Depiction of the conditions in the suburbs : A qualitative text analysis of Swedish rap lyrics

This essay is about a community that is constructed in rap lyrics and how their existence is depicted in relation to the conditions they live with. The purpose of the study is to gain an increased understanding of how the conditions in the suburbs are portrayed in contemporary Swedish rap lyrics from the years 2015-2022. The data that has been used are 42 different rap lyrics from 19 different Swedish rap artists that have been categorized in an index. The essay's method is a qualitative method with a constructionist approach and the analysis method is text analysis in the form of a content analysis. Theoretical starting points that have been helpful in the essay are territorial stigmatization, group belonging and masculinity that have been used to understand the phenomenon studied. The essay's most important result is that loyalty and masculinity are recurring themes that arose in the analysis and are two requirements for a community in the suburbs to exist. "Us and them" does not only occur between people in the suburbs and outsiders, but it also occurs within the original group where the members of the group go against each other. Another important result is how their own strategies are created because their conditions look the way they do. The strategies that are created mainly deal with strategies for self-support because exclusion from work is experienced