From Appropriation to Translation: Localizing Rap Music to Finland

Humor and parody in Finnish rap music videos

“…In the latter case, rap artists are depicted as living like stars, driving expensive vehicles, dressing in expensive clothing and hosting extravagant parties. While these characterizations originally developed in a highly specific (United States) context, similar rap imagery is also seen in Finnish music videos, where it functions to create affiliations with the American hip hop scene, its fashion, ideas and aesthetics (Tervo, 2014).…”

“…Local streets provide sceneries and staging, and artists display their personal lives, careers and colleagues in their videos (Tervo, 2014). These are typical ways to localize rap music into new contexts, for rap authenticity is traditionally built through autobiographical lyrics and documentary-based visualizations (cf.…”

“…But appropriation may represent little more than copying and poaching of Black culture if it is implemented without consideration of the local conceptual and aesthetic categories (Hess, 2005; Tervo, 2014; Toynbee and Dueck, 2011: 2–8; see also Solomon, 2009). Most simple way to bring in locality is to use vernacular language or to place familiar names and places within lyrics and visualizations.…”

“Who’s Afraid of the Dark?”: The Ironic Self-Stereotype of the Ethnic Other in Finnish Rap Music

“…The format of this particular video relates to rap genre conventions in that it includes and emphasizes half-clad, muscular 'Black' male bodies. However, generally rap videos are set in the street, symbolizing rap's origins in block parties (Vernallis, 2004, p. 77; in luxury mansions or in artificial and abstract settings (see also Tervo, 2012Tervo, , 2014. The video contents relate significantly to MB's star persona (Shuker, 1994) as he is known to compete in fitness and continuously shows his body and reports on his training in his social media updates.…”

“…Despite the abundance of studies on hip hop and its local contexts, research on Finnish hip-hop remains scarce, particularly in sociolinguistics (but see Kalliokoski, 2006;Leppänen & Pietikäinen, 2010;Westinen, 2014). Moreover, Finnish hip hop has not yet been extensively investigated in digital contexts (but see Leppänen et al, 2014;Tervo, 2014); also internationally, online research is just emerging (for China, see Wang, 2012;Varis & Wang, 2011; for Germany, see Androutsopoulos, 2009). As data, I will use a rap music video and lyrics of a song titled "Kuka pelkää pimeet" ('Who's afraid of the dark') by a Finnish rap artist and entertainer Musta Barbaari (Black Barbarian).…”