Living underground is tough

Authenticity and locality in the hip-hop community in Istanbul, Turkey

Bibliographic Data

ID4305409
AuthorsThomas Solomon (0000-0001-7266-6547, corresponding author)
Year2005
Volume24
Issue1
Pages1-20
Publication date2005-01-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenuePopular Music (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0261-1430 • E-ISSN: 1474-0095
PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s0261143004000273
OpenAlexW2132751366
LanguageEN
Citations received34
References cited17

Hip-hoppers in Istanbul, Turkey, spend much discursive energy talking and rapping about how the Turkish hip-hop movement is underground, putting a particularly local spin on their uses of a global cultural form. This spatial metaphor has thus become central to local constructions of hip-hop in Istanbul. This paper explores the different meanings the underground concept has for Turkish hip-hoppers through a combination of ethnographic research and readings of locally produced hip-hop texts. Through discourses on and around the underground metaphor, Turkish hip-hoppers use the globally circulating music genre of rap and the associated arts of hip-hop to construct a specifically local identity, re-emplacing rap and hip-hop within the landscape of Istanbul. The paper uses this case study to explore how people can use mediated music in constructing new imaginaries and identities and more specifically how people can use mediated music as a vehicle for the imagining of place

Aesthetics · Art · Ethnography · Linguistics · Metaphor · Sociology · Turkish · Visual arts · Anthropology · Caribbean history, culture, and politics · Diverse Musicological Studies · Gender Studies · Music History and Culture

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