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I denna uppsats har det undersökts hur de svenska rappflows och rimscheman har utvecklats mellan 1994 och 2014 med undantag för 1995-1997 då de saknade ett brett utbud av skivsläpp.Undersökningen gjordes genom att ta tre svenska verser och två amerikanska per år som var minst åtta takter och max 24 takter långt med undantag för 1994 och 1998 då de saknade mångfaldiga skivsläpp. Detta transkriberades sedan till noter där rimmen har färgmarkerats och resultaten matades sedan in i ett Exceldokument för att: sammanställa resultatet, räkna ut årssnitten av stavelser per takt samt för att ta fram trendlinjer och diagram över årssnitten.Syftet med denna uppsats var att försöka fylla den kunskapsluckan som finns gällande svensk rappteknik, specifikt flow och rimscheman då det är ett område som är relativt väl undersökt när det kommer till den amerikanska rappen men inte den svenska rappen.Resultatet visar på en tydlig utveckling av rappteknik i svensk rapp inom undersökningens tidsram då nyare flows som triol flowet såg ökad användning på de senare åren samt att snittet av stavelser per takt ökade med årens gång. Dock krävs en större mängd empiri, dels för att kunna säkerställa mönstret men även för att täcka de åren som denna uppsats inte täckte, då uppsatsens resultat inte kan extrapoleras till de senare åren då hip-hop byter relativt ofta vilken den dominanta sub-genren är.

Hip hop reached its thirty-fifth year of existence in 2008. Hip hop has indeed evolved into a global phenomenon. This dissertation is grounded in Afro-modern, Afrocentric and African-centered theory and utilizes textual and content analysis. This dissertation offers a panoramic view of pre-hip hop era and hip hop era icons, iconology, archetypes and aesthetics and teases out their influence on hip hop aesthetics. I identify specific figures, movements and events within the context of African American and American folk and popular culture traditions and link them to developments within hip hop culture, discourse, and aesthetics. Because hip-hop emerged as an American phenomenon, I examine pre-hip hop American popular culture in the twentieth century such as America's World's Fairs, superhero mythology, popular culture iconography, etc. and illustrate the ways in which they served as cultural, social and historical precursors to hip hop aesthetics. Chapter 1 provides an introduction, which includes a definition of terms, statement of the problem and literature review. It also offers a perfunctory discussion of hip hop as culture. Chapter 2 examines pre-hip hop era African-American and American iconography, iconology and archetypes and the subcultures that spawned them (e.g. sports culture, comic super hero narratives, westerns, and the culture of capitalism, etc.). I explore early twentieth century popular culture, iconography, and manhood, and link them to hip-hop aesthetics. Lastly, this chapter identifies Afrocentric cross-currents within hip hop culture, which I describe as the post-Afrocentric movement in hip hop culture, and illustrate the ways in which hip hop culture grappled with the efficacy and viability of Afrocentric motifs, theory and aesthetics Chapter 3 offers a comparative analysis of blues and hip hop aesthetics. I explore gender dynamics within the context of inter-genre, call-and-response between male emcees and female neo-soul artists. Chapter 4 traces the development of hip-hop aesthetics and draws on African, American and African-American cultural practices to analyze its development. I focus on early characteristics of hip-hop culture, which are foundational components of hip-hop expression such as the influence of comic book super hero narratives. Hip-hop aesthetics are an amalgamation of post-modern, post-industrial, urban blues sensibilities filtered through African-American musical traditions. I utilize Bakari Kitwana's conceptualization of the hip hop worldview as a basis for highlighting hip hop attitudes, aesthetics, and expectations. Lastly, chapter 4 expands upon previous socio-economic discussions on hip hop culture with a focus on hip hop aesthetics and expression. In chapter 5, I identify specific pre-hip hop icons and their influence on hip-hop aesthetics. I examine the significance of the selection of these icons and their relevance to hip-hop aesthetics. This chapter explores hip-hop iconography, iconology and archetypes. I explore the significance of specific icons and archetypes within hip-hop culture and examine the socio-historical, political, and cultural implications of their selection. Icons and archetypes are integral parts of African, African-American, and American culture. I illustrate how these cultural origins are reflected within hip-hop's engagement of American popular culture icons. I also identify more recent hip hop icons and archetypes (e.g. the hater and gold digger), which operate as signifiers in hip hop narratives and aesthetics. Chapter 6 identifies specific characteristics of hip hop expression. I examine black male identity construction as it relates to hip-hop aesthetics and archetypal influences, particularly notions of 'bad" and "cool" within hip-hop culture. Perhaps more than any other African-American archetype, the badman/bad nigga archetype has survived within African-American male narratives. I explore the evolution of bad within hip hop aesthetics and offer a cultural analysis of 1984, identifying specific icons (e.g. Run-DMC), attitudes, values and trends that shaped both hip-hop culture and American popular culture. 1984 is an ideal site by which to examine the interface between race, class, sex, politics, American violence, technology, and pop culture. I examine specific cross-currents within 1980s American popular media and explore the ways in which hip hop narratives and aesthetics reappropriate and engage specific popular culture texts. I assert that not only was the framework for hip-hop aesthetics were solidified during the early 1980s, but also the framework for a new popular culture discourse effected by shifts in public policy concerning public space, racial representations and an emerging global market culture. I identify key figures, icons, archetypes, and popular media, circa 1984, and their influence on hip hop aesthetics and discourse. / African American Studies

This thesis investigates the roles, themes, techniques and contexts of composition in hip-hop. It seeks to explain how hip-hop artists view and define their work, while also taking into consideration the viewpoints of other participants in the marketing pool of hip-hop production and consumption. The conceptual plan on which the study is based is Afrocentric; coupled with Ethnographic method of data processing and interpretation. This method is comprised of personal interviews, participant observation, sonic analysis and the use of bibliographic entries and notes that allows for sense and meaning in text. Also used are documented data, which contain descriptions of hip-hop lyrics, interviews, opinions, journalistic notes, and scholarly reports as a means of evolving a cohesive sense of the message's intent, opinion, knowledge of its roles, themes, techniques, images, and contexts The study found that the issues and themes that dominate hip-hop include bondage impairment, concern over currently warped social values and trends, and challenges over oppressive cultural values and social institutions. The artists whose compositions and renderings were used for the purpose of this study not only demonstrated an ability to isolate and construct themes about issues, but were also familiar with the issues that reveal them as agents for the liberation of the minds of their Diaspora Africa peoples and communities. Their music and grassroots commentaries were found to be appropriately designed to persuade their targeted audience to greater awareness. They conveyed messages that encouraged positive attitude and behavioral change in respect to addressed themes that were, in the main, issues of disenfranchisement. They addressed negative, disapproving behaviors which the atmosphere of disenfranchisement has spurned, and were being expressed through the media of the hip-hop rap musicals. The study also highlights the connection between classical African musical expressions and postmodern Diaspora African musical innovations. / African American Studies

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Since the development of widespread sound recording and distribution, the music industry has become increasingly consolidated among fewer companies. Max Horkheimer and Theodor Adorno described how the commodifying forces of the music industry lead to a predictable formulaic music that lacks any critical approach to society in their groundbreaking book, first published in 1944, Dialectic of Enlightenment (1972). Today, the patterns have not changed as there are now four major record labels known as the "Big Four" that produce commodified music with a business model that optimizes their profits at the expense of art, creativity and original style. Using the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) as its lobbying group and appointed vigilantly, the "Big Four" attempt to limit the access of independent artists and labels to music consumers. This thesis argues that in the process through which the music industry works to co-opt and commodify genres of music, the music is (de)politicized to appeal to a larger audience. While technological advances in digital media and the internet would seem to bring a decentralized (even democratized) structure that diverts the costly music distribution system allowing for more artists and labels to compete, the RIAA has acted to prevent these technologies from developing their greatest potential. First, I demonstrate how music is commodified and marketed towards consumers. The second part of this thesis uses hip hop as an example to demonstrate how the music industry co-opts a genre of music to sell to the largest number of consumers and in the process changes the political significance of that genre. Finally, I argue that the RIAA's attack on file-sharers in the name of copyright protection is a technique for the "Big Four" to stop competition from independent artists and labels. / Master of Arts