rap/Hip Hop Culture:
Contestation and Construction of Alternative Identities
through Localizatıon in Arabesk Music / Nuran Erol Işik
and Muran Can Basaran 199
12 Hip Hop as a Means of Flight from the “Gypsy Ghetto”
in Eastern Eu rope / Michal Ruzicka, Alena Kajanová,
Veronika Zvánovcová, and Tomas Mrhalek 212
13 Rapping the Changes in Northeast Siberia: Hip Hop, Urbanization,
and Sakha Ethnicity / Aimar Ventsel and Eleanor Peers 228
PART IV. Hip Hop and Global Circulations of Blackness 243
14 La haine et les autres crimes: Ghettocentric Imagery in Serbian
Hip Hop Videos / Irena Šentevska 245
15 The Power of the Words: Discourses of Authenticity in Czech
Rap Music / Anna Oravcová 267
16 “Keep It 360”: (Re)envisioning the Cultural and Racial Roots of
Hip Hop through DJ Rhe toric and Ethnography / Todd Craig 283
Contributors 297
Index 303
ACKNOWL EDGMENTS
This volume seeks to define hip hop, pop u lar culture, and systemic transition.
It explores an experience of a generation treating hip hop as an impor tant ele-
ment of its life. It shows multiple meanings and dimensions of pop u lar culture. It
also reflects complexity of experiences of westernization, globalization, and capi-
talism on the edge of Eu rope. It has been a very fruitful and valuable experience
to work on this proj ect.
I am grateful to Indiana University Press and Raina Polivka for their interest
in the proj ect from the initial call for papers. It has been an excellent collabora-
tion. I would like to also thank all of the authors and reviewers for their work and
valuable advice in shaping the final vision of this volume.
I am much obliged to all the institutions that helped me while editing this
volume. The work was realized during my doctoral studies at the Institute of Soci-
ology at the Jagiellonian University, Poland. I worked on this proj ect while affili-
ated with the University of California, San Diego, Columbia University, New York,
and the University of Oxford.
Thanks to my colleagues who supported the development of ideas and pro-
vided insightful feedback about the book. I would like to thank Jacek Nowak, my
friend and academic mentor who provided valuable practical advice on the pro cess
of editing and always encouraged new developments. Im por tant roles in support-
ing me at vari ous stages of this proj ect were also played by Marek Kucia, Janusz
Mucha, Martha Lampland, David FitzGerald, Christina Turner, Akos Rona- Tas,
and Saskia Sassen. I thank them kindly for their friendly advice, openness,
support, and faith in the proj ect.
Without the support of my friends and family, this proj ect would prob ably
not have happened. Emma Greeson has been the best partner I could imagine,
supporting the volume’s idea from the very beginning. My wonderful parents,
Urszula Miszczynska and Jan Miszczynski, w ere always there for me, ready to
listen and providing valuable directions. I would like to thank all of my friends
who helped me through all the stages of my work: Przemek Tomaszewski, Maciej
Zacharewicz, Andrzej Kuta, Charlotte Lercel, and Erwin Tarczyn.
Fi nally, I would like to thank Adriana Helbig, who joined me as a coeditor
and was an invaluable asset in shaping the contents to the book and leading to
the final stages of its publication.
Milosz Miszczynski
ix