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Reference:

Hip-hop Subculture as a Media Phenomenon

Lazutova Natal'ya Mikhailovna

ORCID: 0000-0001-7524-1907

Senior Researcher, Department of Digital Journalism, Journalism Faculty, Lomonosov Moscow State University

9, Mokhovaya str., bld. 1, 121009, Russia, Moscow

irma-irma@list.ru
Other publications by this author
 

 
Semenova Varvara Sergeevna

Postgraduate student, Department of Mass Communications, RUDN University

6 Miklukho-Maklaya str., Moscow, 117198, Russia

1132223754@pfur.ru
Other publications by this author
 

 
Vodzinskaya Varvara Vasil'evna

Graduate student, Department of Mass Communications, RUDN University

6 Miklukho-Maklaya str., Moscow, 117198, Russia

varvara_smi@mail.ru
Tope Aranda Klara Milagrosa

Graduate student, Department of Mass Communications, RUDN University

6 Miklukho-Maklaya str., Moscow, 117198, Russia

1032235133@rudn.ru

DOI:

10.25136/2409-8698.2024.2.69287.2

EDN:

HJGXLO

Received:

10-12-2023


Published:

24-02-2024


Abstract: Subcultures are of significant interest to researchers in the humanities. The processes of digitalization and mediatization, when media network activity and media activities globally affect basic social institutions, suggest a systematic study of subcultures in the context of communication theory. It is noted that the formation and further stability, up to the rooting in the general culture, is characteristic of the youth subculture of hip-hop. The authors of the article set a strategic goal - to find out, on the basis of theoretical and methodological approach, due to what systemic (formal and content) characteristics hip-hop has spread among young people, what communicative characteristics of this subculture determined its flourishing in the period of digitalization. Among the tasks that were solved are the following: characterization of the hip-hop industry as a network media phenomenon is given, the dynamics of its changes at the level of subsystems is considered. The authors for the first time put forward and proved the hypothesis that hip-hop reflects all five stages of development of the system of mass communications. The analysis reveals the rhizome-like nature of the hip-hop subculture as the main reason for the systemic stability of this media phenomenon. The article comprehensively considers the totality of components of the hip-hop subculture as effective communicative practices: graffiti, breakdancing, DJing, rap (rap battles). The tendency of active entry of some subcultural processes and products into mass culture is noted. The peculiarities of hip-hop slang are outlined. The article brings the media-communication approach into the agenda of further scientific research of youth subcultures (primarily hip-hop) and actualizes it.


Keywords:

subculture, media, hip-hop, Russian rap, youth communication, rhizomorphism, slang, subcultures, informal association, rap battle

Language as a social phenomenon lives and develops in society. As a means of communication, it cannot exist outside of social relations. The changing world, the transformation of life forms, the enrichment and development of consciousness—all this is inevitably reflected in the style of oral and written speech. Rapid economic, political, and ideological changes have an impact on the creative nature of a language [Yarmina. 2004]. Among other things, we are talking about the formation of ethnic tolerance, the distribution and correlation of social communities, and professional and corporate groups.

The turn of the 1990s and 2000s were marked by the emergence of new and the revival of former subcultures—informal groups of like-minded people: hippies, punks, goths, emo, extremists, graffiti artists, beatniks, theosophists, computer scientists, metalheads and, of course, rappers [Slyusarevsky. 2002].

Generational cohorts and special layers of youth have their own subcultures, which are often associated with network activity [Algavi, Kadyrova, Rastorgueva. 2017], as well as professional groups [Sokolov. 1989]. Any informal association is distinguished by its behavior, community of interests, characteristic symbolic expressions (gestures), philosophy, uniform style of dress, musical preferences, and unique language (slang). Communication within a subcultural group is usually coded as understandable only to like-minded people.

Slang refers to a unique vocabulary used to communicate with a group of people with common interests; certain linguistic means acquire the functions of social symbols and markers of a particular subcultural environment. Slang is a tool and language code, a means of subcultural coding. The social conditionality of the language is expressed in the social labeling of subcodes. Such labeled vocabulary serves to encode the language of subcultures, as a result of which slang appears.

The slang borrowed through hip-hop culture and rap is particularly interesting. Socially conditioned linguistic means cannot manifest themselves in the entire linguistic space. Lexical and phraseological units are most susceptible to social labeling and, to a lesser extent, the morphological structure of the language [Ganneva. 2010]. Due to the popularity and spread of a particular subculture, lexical units have the opportunity to switch to higher registers of the language. Rappers, for example, have contributed to the non-standard form of existence of the national language with a large number of neologisms and slang formations. Hip-hop has become the language of intercultural and interethnic communication, through which the language barrier between representatives of different peoples within one multinational state is overcome [Khruleva. 2005].

Rap appeared in the late 1970s in New York City, in areas populated predominantly by African Americans, primarily in the South Bronx. Visiting DJs from Jamaica were the first to rap; DJ Kool Herc has been labeled the pioneer of rap. Since then, rap has spread worldwide and gained significant influence. This style of music, based on the use of rhythmic recitatives and beatbox, is associated with hip-hop culture. Hip-hop is a subculture that includes MCing (rap), breakdancing, graffiti, and DJing. Ideologically, its representatives profess anti-racism.

Hip-hop is also a successful trend in Russian music. Rap, as a style of hip-hop music, is increasingly being followed by the youth, influencing morals, manners of communication, and style. It is not difficult to explain the phenomenon of this popularity: each generation needs not only its own idols but also its own sound, sign system, and lexicon. A unique language is also characteristic of this culture, built from a whimsical mixture of slang, jargon, vulgarisms, and coarse language.

In Russia, hip-hop is represented by the old (English old school) and new rap schools. Unlike the USA or France, hip-hop in Russia immediately became an international culture. Russian rap initially expresses protest against the negative forms of the surrounding reality and not the racial stratification of society. The texts are based on juxtaposing meanings according to social, cultural, and ideological characteristics.

Rap culture began to develop in our country in the late 1980s and early 2000s. The first Russian-speaking rap groups appeared during this period, such as Casta, 4’ k, Ellipsis, Centr, Caspian Cargo, The Chemodan, Nevsky Beat, Frec, Bad Balance, and AK-47. The youth of that time’s idol was Kirill Tolmatsky (DeCl). The characteristic features of old-school rap are the social orientation of the texts, the presentation of serious thought, the simplicity of the structure of melodies and rhymes, and the street-style performance element. Old-school rap is characterized by its relatively simplified recitative as non-commercial street music. That is, it represented the underground.

Russian rap began to change rapidly in the 2010s, when not only a generation of performers changed but also a generation of listeners who grew up listening to the songs of American rappers like Drake, Black Hippy, Wu-Tang Clan, Nicki Minaj, and others. Representatives of the new school find new meanings and means of self-expression in rap music, changing many people’s ideas about Russian rap.

Young musicians do not neglect to use hard bits and samples (relatively small digitized sound fragments), and each rapper’s flow (fluidity, rhythm, rap-reading speed) is unique. Promising newcomers to rap are called freshmen, which today includes members of the Melon Music Association, as well as independent artists Heroinwater, Uglystephan, Young Plato, and YOLO TAG. If underground rappers were distinguished by their own unique sound, soulful lyrics, and depth of lyrics, then modern rappers are accused of imitating Americans.

Integrating foreign hip-hop culture into Russian-language rap lyrics has generated a high degree of foreign borrowing. First, this applies to English-language slang, as rap is concentrated in the West, primarily in North America, to the hip-hop industry.

The linguistic picture of rappers is based on extralinguistic facts already fixed in the consciousness but taking into account this subculture’s realities and value concepts. Despite the cultural and social differences between Russian and Anglo-American society, communication within rap communities at home and abroad and their texts is encoded. Moreover, the thematic directions of rap storytelling can be any, but the most frequent are love, friends, money, drugs, sex, the streets, and betrayal.

The reasons for Russian rappers’ use of foreign language vocabulary may differ. Borrowing is a natural process that allows you to become a part of modern culture and join the global music world. For most Russian-speaking writers, such inclusions (whether phrases or whole sentences) are used as expressive means, giving the lyrics a special contrast and meaning [Likhachev, 1964]. Often, English-language borrowings in song lyrics are used to provide color to the performance or for rhyming purposes when the performer is unable to find the appropriate rhyme for a given word in Russian.

The popularity of Anglicisms is explained, among other things, by the fact that the language of communication in global network resources is English. Through exoticism, rappers designate an object or phenomenon from the life of another people [Chemist. 2000]. Foreign language inclusions are most widely used to convey the meaning of certain socially significant situations.

Among the basic English-language terms that have appeared in the Russian rap listeners’ lexicon, the following stand out: homie—a close friend; shout out—greeting; session—a gathering of musicians to record a track; dandy—someone who dresses in fashion and with taste; swag—style; bae (bae)—beloved girl; shorty (shawty)—beautiful, attractive girl; drip (drip)—something cool (clothes, song, person); bankroll—a large amount of money; flow—the ability to skillfully rhyme on the beat; beef—a feud between different representatives of hip-hop culture.

Let’s not forget that rap is the language of contrast and often conflict: tolerance and hostility, trust and distrust, reconciliation and confrontation. In this case, the conflict is considered a violation of the act of communication and the opposition of “friend and foe.” The linguistic characteristics of rap lyrics are markers of conflict behavior of various social groups because they convey the features of the language of conflict as a means of intercultural communication [Kozhelupenko 2009].

In their tracks, rappers often behave like gangsters, shooting a set of criminal punches —a blow with a sharp phrase: choppa—automatic weapons; toolie—firearms, more often a pistol; shooter—an assassin, a man with a barrel; opp—enemy, rival; deebo—theft; bang—shot; mob (mob)—mafia, criminal group; clique—gang (the same as a gang). Rappers react acutely to any unfavorable changes and societal conflicts, so rap has several inherent universal and specific linguistic characteristics.

Speaking of slang, it is impossible not to mention the so-called “slang without words,” which uses sign language as slang. These are a kind of encrypted messages, all of whose roots go deep into the life of the ghettos in poor “black” neighborhoods. Now, it has become increasingly associated not with the culture of the streets. This is the alphabet of hip-hop culture, through which participants can communicate with each other. Some thus express belonging to a group or even a specific place, others demonstrate their superiority. Gestures can also have sexual overtones. Most of the gestures are commands to action understood only by members of one subculture: each has a set of their own gestures that mean very specific things.

Some rappers come up with their own labels for their labels or creative associations, and sometimes, they may be similar to existing ones. Increasingly, similar symbolic gestures appear in photographs and videos of Russian artists. It is believed that there are more than a thousand traditional ones. This allows rappers not only to communicate with each other without words and demonstrate their technicality but also to be creative in choosing them according to their style.

Rap is the universal music of the world. Slang serves as a means of subcultural coding. It allows you to create communication between members of the hip-hop subculture. This is a way of verbalizing modern rappers’ existence, used in both English-speaking and Russian rap lyrics. Rappers have significantly impacted the development of slang, both inside and outside their subculture. They have made slang more accessible to a mass audience. At the same time, new words and expressions have been created, which have become widely used in young people’s daily speech. This has expanded the spread of slang and its acceptance in society. Some slang words and phrases have become part of the general cultural vocabulary.

It can be said that slang texts of subcultures reflect fragments of a linguistic personality’s worldview. It displays not only the environment and the inner world in the context of their imperfections but also discovers another world of other people. Russian rap reproduces cultural meanings, being within the framework of language and the semantic boundaries outlined by it. In this regard, the adjective “Russian” marks any musical product played in our country, regardless of its genre and stylistic features.

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First Peer Review

Peer reviewers' evaluations remain confidential and are not disclosed to the public. Only external reviews, authorized for publication by the article's author(s), are made public. Typically, these final reviews are conducted after the manuscript's revision. Adhering to our double-blind review policy, the reviewer's identity is kept confidential.
The list of publisher reviewers can be found here.

The study of the slang subculture in relation to youth communication, in my opinion, is a rather interesting, non-trivial, significant process. The formation of such a link is a natural phenomenon, however, the seriousness and conceptuality of the analysis should be considered. Probably, a voluminous empirical and practical background, an illustrative and factual basis is needed. The material submitted for publication only partially meets such tasks. There is no serious outline for evaluating slang in the work, there is no original concept that could attract attention, and there are no proper mechanisms for considering this topic. The author has super-abstractly collected the text, superficially put together descriptions of such a phenomenon as the "slang subculture". For example, "age cohorts, special layers of youth that are often associated with network activity, as well as professional groups have their own subcultures. Any informal association is distinguished by its manner of behavior, common interests, characteristic symbolic expressions (gestures), philosophy, uniform style of dress, musical preferences, and special language (slang). Communication within a subcultural group is usually coded, understandable only to like-minded people," or "slang borrowed through hip-hop culture, pronounced in rap, is of particular interest. Socially conditioned linguistic means cannot be manifested in the entire linguistic space, lexical and phraseological units are most susceptible to social labeling, to a lesser extent the morphological structure of the language. Due to the popularity and wide spread of a particular subculture, lexical units have the opportunity to switch to higher registers of the language," etc. There is also no serious analysis of the already existing critical works, scientific articles, links are given in a mode that does not comply with the rules of the publication. Thus, the existing rather large number of violations indicates a weak level of the presented material. The study needs serious refinement, strengthening of the analytical link, complication of argumentation, bringing critical developments into a kind of systemic unity. For scientific work, a comment is desirable-an assessment of a particular block, and not a literal inclusion of a nominative character. For example, "in Russia hip-hop is represented by the old (English old school) and the new rap schools. Hip-hop in Russia, unlike the USA or France, immediately became an international culture. Russian rap initially expresses protest against the negative forms of the surrounding reality, and not the racial stratification of society. The texts are based on the juxtaposition of meanings according to social, cultural, and ideological grounds, or "Russian rap began to change rapidly in the tenth years, when not only a generation of performers changed, but also a generation of listeners who grew up on the tracks of American rappers Drake, Black Hippy, Wu-Tang Clan, Nicki Minaj and others. Representatives of the new school find new meanings and means of self-expression in rap music, turning over the idea of many about Russian rap," or "the language picture of rappers is based on extralinguistic facts already fixed in the consciousness, but taking into account the realities and value concepts of this subculture. Despite the cultural and social differences between Russian and Anglo-American society, communication within rap communities at home and abroad, as well as their texts, is encoded. Moreover, the thematic directions of rap storytelling can be any, but the most frequent ones are: love, friends, money, drugs, sex, street, betrayal, etc. I think that the examples / illustrations also need to be supplemented / adjusted in context. For example, it is advisable to expand such parts of the article as: "among the basic English-language terms that have appeared in the lexicon of Russian rap listeners, the following stand out: homie - a close friend; shout out - greeting; session - gathering of musicians to record a track; dandy - a person who dresses in fashion and with taste; swag (swag) - style; bae (bae) - beloved girl; shawty (shawty) - beautiful, attractive girl; drip (drip) - something cool (clothes, song, person); bankroll (bankroll) - a large amount of money; flow (flow) - the ability to skillfully rhyme on the beat; beef (beef) - enmity between representatives of hip-hop culture", or "rappers in their tracks often behave like gangsters (English gangster – a member of the criminal community), firing a set of criminal punches (punch) – a blow with a pungent phrase: choppa – automatic weapons; toolie (toolie) – firearms, more often a pistol; shooter (shooter) – an assassin, a man with a barrel; opp (opp) – enemy, rival; deebo (deebo) – theft; bang (bang) – shot; mob (mob) – mafia, criminal group; The clique is a gang (the same as the gang gang). Rappers react acutely to any unfavorable changes and conflicts in society, so rap has a number of universal and specific linguistic characteristics inherent in it," etc. Thus, it is advisable to study the main block of work, to weigh down the analysis of the situation of using the "subculture of slang in youth communication". The results of the work are formal in nature, they also need to be edited: "we can say that slang texts of subcultures reflect fragments of the worldview of a linguistic personality. It is she who displays not only the environment and her inner world in the context of their imperfections, but also discovers another world of other people. Russian rap reproduces cultural meanings, being within the framework of language and the semantic boundaries outlined by it. In this regard, there is an adjective "Russian" that marks any musical product played in our country, regardless of its genre and stylistic features." In the end, I note that the material does not have the necessary novelty, it can be conditionally used in practice, the content level can only be assessed satisfactorily. The article "The subculture of slang in youth communication" needs serious revision; the author's concept should be spelled out more precisely. The reviewed material cannot be recommended for publication in the scientific journal "Litera".

Second Peer Review

Peer reviewers' evaluations remain confidential and are not disclosed to the public. Only external reviews, authorized for publication by the article's author(s), are made public. Typically, these final reviews are conducted after the manuscript's revision. Adhering to our double-blind review policy, the reviewer's identity is kept confidential.
The list of publisher reviewers can be found here.

The article "Hip-hop subculture as a media phenomenon" covers a fairly wide range of issues related to hip-hop culture in Russia and the world and is mainly of a general overview nature. It reveals the concept of a media phenomenon, convincingly separated by the author from the paronymous "media phenomenon", proves the position that the hip-hop subculture is a media phenomenon and should be considered in this optics, the hip-hop media phenomenon is analyzed using a synchronous-diachronic typology of mass communication systems, describes the current state of the culture under study in Russia. Special attention should be paid to the review of hip-hop phenomena related to the subculture, which the author rightly considers as its subsystems (breakdancing, djing, graffiti, etc.). Despite the review focus of the article, at the end of the work, an interesting prospect is outlined, in the opinion of the reviewer, for a lexical study of hip-hop texts, which is likely to be conducted in the future. Hopefully, the author will further focus on the specifics of the text and the gestures accompanying its execution and will be able to reveal and confirm the following statements in the following publications: "Lexical units of slang, due to the popularity of subculture, often switch to higher registers of the language, appear in media texts." In the meantime, the conclusions of the article are quite general, but they correspond to the content of the article and have a certain novelty (for example, the conclusion about the rhizome-like subculture): "summing up the results of studying hip-hop as a media phenomenon, we can conclude about the systemic communicative nature of this subculture, about its rhizome-like nature. These are the main reasons for its rootedness and prevalence in the global world, including in the digital media space", "At present, raspaltsovka can be called a kind of alphabet of the subculture of Russian hip-hop, with which participants can explain themselves to each other. Most of the gestures are commands to action. More and more often, similar gestures-symbols appear in photographs and videos of Russian artists, and this means the rooting of hip-hop elements in popular culture." Since textual analysis was not included in the tasks of the presented article, its absence cannot be considered a disadvantage, and the reviewer suggests considering the conditional hanging of the above theses precisely as a designated research perspective. The subject of the study seems relevant, the methodology is adequate for a review article, the work has pronounced theoretical significance, summarizes existing studies of the hip–hop subculture and opens up prospects for its research as a media phenomenon. The latter is the novelty of the study. The language of the article is scientific, the logic of the narrative is respected. The bibliography is extensive (31 items) and representative. The article can be recommended for publication.

Third Peer Review

Peer reviewers' evaluations remain confidential and are not disclosed to the public. Only external reviews, authorized for publication by the article's author(s), are made public. Typically, these final reviews are conducted after the manuscript's revision. Adhering to our double-blind review policy, the reviewer's identity is kept confidential.
The list of publisher reviewers can be found here.

The article submitted for consideration "Hip-hop subculture as a media phenomenon", proposed for publication in the magazine "Litera", is undoubtedly relevant, due to the author's appeal to the consideration of the problems of youth subcultures in the modern situation when the generation of digital youth (born. at the turn of the XX-XXI centuries) enters an active age and becomes more and more active in various spheres of life. The consideration of hip-hop culture in our country is of interest to researchers. So, by the beginning of 2024, more than 250 materials (articles, abstracts, reports, etc.) containing the word "hip-hop" in the title were published. Nevertheless, this problem remains insufficiently investigated, and it is primarily about the theory of communications. In the reviewed work, the author examines the hip-hip subculture in the context of communication theory as a media phenomenon. It should be noted that there is a relatively small amount of research on this topic in domestic journalism. The article is innovative, one of the first in Russian linguistics devoted to the study of such issues. The article presents a research methodology, the choice of which is quite adequate to the goals and objectives of the work. The author turns, among other things, to various methods to confirm the hypothesis put forward. The main methods were content analysis, logical-semantic analysis, hermeneutical and comparative methods. The practical linguistic material of the study is unclear. Thus, the author does not indicate the amount of selected language material for the study. This work was done professionally, in compliance with the basic canons of scientific research. The research was carried out in line with modern scientific approaches, the work consists of an introduction containing the formulation of the problem, the main part, traditionally beginning with a review of theoretical sources and scientific directions, a research and final one, which presents the conclusions obtained by the author. It should be noted that the introductory part does not contain information from the history of the study of the issue, the author does not cite the main concepts and scientific directions, which does not allow us to highlight the increment of scientific knowledge made by the author. The conclusions of the article do not fully reflect the conducted research and require clarification. The bibliography of the article contains 21 sources in both Russian and foreign languages. Typos, grammatical and stylistic errors have not been identified. The comments made are not significant and do not detract from the overall positive impression of the reviewed work. The work is innovative, representing the author's vision of solving the issue under consideration and may have a logical continuation in further research. The practical significance of the research lies in the possibility of using its results in the process of teaching university courses in linguistics, media discourse, as well as in the practical training of future journalists. The article will undoubtedly be useful to a wide range of people, philologists, undergraduates and graduate students of specialized universities. The article "Hip-hop subculture as a media phenomenon" can be recommended for publication in a scientific journal.