Ideology of rap music and its linguistic representation in the lyrics of English song discourse

Abstract

The article gives characteristics of rap as a music style and considers the process of its birth and formation of its ideology in late 1970-ies – early 1980-ies within the framework of a wider subcultural trend known as hip-hop. The main ideological principles of the early rap in the interpretation of one of its principal ideologists Africaa Bambaataa, as well as their linguistic representation in song lyrics are given. Further on, the article discusses such an important principle of rap ideology as its protest nature, which is also illustrated with fragments from song lyrics. Special emphasis is laid on anti-commercial nature of rap, which is also reflected in its lyrics. After that the principle of reliance on one’s community, also extremely important for understanding the ideological foundation of this music style, is discussed and provided with examples. Then the article presents and illustrates the principle of freedom, which has a very broad understanding in rap ideology. Distinction between «conscious rap» and «gangster rap» is made and the ideological principles of «gangsta rap» are presented and illustrated with examples from song lyrics. The final part discusses the reasons for rap’s popularity and the conclusion summarise the main points of the article.