Abstract
Unlock the social dynamics of rap culture and its representation of suburban identity. Discover how rappers' discourses reflect social conflict, identity, and belonging, offering insights into the complex relationships between social groups. Explore the role of rap as a form of social and identitarian representation, conveying the experiences and values of marginalized communities. Analyze the ways in which rap music addresses social domination, racial and class belonging, and the negotiation of reality. Dive into the world of French rap and its history, understanding the social representations that shape this cultural movement.
Extract
[...] It follows that social representations bear on the one hand the mark of the social belonging of individuals who adhere to them and confer their identity, and on the other hand allow these same individuals to distinguish the Others, those who do not share the same and who appear at best as different, at worst as enemies. This vision is thus shared by Pina Lalli. According to this specialist, 'social representations offer us certain forms of meaning, which are the product of a culture to allow groups and individuals to communicate and legitimize reality; but at the same time, they cover less the role of stable function of legitimation of the common world, than a phenomenon of mediation and negotiation5 » (Lalli, 2005). [...]
[...] Social order is reproduced through a whole series of mechanisms for reproducing domination. This vision is corroborated by Marie Sonnette. According to she, "the general feeling when listening to the works of these rappers is that the criticism they express is directed against an oppressive political and economic system as a whole. This does not mean that there is a conscious construction of new critical theories by the rappers, nor that the public as a whole grasps the class nature of society when listening to the songs19 » (Sonnette, 2015). [...]
[...] In addition, this identity vision in rap texts can also be 'superimposed' by a social interest. In this sense, for Bettina Ghio, rap 'would then be linked to the desire to fill a sense of lack, the felt need of a particular social group to invest in a writing practice in order to weave their experience and their feelings and try to survive16 » (Ghio, 2010). C. Rap or the Continuity of Social Struggle As Mathieu Marquet shows, the discourses of rap songs 'reintegrate the notion of social domination into the sociology of popular neighborhoods, mix the question of racial belonging with that of class belonging17 » (Marquet, 2016). [...]
[...] Social representations as reconstructions In order to understand, master, and give meaning to this environment, we must simplify it, make it more predictable and familiar. In other words, we must rebuild it in our own way. But we cannot help but notice that this process of reconstruction is a constantly repeated process. Moreover, from this perspective, Christophe Gauld is, on the other hand, a proponent of a dynamic view of social representations. In fact, according to him, 'social representation can be thought of as a mental construction resulting from the integration of environmental data'4 », (Gauld, 2019: 3). [...]
[...] Therefore, in the current American but also French context, the social relationships between rappers, as a legitimate representative of the suburbs' culture, and other social groups, such as the elites and the favored classes, must be appreciated as relevant to social conflict. In this sense, Marie Sonnette states thatthe representations of domination among the rappers studied are articulated around various postcolonial dominations, with a strong tendency towards representations of class struggle12 » (Sonnette, 2015). In fact, we must focus on the analysis of the rappers' discourse in order to detect the social representations. [...]
