The purpose of the study has been to examine how meaning is created in the song lyrics of the Swedish gangster rapper Ant Wan. This has been done partly by iden- tifying the meaning-making themes in the song lyrics and partly by using Park's (2010) theory of meaning-making. To investigate this, two research questions have been used:  The first is "What existential meaning-making themes can be reflected in the song lyrics?" and the second is "In what way are the existential meaning-making themes presented in Ant Wans song lyrics and how can they be understood based on Park's meaning-making theory?" The method underlying the entire study is a qualitative content analysis with an abductive approach and the material has undergone coding and thematic processes based on Boréus & Bergström (2005) and Lindgren (2014). The theory used in the study is Crystal Park's (2010) theory and model of meaning making.  The conclusion of the study shows that there were existential meaning-making themes in Ant Wans song texts and these themes could be explained based on Crystal Park's (2010) theory of meaning-making. The themes that could be identi- fied in the lyrics were Existential questions, Love, Religion and Criminality. These themes were then explained based on the theory that some form of process could be interpreted in the texts based on the concepts of global meaning and situational meaning. Finally, the analysis shows that there are several parallels between the theory and the empirical data used to create an understanding of the content of the text extracts. The conclusion of the study also shows that traces of previous research and its results could be found in this study's results and analysis.

This study aims to show how religion is presented in four Swedish gangster rappers’ lyrics: Einár, Yasin, Dree Low and Ant Wan. This is done partly by looking at if the same religious themes, showed from earlier studies about american gangster rap, also appears in the Swedish lyrics, and if new theme can be found, partly by looking at Hjelm’s (2014) theory about “The new visibility of religion” and apply it on the results. The following research questions are formulated to conduct said research: (1) Can some of the themes that appears in Tinajero (2013) and Walsh (2013) studies also be found in the gangster rappers’ lyrics? If so, which ones? (2) Which other themes can be found in the lyrics? and (3) How is religion presented, based on Hjelm’s theory about the new visibility of religion? The method used in this study is a qualitative text analysis, with thematization and categorization. The study shows that four themes can be found in the gangster rappers’lyrics: the paradox between the ‘street life’ and the religious life, resurrection, God as a mainstay and a protector, and forgiveness from (a judging) God. The study also shows that the presentation of religion as a solution or problem tended to focus on an individual level, rather than a societal level, and to be more positive than negative, with religion as an important function in the rappers’ life. / Studiens syfte har varit att ta reda på hur religion framställs i de fyra svenska gangsterrapparna Einar, Yasin, Dree Low och Ant Wans låttexter. Dels genom att se om samma teman återkommer i den svenska gangsterrappen som den amerikanska, och om nya teman kan finnas, dels genom Hjelms teori om religionens nya synlighet (2014). Frågeställningarna för att uppnå detta var ”Går några av de teman som återkommer i Tinajero (2013) och Walsh (2013) studier att återfinna i gangsterrapparnas låtar? I så fall vilka?”, ”Vilka andra religiösa teman går att återfinna i låtarna?” och ”Hur framställs religion, utifrån Hjelms teori om religionens nya synlighet? (2014)”. Metoden som användes för att besvara frågorna var en kvalitativ textanalys baserad på Malteruds (2014) tillvägagångssätt med tematiseringar och kategoriseringar av texter, genom distans och närläsning. Teorin som applicerades i denna studie, och som ligger till grund för analyskapitlet var Hjelms (2014) teori om religionens nya synlighet (the new visibility of religion). De slutsatser som dragits visar bland annat att två teman från den tidigare forskningen också gick att återfinna i de svenska gangsterrapparnas låtar; ”paradoxen mellan ’the street life’ och det religiösa livet” och ”uppståndelse”, samtidigt som även två nya teman kunde utläsas; ”Gud som stöttepelare och beskyddare”, samt ”förlåtelsen av (en dömande) Gud”. En annan slutsats, baserat på teorin, var att religionens framställning visade sig vara så väl positiv som negativ, men att den största delen av religionens framställning/synlighet i låtarna var positiv, där religionen tenderar att fylla en viktig funktion i raparnas liv. Slutligen, så visar analysen av resultatet att i de sammanhang där religionen var synlig så låg fokuset av religionens roll på en individnivå och inte samhällsnivå. Det vill säga; när religionen antingen framställdes som något negativt eller som något positivt så var det i mening av hur det påverkade de enskilda rapparna och deras nära, och inte hur religionen påverkade samhället i stort.