ABSTRACT
Hip hop culture, with its multicultural roots and global appeal, has traditionally given many marginalized people, including minorities, a voice, affordances and resources (e.g., Rose, 1994; Mitchell, 2001) to discuss not only personal but also societal issues and challenges, often relating to intricate questions of identity. In stereotypically (ethnically) homogeneous Finland (e.g., Häkkinen & Tervonen, 2005), where rap artists with a migrant background have recently become increasingly popular and visible, emergent migrant rap expresses and highlights these ‘new’ voices and discourses. Indeed, hip hop culture has become a channel for the discussion of various aspects of multiculturalism. In 2008, Finland had the lowest relative proportion of foreign-origin citizens of any Western European state (Vasileva, 2009). This situation has recently changed markedly: in 2000, about 17,000 immigrants of diverse ethnic backgrounds moved to Finland, while in 2014 the number was almost double (approximately 31,500; Statistics Finland, 2016). Increased migration has resulted in public debates on issues such as multiculturalism, integration and racism. The resulting, polarized discourses of the Other “not only reflect but help to constitute hierarchies between nations and ethnic groups”, while becoming essentially rooted into everyday communication between people of different ethnicities (Bradley, 1996, p. 132).
