Remembering Chile : an entangled history of Hip-hop in-between Sweden and Chile

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(1)An Entangled History of Hip-hop in-between Sweden and Chile S K R I F T E R M E D H I S T O R I S K A P E R S P E K T I V 16 , D O C T O R A L D I S S E R TAT I O N I N E D U C AT I O N. SUSAN LINDHOLM REMEMBERING CHILE.

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(3) REMEMBERING C HILE: AN ENTANGLED HISTORY OF HIP-HOP IN-BETWEEN SWEDEN AND CHILE.

(4) Skriftserier med historiska perspektiv No. 16. © Copyright Susan Lindholm 2016 Cover Photographies: Eduardo Lalo Meneses, Hermanos Bernal, Advance Patrol, The Salazar Brothers, Cesar Cestar Morales, Fredrik FreddeRico Ekelund. Copyrights: Eduardo Meneses 2016, Hermanos Bernal 2015, Advance Patrol 2016, Isabella Söderdahl 2015, Susan Lindholm 2015. Cover Layout: Holmbergs ISBN (print) 978-91-7104-710-6 ISBN (pdf online) 978-91-7104-711-3 Printed by Holmbergs, Malmö 2016.

(5) SUSAN LINDHOLM REMEMBERING CHILE An Entangled History of Hip-hop in-between Sweden and Chile. Malmö University, 2016 Faculty of Education and Society Lund University.

(6) Malmö studies in history (doctoral dissertations) Helena Tolvhed, Nationen på spel, Kropp, kön, svenskhet i populärpressens representation av olympiska spel 1948-1972, 2008. Stefan Nyzell, ”Striden ägde rum i Malmö”. Möllevångskravallerna 1926. En studie av politiskt våld i mellankrigstidens Sverige, 2010. Vanja Lozic, I historiekanons skugga. Historieämne och identifikationsformering i 2000-talets mångkulturella samhälle, 2010. Carolina Jonsson Malm, Att plantera ett barn, 2011. Martin Kjellgren, Taming the Prophets, Astrology, and the World of God in the Early Moderns Sweden, 2011. Matilda Svensson, När något blir annorlunda. Skötsamhet och funktionsförmåga i berättelser om poliosjukdom, 2012. Joakim Glaser, Fotboll från Mielke till Merkel. Kontinuitet, brott och förändring i supporterkultur i östra Tyskland, 2015.. Malmö studies in history and history teachings and uses of history (doctoral dissertations) Anders Lindh, ”Unity Pervades All Activity As Water Every Wave”. Principal Teachings and Philosophy of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, 2014.. Publication available online, see www.mah.se/muep.

(7) Articles included. Article I Lindholm, Susan, “Representing the marginalized other: the Swedish Hip-hop group Advance Patrol”, Svensk tidskrift för musikforskning – Swedish journal of Music Research 2014:96, p. 105–125.. Article II Lindholm, Susan, “Negotiating difference in the Hip-hop zone in-between Chile and Sweden”, Oral History 2015, p. 51–61.. Article III Lindholm, Susan, “Creating a ‘Latino’ artist identity in-between Sweden and Latin America - a comparative approach” Kulturstudier 2015:2, p. 113–135.. Article IV Lindholm, Susan, “From Nueva Canción to Hip-hop: an Entangled History of Hip-hop in-between Chile and Sweden” (accepted for publication in Scandia 2017:1). Reprints were made with permission from the respective publishers..

(8) CONTENTS. CONTENTS ....................................................................... 6 INTRODUCTION ............................................................... 13 Aim and research questions ........................................................ 13 Form and structure ................................................................ 20 An entangled history approach ................................................... 23 Earlier research and contribution ............................................ 24 Identity, memory, and place ........................................................ 27 Identity and dominant historical narratives .............................. 30 METHOD ......................................................................... 32 Setting the scene ........................................................................ 33 Article I ................................................................................ 34 Article II ............................................................................... 35 Article III ............................................................................... 36 Article IV .............................................................................. 36 Analyzing rap lyrics ................................................................... 38 Limitations ............................................................................ 38 Oral history – migration, Hip-hop and entangled history ............... 40 The Interview situations .......................................................... 44 Limitations ................................................................................. 50 Method and perspective ........................................................ 50 Form .................................................................................... 54 Language and reflexivity ........................................................ 57 LOOP I: IDENTITY AND REPRESENTATION ........................... 60 Hip-hop studies in Sweden.......................................................... 61 The play of differences ............................................................... 64 Representation and the “other”.................................................... 67.

(9) SUMMARY OF ARTICLE I REPRESENTING THE MARGINALIZED OTHER – THE SWEDISH HIP-HOP GROUP ADVANCE PATROL ........................................................... 71 Introduction ...............................................................................71 Method and design .................................................................... 72 Results ....................................................................................... 72 Conclusion................................................................................. 75 Discussion and bridge ................................................................76 LOOP II: IDENTITY AND POSTMEMORY ............................... 81 Remembering the regime: Chile and Sweden since 1973 .............. 82 The good Sweden: diasporization, solidarity and culture ............... 86 Negotiating difference: Intersectionality and postmemory .............. 91 SUMMARY OF ARTICLE II NEGOTIATING DIFFERENCE IN THE HIP-HOP ZONE IN-BETWEEN CHILE AND SWEDEN ........ 95 Introduction ...............................................................................95 Method and design .................................................................... 95 Results ....................................................................................... 96 Conclusion................................................................................. 98 Discussion and bridge ..............................................................100 LOOP III: IDENTITY – RACE AND GENDER ......................... 103 Hip-hop studies – race and gender ............................................ 104 Creating the good Sweden in terms of race and gender .............. 107 The Play of identity and difference ............................................. 112 SUMMARY OF ARTICLE III CREATING A LATINO ARTIST IDENTITY IN-BETWEEN SWEDEN AND LATIN AMERICA – A COMPARATIVE APPROACH .......................................... 116 Introduction ............................................................................. 116 Method and design .................................................................. 117 Results ..................................................................................... 117 Conclusion............................................................................... 120 Discussion and bridge ..............................................................122 LOOP IV: IDENTITY AND TRANSNATIONAL MEMORY WORK .......................................................................... 125 Remembering the regime ..........................................................126 Hip-hop in-between the United States and Chile .........................129 Entangled oral history and public memory work ......................... 132. 7.

(10) SUMMARY OF ARTICLE IV FROM NUEVA CANCIÓN TO HIP-HOP: AN ENTANGLED HISTORY OF HIP-HOP INBETWEEN CHILE AND SWEDEN ....................................... 136 Introduction ............................................................................. 136 Method and design .................................................................. 136 Results ..................................................................................... 137 Conclusion .............................................................................. 140 Discussion ............................................................................... 144 AFTERWORD ................................................................. 149 CONCLUDING DISCUSSION ............................................ 152 REFERENCES ................................................................. 158 . 8.

(11) Lo que se pega a la memoria, a menudo, son los pequeños fragmentos extraños que no tienen principio ni fin. Y a veces, cuando escribimos, nos lavamos todo limpio, como si al hacerlo podríamos avanzar hacia algo. Deberíamos describir simplemente esos sonidos, esas manchas en la memoria. Esa selección arbitraria, nada más. Por eso mentimos tanto, al final. Por eso un libro es siempre lo contrario de otro inmenso y extraño libro. Un libro ilegible y genuino que traducimos a traición, que traicionamos a nuestro hábito de la prosa pasable.. Formas de volver a casa, Alejandro Zambra. What sticks to memory, often, are those odd little fragments that have no beginning and no end. And sometimes, when we write, we wash everything clean, as if by doing so we could advance toward something. We ought to simply describe those sounds, those stains on memory. That arbitrary selection, nothing more. That´s why we lie so much, in the end. That´s why a book is always the opposite of another immense and strange book. An illegible and genuine book that we translate treacherously, that we betray with our habit of passable prose.. Ways of going Home: A Novel, Alejandro Zambra (translated by Megan McDowell). 9.

(12) Acknowledgements This quote, in which literary scholar and author Alejandro Zambra, who grew up in Pinochet’s Chile, reflects on possible “ways of going home” by remembering the past has accompanied me all throughout my reading and writing process. As Zambra rightly suggests, there is always an immense, strange and ultimately illegible book that, in my case, is scattered across documents, notes and audio files that I have discarded in favor of this more legible version. I owe the following colleagues and friends who have been part of this process the greatest of gratitude. First and foremost I would like to thank the artists in Sweden and Chile who agreed to become part of this project for sharing their thoughts and memories. Thank you Rodrigo Rodde Bernal, Juan Havana Paez Larraguibel, Cristian Salla Salazar Campos, Eduardo Lalo Meneses, Jimmy Fernández, Cesar Cestar Morales, Edwin Chumbeque Líbano Gamboa, and Fredrik FreddeRico Ekelund. I also want to send a special shout out to Rodde for coordinating my interviews in Santiago and Valparaiso from Kalmar. A very special thank you also goes out to my three supervisors Mats Greiff, Monika Edgren and Johan Söderman. My main supervisor Mats Greiff has guided and encouraged me to pursue new theories and material at all stages of my project – thank you for being a great discussion partner and for all your support! My co-supervisor Monika Edgren always offered both support and generous criticism. Her wise words had a considerable impact on my thinking and writing process. Together, Mats and Monika made me look forward to our meetings and helped me to see and confront my blind spots. Johan Söderman, my third supervisor, shared his expertise on Hip-hop culture, offered constructive criticism, and saw to it that I became part of a network of Hip-hop scholars. It has been a pleasure and privilege working with all three of you! 10.

(13) I would also like to thank Helena Tolvhed, the opponent at my final seminar, whose comments helped me to find the bird that (hopefully!) ate most of the worms in my final draft. That same thank you goes out to the anonymous peer reviewers who read and commented on my articles, as well as Paula Mählck, and my colleagues Robert Nilsson Mohammadi, Ann-Sophie Mårtensson and Anna Jobér who engaged in a close reading of different versions of my final draft. Thank you so much for your valuable comments, encouragement and support! A thank you also goes out to Damian Finnegan and his team at The Writing Unit at Malmö University for proof reading three of my articles. To my colleague Joakim Glaser who agreed to proof read my introductory chapter in spite of a heavy work load: thank you so much for making your language lessons such an enjoyable read. I would also like to thank all my other colleagues at Malmö University and the National Graduate School of History. Thank you for inspiring and critical discussions, constructive comments, and the friendships that developed throughout the years. Through the Graduate School, I spent time as a visiting PhD candidate at The Saxo Institute at the University of Copenhagen, and the Department of History at the University of York. I thank both departments for a warm welcome, inspiring and critical discussions and valuable advice. As a PhD candidate, I have also been fortunate to participate in numerous courses, conferences, and workshops. I would like to thank all participants for constructive discussions and valuable comments. To my Hip-hop studies colleagues: Alexandra D’Urso, Hannah Gordon Tornesjö, Andrea Danki., Inka Rantakallio, Kristine Ringsager, Kalle Berggren, Jacob Kimvall, and Anders Ackfeldt. Your work continues to impress and inspire me and I am so glad to have gotten to know all of you! A thank you also goes out to Kamilla Bergström, Åsa Ståhl, Cathrine Albèr, Margareta Serder, Malin McGlinn, Erliza Lopez Pedersen, Banafsheh Hajinasab and all other colleagues that I have had the privilege of working with at the Doctoral Student Union. I also fondly remember the inspiring discussions with teachers and co-students during my undergraduate studies at the Amerika11.

(14) Institut at Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität Munich. I am especially thankful to professors Berndt Ostendorf and Michael Hochgeschwender for their support and guidance. Finally, I am grateful for the support of my extended family and friends outside of academia. A special thank you for their unconditional friendship goes out to: Astrid Gross, Diana Kneževi., Gerhard Winklmaier, Gabriella Calderari, Andreas Wenzel, Frank Höchel, Sonja Weinbuch, Aino Wilhelmsson, and Elin Stenberg. Last but not least, I would like to thank Raul Alderete Miranda – for being the eye of my storm, and for everything else. Stockholm, 11 August 2016. 12.

(15) INTRODUCTION. Aim and research questions This dissertation focuses on the intersection of Hip-hop culture and the Chilean diaspora in Sweden after 1973. By analyzing this intersection, I aim to understand the way in which cultural identities are connected to different pasts. This connection becomes especially important at this current historical moment in the Global North, as a public debate surrounding migration tends to describe conflicts as based on essential, inherited, and therefore unchanging cultural identities. These assumptions are often fuelled by fears that those who are identified as migrants will gradually form “nations within a nation” that will persist across generations to eventually “take over” their northern host countries.1 In response to these fears, cultural theorists such a Stuart Hall have repeatedly stressed that cultural identities are, in fact, not essential or inherited, but rather constantly changing in new surroundings and situations.2 This dissertation contributes to such research by making visible and discussing the ways in which cultural identities are created and negotiated within specific historical power structures.3 In order to do so, I apply an entangled history approach to a specific case: Hip-hop culture in and in-between Sweden and Chile. There are several reasons why the Chilean case is especially inter-. 1 Kenan Malik, ”Muslims are not a ’different’ class of Briton: we´re as messy as the rest” The guardian 15 may 2016 http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/ may/14/muslims-class-islam-citizen-britain (2016-07-09) 2 Stuart Hall, ”Cultural identity and Diaspora”, in Identity: Community, Culture, Difference, J. Rutherford (ed.), London 1990, p. 222–237. 3 John R. Gillis, ”Memory and Identity: the History of a Relationship”, in Commemorations: The Politics of National Identity, J.R. Gillis Princeton 1994, p. 3–26.. 13.

(16) esting for studying the intersection of migration and Hip-hop culture. The 1973 coup d’état in Chile had a profound impact, not only on Chilean society, but also on the international community in general, and Sweden in particular. The human rights violations committed during the Pinochet regime fundamentally influenced the development of an international language of human rights during the 1970s. The case of Chile was also a milestone for the development of NGOs such as Amnesty International, and led to the creation of new rules and strategies at the level of the United Nations, as the UN General Assembly unanimously adopted its first resolution on torture in the aftermath of the coup.4 The Chilean case also became a central societal and political issue in Sweden in the 1970s and 1980s, a time when issues such international solidarity, multiculturalism and the welfare state were high on the political agenda.5 Large numbers of Chileans who sought refuge in Sweden after the coup were not only warmly welcomed by the Swedish government under prime minister Olof Palme, but also by a large number of civilian groups such as the Chilekommitén, the Chile committee.6 This solidarity movement also included musicians and activists that were part of the proggrörelsen, that, much like the Chilean nueva canción movement was a left wing anti-capitalist movement that emerged in the late 1960.7 As a result, Sweden became the country that welcomed the highest number of Chilean refugees in Europe. Both the Swedish solidarity movement and the Chilean exile community that also included refugees from other Latin American countries such as such as Bolivia, Argentina and Uruguay focused. 4 Kim Christiaens, Magaly Rodriguez Garcia & Idesbald Goddeeris, “A Global Perspective on the European Mobilization for Chile (1970s–1980s) in European Solidarity with Chile 1970s–1980s, Kim Christiaens, Magaly Rodriguez Garcia & Idesbald Goddeeris (eds.), Frankfurt am Main 2014, p. 10. 5 Christiaens et al. p.10. I Yulia Gradoskova, ”Vad angår oss Chile? Solidaritetskultur som en emotionell gemenskap” unpublished manuscript, p. 15. 7 David Thyrén, ”Inledning”, in Musikhus i centrum: två lokala praktiker inom den svenska progressiva musikrörelsen: Uppsala Musikforum och Sprängkullen i Göteborg, David Thyrén, Diss. Stockholm 2009; For the nueva canción movement see: Nancy E. Morris, Canto porque es necesario cantar: The New Song Movement in Chile, 1973– 1983, Albuquerque, New Mexico 1984; Ana Maria Foxley, “Quilapayún, Inti Illimani, Illapu”, Mensaje 1988:374; Marco Cervantes & Lilliana Saldaña, “Hip-hop and nueva canción as decolonial pedagogies of epistemic justice” Decolonization: Indigeneity, Education&Society 2015:1.. 14.

(17) on opposing the Pinochet regime through political and cultural activism.8 In the immediate aftermath of the coup in Chile, the military regime shut down congress and banned all unions and political organizations that were not in line with its political views. Between 1973 and 1990 the regime tortured, exiled, and killed thousands of civilians.9 As democratic elections finally took place in 1990, and Patricio Aylwin Azócar became the first democratically elected president since 1970, around 1,8 million Chileans lived outside of Chile.10 During the 1990s, some of the members of the Chilean exile community in Sweden chose to return, while others remained, and still others who had been living in Chile during the dictatorship chose to leave the country and move to Sweden. Yet those who returned faced considerable difficulties in readjusting to life in Chile. Many of them had spent more than seventeen years outside of Chile, a country that had changed considerably during their absence. The Pinochet regime had also contributed to discrediting those who had fled after the coup by claiming that they had left in order to enjoy Western privileges instead of helping out during times of political and economic hardship.11 During the regime, Chile had also developed into an increasingly internally divided nation, with some segments of the population supporting Pinochet, and others opposing him.12 However, the end of the Pinochet regime did not bring an end to military influence on Chilean politics. Different generals kept threatening to take over the government all throughout the 1990s, and Pinochet remained in his position as commander in chief of the. 8. Beatriz Lindqvist, Drömmar och vardag i exil: om chilenska flyktingars kulturella strategier, Diss., Stockholm 1991; Erik Olsson, ”Bortom exilen – diasporiseingen av chilenare i Sverige” in Transnationella Rum. Diaspora, migration och gränsöverskridande relationer, Erik Olsson (ed.) Umeå 2007; Charlotte Tornbjer, ”Moralisk chock och solidaritet. 1973 och det svenska engagemanget för Chile” in 1973 En träff med tidsandan, Marie Cronqvist, Lina Sturfelt & Martin Wiklund, Lund 2008. 9 Pamela Constable & Arturo Valenzuelo, A Nation of Enemies: Chile under Pinochet, New York, p. 21. 10 Börje Sjöqvist & Lars Palmgren, Att fly från Chile - och att återvandra: två rapporter. Santiago 1990, p. 20. 11 Sjöqvist & Palmgren 1990, p. 29. 12 Constable & Valenzuelo 1991, p. 21; Steve J. Stern, Battling for hearts and minds: memory struggles in Pinochet's Chile, 1973–1988, Durham [NC] 2006, p. xix.. 15.

(18) military until 1998.13 In such a political climate, media outlets did not dare to be openly critical of the regime, especially since Pinochet had been granted immunity for all crimes committed between 1973 and 1978. As a result, media rarely mentioned the regime, and if they did, they only discussed it in hushed tones. Many Chileans advocated the borron y cuenta (nueva) approach that was based on forgetting the past and instead focusing on the future.DG Even after the fall of the regime, the Chilean state “only allowed a narrow range of national identities to be expressed – primarily those that characterized the ‘military government’ as a necessary response to the socialist, democratically elected government of President Salvador Allende.”DH However, the democratic elections in Chile did change the situation of what had now become the Chilean post-exile community in Sweden. It had to find new strategies for group mobilization, as the political resistance against the Pinochet regime no longer served to unite the group.16 These new strategies included challenging social hierarchies that create economic and racialized marginalization in Sweden, as well as opposing the continuation and rise of neoliberal policies in both countries. Such marginalization became an important issue in the late 1980s and early 1990s as an economic crisis coincided with the influx of non-European migrants and a public and political debate on multiculturalism. Owing to the very heterogeneous nature of this post exile group, earlier research has come to contradictory conclusions regarding the children of these Chilean refugees. While, for instance, Erik Olsson argues that they no longer automatically identify themselves with Chile, María Denis Esquivel Sánchez refers to a study that states that the children of Chilean refugees have started to identify themselves with Chile to a greater extent than their parent generation.17 13 Kristin Sørensen, “Chilean Historical Memory, Media, and Discourses of Human Rights” in Global Memoryscapes, Contesting Remembrance in a Transnational Age, Kendall R. Phillips & Mitchell G. Reyes, Tuscaloosa 2011, p. 3. 14 Sjöqvist & Palmgren 1990, p. 17; Fernando Camacho Padilla, ”Combates entre la memoria y la historia de Chile: Conflictos sobre el pasado reciente” Stockholm Review of Latin American Studies 2009:5, p. 88. 15 Sørensen 2011. 16 Lindqvist 1991, p. 34. 17 Olsson 2007, p. 220; María Denis Esquivel Sánchez, ‘Yo puedo bien espanol’ Influencia sueca y variedades hispanas en la actitud lingüística e identificación de los hispanoamericanos en Suecia, Umeå 2005, p. 78.. 16.

(19) Although earlier research on Swedish Hip-hop has described it as a glocal collective culture that has served to render earlier migration experiences obsolete, I here primarily focus on those children of Chilean migrants who address their Chilean background as Hiphop artists, and their connections to artists in Chile. In both Sweden and Chile, Hip-hop artists became involved in the societal debates mentioned above from the late 1980s onward.18 In Sweden, the group The Latin Kings was credited for having made audible and visible a younger generation of immigrants who grew up in the förorten, the suburbs of the three biggest Swedish cities Stockholm, Gothenburg and Malmö, in Swedish mainstream media during the 1990s. The group consisted of the brothers Cristian Salla and Hugo Chepe Salazar Campos whose parents were among those Chileans who migrated to Sweden in the late 1970s, and their friend, Douglas Dogge Doggelito León. The group released their successful debut album Välkommen till förorten (Welcome to the suburbs) in 1994, and a Spanish version of that album called Bienvenido a mi barrio (Welcome to My Neighborhood) in 1996. The success of The Latin Kings also inspired other artists such as Juan Havana Paez Larraguibel from the group Advance Patrol, and Rodrigo Rodde Bernal from the group Hermanos Bernal to start rapping themselves. The production company The Salazar Brothers that Salla and Chepe founded with their third brother Marcelo Masse Salazar Campos is today not only very visible in Swedish mainstream media, they also produce artists in both Sweden and Chile. Both Juan and Rodde are today working with Chilean Hip-hop artists such as Edwin Chumbeque Líbano Gamboa and Cesar Cestar Morales. In Chile, Hip-hop culture emerged in the poblaciones, economically segregated areas that are located on the outskirts of the larger Chilean cities of Santiago, Valparaiso, Temuco, Viña del Mar,. 18. For research on Swedish Hip-hop see for instance: Ove Sernhede & Johan Söderman, Planet Hiphop: om hiphop som folkbildning och social moblisering, Malmö 2010; For research on Chilean Hip-hop see for instance: Pedro Poch Plá, Del Mensaje a la Acción. Construyendo el Movimiento HipHop en Chile. 1984–2004 y más allá, Santiago 2011; María Emilia Tijoux, Marisol Facuse & Miguel Urrutia ”El Hip-hop: Arte popular de lo cotidiano o resistencia táctica a la marginación?” Polis, Revista de la Universidad Bolivariana 2012:33.. 17.

(20) Iquique, and Concepción in the late 1980s.19 While Swedish youth had access to Hip-hop culture through TV, newspapers, and concerts during the late 1980s and early 1990s, such content was not readily available to marginalized youth in the poblaciones. After the end of the Pinochet regime, Eduardo Lalo Meneses founded the rap group, Panteras Negras. The group’s name is based on the Black Panther Party in the United States whose political stance they were influenced by in their socio-critical lyrics and their critique of both the Chilean government and media. However, it was the less political rap of the group La Pozze Latina, a group that was founded in 1991 by rapper Jimmy Fernández whose family returned to Chile after the end of the regime, that first made Chilean Hip-hop visible in mainstream media. This is not surprising, considering that media did not address human rights violations or openly criticize the Pinochet regime during the 1990s.20 In this dissertation, I use an entangled history approach to discuss the way in which these Hip-hop artists create and negotiate their identities in and in-between Chile and Sweden after 1973 from four different perspectives.21 Based on a close reading of the lyrics and oral testimonies of Hip-hop artists in both countries, I trace the way in which they construct and negotiate their identities by positioning themselves, and in turn being positioned in different historical narratives in, and in-between Sweden and Chile. In terms of remembering a Swedish past, I discuss these negotiations in connection to a narrative based on inclusion – the narrative of the good Sweden (det goda Sverige) – and a narrative based on exclusion – the narrative of the old Sweden (det gamla Sverige). In terms of remembering a Chilean past on the other hand, I discuss them in connection to narratives based on either remembering or forgetting the atrocities committed by the Pinochet regime.. 19. Rainer Quitzow, Hip-hop in Chile: far from New York (Lejos del Centro), New York 2001. Juan Pablo Olavarría, Karla Henríquez, Cristina Correa & Rodrigo Hidalgo, ”Hip-hop en Chile”, Comunicación y medios 2002:13; Poch Plá 2011; Tijoux et al. 2012. 20 Kristin Sørensen, Media, Memory, and Human Rights in Chile, New York 2009, p. 2. 21 ”Histoire croisée bietet die Möglichkeit die entsprechenden Variationen in die Bestimmung der Gegensätze und Prozesse hinein zu transportieren.” Michael Werner & Bénédicte Zimmerman, ”Vergleich, Transfer, Verflechtung. Der Ansatz der Histoire croisée und die Herausforderung des Transnationalen”, Geschichte und Gesellschaft, 2002(28):4, p. 629.. 18.

(21) Thereby, I add both an explicitly historical, cultural and transnational perspective to the study of the connection between Chile and the Chilean diaspora. By making visible and discussing the way in which these specific cultural identities are connected to the past, I also stress that identities are not essential or inherited, but rather constantly changing within specific historical power structures. Against this background I ask the following questions: how and when do Hip-hop artists in Sweden and Chile create and negotiate their identities? How are these creations and negotiations connected to the above-mentioned narratives?. 19.

(22) Form and structure This dissertation consists of four parts: a theoretical discussion, a discussion on methodology, four loops that contain summaries of the four articles, and a concluding discussion. In the theoretical discussion, I briefly outline the contribution of an entangled history perspective to earlier research on Hip-hop culture and the Chilean diaspora in Sweden. I then also address this contribution in greater detail in each loop. The methodological discussion starts by introducing the artists whose lyrics and oral testimonies this dissertation is based on. As I engage in an analysis of song lyrics in the first loop, I also discuss its connection to the sociological study of Hiphop lyrics, and include a brief outline of the limitations of such an approach. After discussing the connection between oral history, migration, Hip-hop and entangled history, I continue by outlining the individual interview situations. The methodological introduction ends with a reflection on the limitations of form, language and reflexivity. The main part consists of four loops that include summaries of the four individual articles. I have chosen to use the word loop instead of chapter out of two main reasons. First of all, I refer to Jeffrey Chang’s seminal book Can’t Stop Won’t Stop: The History of the Hip-hop Generation in which he uses the term loop for his different chapters.22 Second, I use the term to highlight the fact that, while all loops include a discussion of earlier research, historical background, and the theoretical frameworks that I use in the individual articles, they, at the end return, or loop back, to add another answer to the main research questions of this dissertation. The individual loops do thus not return to the place from which they started. They rather open up a new line of questions that, in the process of my work with this dissertation, had not been possible to ask without previously having asked and answered the other question(s). In the first loop I discuss the creation and negotiation of a Chilean or Latino identity in a Swedish Hip-hop context. I start by introducing the way in which earlier research on Hip-hop in Sweden has placed the culture within a historical context by defin-. 22. Jeff Chang, Can't stop won't stop: hiphop-generationens historia, Göteborg 2006.. 20.

(23) ing it as a representative of the marginalized other living in the low-income, immigrant-dominated förorten in Sweden. I then move on to discuss what will be called the play of differences as a stylistic element of African American culture in general, and Hiphop culture in particular, and to argue, that such play can be analyzed by using Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak’s notion of the double meaning of representation and the other. After a short summary of the results of the first article: Representing the Marginalized Other – the Swedish Hip-hop group Advance Patrol, I conclude the first loop by discussing the ways in which the representations of a Chilean or Latino identity in the lyrics of Advance Patrol can be discussed in terms of: the narrative of the good Sweden (defined as solidarity with Chile), the narrative of the old Sweden (defined as based on an essentialist definition of cultural identities) and remembering and forgetting the Pinochet regime. In the second loop I discuss the creation and negotiation of a Chilean or Latino identity through Hip-hop in-between Chile and Sweden in terms of intersectionality and postmemory. I start by taking a closer look at the historical background of the narrative of the good Sweden that is based on solidarity with Chile and the narrative of remembering the Pinochet regime: the context of migration from Chile to Sweden that started in 1973, the subsequent Chilean diasporization process in Sweden, and the Swedish solidarity movement. I then move on to introduce the definition of intersectionality by sociologist Nira Yuval-Davis that is used as a theoretical framework in the second article. After a short summary of the results of this second article, I conclude the loop by discussing the way in which the Chilean or Latino identity created and negotiated by Rodde can be discussed in terms of postmemory and in connection to the narrative of the good Sweden (defined as based on solidarity with Chile and multiculturalism), the narrative of the old Sweden and remembering and forgetting the Pinochet regime. In the third loop I engage in a comparative reading of the creation of a Chilean or Latino identity by two Swedish artists in terms of race and gender. In order to contextualize the way in which the artists Rodrigo Rodde Bernal, and Fredrik FreddeRico Ekelund create a Latino artist identity in-between Latin America and Swe21.

(24) den, I start by discussing the role of race and gender in earlier Hiphop studies. I then also discuss the narrative of the good Sweden in terms of race and gender by focusing on different historical definitions of the construction of “Swedishness” – both against an internal and an external “other.” In this third loop I also outline the way in which I use cultural theorist Stuart Hall´s notion of difference to analyse masculinity and the play of identity and difference in popular music in the third article. After a short summary of the results of this third article, I engage in a discussion of the role of race or ethnicity and gender in the construction and negotiation of these identities in terms of: the narrative of the good Sweden (defined as solidarity with Chile, multiculturalism, gender-equality and individualism), and the narrative of the old Sweden. In the fourth and final loop I discuss the creation and negotiation of a Chilean or Latino identity by Swedish and Chilean artists in terms of transnational memory work. I start by outlining the narrative of remembering the Pinochet regime, that is, the history of Chile after 1973, the role of memory work in remembering the human rights violations committed by the regime, as well as earlier studies on Chilean Hip-hop. I then move on to discuss the concept of transnational memory work. After a short summary of the results of the fourth and last article, I discuss the constructions and negotiations of a Chilean or Latino identity through Hip-hop inbetween Chile and Sweden, both in terms of transnational memory work, and in terms of: the narratives of the good Sweden (defined as solidarity with Chile, multiculturalism, gender-equality, and individualism), the narrative of the old Sweden, and the narratives based on remembering or forgetting the Pinochet regime. The concluding discussion of this kappa then ties together these four loops in order to answer the main research questions: How and when do Hip-hop artists in Sweden and Chile create and negotiate their identities? How are these creations and negotiations connected to different narratives in Sweden and Chile? The appendix that follows after the bibliography includes the complete versions of the four articles.. 22.

(25) An entangled history approach In an article published in 2002, Michael Werner and Bénédicte Zimmerman introduced the term Histoire croisée as an alternative to comparative transnationalism (Vergleichsgeschichte) and transfer history (Transfergeschichte).23 According to Werner and Zimmerman, the main focus of such an approach is to trace the interconnectedness of historical processes within, and across different national contexts. The main objective of entangled history, the term that I will use in this dissertation, is nevertheless not simply to set out to prove that the world is connected or entangled, as human beings have always been mobile, long before the establishment of nation-states. As Hagen Schulz-Forberg points out, the aim of entangled history is rather to “provide historical substance to, and an understanding of today’s experience of global complexities” by focusing on the historical consequences of entanglements and networks.24 One way to make visible such entanglements is to f"$$"'! ! &"$:% %&"$+ ?

(26) @5 && %5 &" "'%"! $":%&"$+!%&"%$!!"")!#$"%%: % "! $":( + " #$! $!% "$ " "!&% &)! %"& !&&% %' % !&"!:%&&%5 %"&%5 "$ ': &'$%8 In this dissertation, I use such an actor-based entangled history approach to study Hip-hop culture in-between Sweden and Chile.. 23 Werner & Zimmerman 2002, p. 608; See also: Silke Neunsinger, ”Cross-over! om komparationer, transferanalyser, historie croisée och den metodologiska nationalismens problem” Historisk tidskrift 2010(130):1. 24 Hagen Schulz-Forberg, ”Introduction: Global Conceptual History: promises and pitfalls of a new research agenda” in A Global Conceptual History of Asia, 1860–1940, Hagen Schulz-Forberg (ed.), London 2014, p. 3.. 23.

(27) Earlier research and contribution arlier research on Swedish Hip-hop has primarily used sociological rather than historical frameworks to study the culture, it has seen Hip-hop as a form of resistance against societal power structures in Sweden from the 1990s onward.25 Swedish Hip-hop has been described as a glocal collective culture that has united youth in the suburbs (förorten) of Sweden’s three largest cities – Stockholm, Gothenburg and Malmö – with a wide variety of immigration backgrounds behind a common goal: to challenge social hierarchies that create economic and racialized marginalization in Sweden. Earlier research on Chilean Hip-hop on the other hand has studied the culture as in relation to a U.S. American context, and as a means to actively resist and challenge neoliberal politics in Chile since the late 1980s.26 These studies have, in other words, argued that Chilean Hip-hop can be seen as both an expression of U.S. American mainstream culture and commercialism, and resistance against such commercialism. By using an entangled history approach, my dissertation adds both an explicitly historical and transnational perspective to the study of Hip-hop in, and inbetween Sweden and Chile: it studies the ways in which both Swedish and Chilean Hip-hop artists create and negotiate a Chilean or Latin-American identity through their music in relation to different pasts. Beatriz Lindqvist’s dissertation that deals with the cultural strategies used by Chilean refugees in Malmö during the 1990s is one of the central studies on the Chilean diaspora in Sweden during that time.27 Erik Olsson argues that what he calls the Chilean diasporization process in Sweden can be divided in two main time periods: a period of exile that started in 1973, on the one hand, and a period of post-exile that began in 1989 with a democratic election in Chile, on the other.8EK After the military coup led by Augusto Pinochet in 1973, large numbers of Chileans sought refuge in Sweden. These refugees were not only warmly welcomed by the Swedish government under prime minister Olof Palme, but also by 25. See for instance: Sernhede & Söderman 2010. Quitzow 2001; Olavarría et al. 2002; Poch Plá 2011; Tijoux et al. 2012. 27 Lindqvist provides a thorough ethnological analysis of the development of a Chilean exile culture in Sweden in the 1980s and 1990s. Lindqvist 1991. 28 Olsson 2007, p. 218. 26. 24.

(28) civilian groups such as the Chilekommittén (the Chile committee), an organization that welcomed these refugees as kindred political spirits, and engaged in solidarity work directed at Chile.EL Yet, while the exile community focused on opposing the Pinochet regime through political and cultural activism, the post-exile community had to find new strategies for group mobilization, as the political resistance against the Pinochet regime no longer served to unite the very heterogeneous group.FC The post-exile period also made internal divisions more visible. Olsson argues that the children of these Chilean refugees no longer automatically identified themselves with Chile, while María Denis Esquivel Sánchez refers to a study that states that the children of Chilean refugees have started to identify themselves with Chile to a greater extent than their parent generation.31 Some of the issues that became important for the negotiation of a Latin-American group identity in Sweden after 1990 were discrimination and marginalization based on ethnic categories. These are the exact same issues that earlier research has pointed out as central issues within Swedish Hip-hop that emerged during the 1980s and 1990s. Therefore, I use an entangled history approach to study the way in which both the children of these Chilean refugees, who became Hip-hop artists in the post-exile period, and Hip-hop artists in Chile relate to the past in and in-between Chile and Sweden after 1973. Defining these artists as historical agents, I trace the way in which they create and negotiate identities within specific contextual frameworks (Handlungszusammenhänge), within which they are restricted by different historical power structures while they, at the same time, use these structures as resources.32 The concept of identity that I use here is based on the work of Stuart Hall. In his contribution to the anthology Identity: Community, Culture, Difference, Hall defines cultural identities as social and political creations that undergo constant transformation and are always subject to the play of history, culture and power.33 They are always 29. Gradskova, p. 15. Lindqvist 1991, p.34. Olsson 2007, p. 220; Esquivel Sánchez 2005, p. 78. 32 Werner & Zimmerman 2002, p. 622. 33 Hall 1990, p. 226; Hall´s concept of cultural identity is related to the work on cultural memory by Aleida and Jan Assman. Yet, whereas Jan Assman differentiates 30 31. 25.

(29) marked by an entangled relationship between similarity and continuity on the one hand, and difference and rupture on the other. Hall argues that cultural identities reflect common historical experiences and shared cultural codes, and “set out to provide a stable frame of reference and meaning that is not re-discovered.” Such a stable frame is rather created by individuals and groups who create and negotiate their identities by remembering the past in different ways, depending on the historical power structures in the present. As John R. Gillis points out, “the core meaning of any individual or group identity, namely, a sense of sameness over time and space, is sustained by remembering; and what is remembered is defined by the assumed identity.”34 The notion of identity in other words depends on the idea of memory, and vice versa. In terms of the construction and negotiation of identities, I therefore study historical narratives that are created within specific power structures as marked by both remembering and forgetting the past. My dissertation in other words mainly contributes to Hip-hop studies in Sweden and Chile on the one hand, and studies focusing on the Chilean diaspora in Sweden on the other. In the following, I will briefly outline the four different ways in which I discuss the creation and negotiation of identities in the four loops, as well as the narratives in Sweden and Chile in connection to which I discuss them in this kappa.. between communicative memory as based on everyday communications and cultural memory as based on “distance from the everyday”, Hall sees these two forms as connected. See: Jan Assmann & Johan Czaplicka, “Collective Memory and Cultural Identity” New German Critique 1995:65, p. 125–133. For an introduction to the many different concepts of memory used in the interdisciplinary field of memory studies see: Astrid Erll & Ansgar Nünning (eds.), A Companion to Cultural Memory Studies: An International and Interdisciplinary Handbook, Berlin 2010. 34 Gillis 1994, p. 3.. 26.

(30) Identity, memory, and place In the first loop I discuss identity in terms of representations created in, and through, popular culture. In his contribution to a handbook of cultural memory studies, Martin Zierold notes that not much work has been done on the connection between contemporary media and what he calls ”social memory.”35 Zierold argues that one of the reasons for the lack of such scholarly work can be found in the wide-spread assumption that ”modern societies could […] become oblivious to the presuppositions of their present and forget their past” by way of electronic media or digitalization that are often blamed for an alleged “disappearance of memory.”36 Stuart Hall on the other hand argues that an analysis of cultural identities must necessarily take into account their representations in popular culture, as identities are “constituted, not outside but within representation.”37 This means that they are not simply constructions that reflect what already exists, but rather forms of representation that, at the same time, are able to “constitute […] new kinds of subjects, and thereby enable [individuals] to discover places from which to speak.”38 Hall also stresses that such representations are always created within specific historical power structures and locations. In this sense, in the first loop, I "'&!& )+% ! ) & $#$%!&&"!% " $!& !&&% &$"' #:"#can be discussed in terms of remembering the past. In the second loop, I discuss identity in terms of postmemory. As I apply an entangled history approach to the study of identity and memory, I study memory as a transnational concept. In the introduction of the anthology Memory and Migration, Julia Creet points out that contemporary theories of memory have “mostly considered memory in situ.” Instead of seeing place as a constant of memory, Creet suggests that memory research should focus on movement, the only psychically and physically measurable aspect of memory since, “the point of origin is lost entirely, and, though entirely real in its effects, (is) of little matter to the mechanisms of 35. Martin Zierold, ”Memory and Media Cultures”, in A Companion to Cultural Memory Studies: An International and Interdisciplinary Handbook, Astrid Erll & Ansgar Nünning (eds.), Berlin 2010, p. 399. 36 Ibid, p. 400. 37 Hall 1990, p. 222. 38 Hall 1990, p. 237.. 27.

(31) memory.”39 In order to discuss such memory in motion at generational remove, I draw on the concept of postmemory outlined by literary scholar Marianne Hirsch. Hirsch uses the concept in order to study the way in which memories in exile are transferred to those who were not actually there to live an event, both as an interand transgenerational act of transfer.40 In this sense, in the second loop, I discuss the way in which the different identities created and negotiated through Hip-hop can be seen as connected to a past inbetween Chile and Sweden by using the concept of postmemory. In the third loop, I discuss identity in terms of race or ethnicity and gender. I specifically focus on the different ways in which identities are created and negotiated in a transnational popular music context in terms of different historical stereotypes connected to race and gender. As Doreen Massey points out, places are always constructed and imagined in terms of these two concepts. She argues that the fact of geographical variation in gender relations is a significant element in the production and reproduction of both stereotypes, that is, race and gender, connected to specific places.41 As outlined above, this includes the representations of racial and gender stereotypes in popular culture. In this sense, in the third loop, I engage in a discussion of the role of race or ethnicity and gender in the construction and negotiation of different identities through Hip-hop in-between Sweden and Chile. In the fourth and final loop, I discuss identity in terms of transnational memory work. As Aleida Assman stresses, studying the way in which transnational memories are created becomes especially important as “we look at possibilities of new solidarities outside of nation-states.”42 Assman argues that an analysis of transnational memories should not only focus on the connectivity of digital technologies and media itself, but also the work of new transnational actors and institutional networks that are “reshaping the global world form above and below.” By defining transnational. 39. Julia Creet ”Migration and Memory”, in Memory and migration: multidisciplinary approaches to memory studies, Julia Creet & Andreas Kitzmann (eds.), Toronto 2011, p. 6. 40 Marianne Hirsch, “Introduction”, in The Generation of postmemory: writing and visual culture after the Holocaust, Marianne Hirsch. New York 2012, p. 4. GD "$! %%+5>"!%">!

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(35) memory work as a concept that is “embedded in complex A9B power relations that determine what is remembered (or forgotten), by whom, and for what end,” I trace the way in which Hip-hop artists create and negotiate their identities in relation to such transnational memories or historical narratives.43 While the concept of transnational memory work stresses the importance of historical power structures that are created at a national level, it has to be noted that I do not see national culture as an essentialist or deterministic concept. In the words of Frantz Fanon, I rather see it as “the whole body of efforts made by a people in the sphere of thought to describe, justify and praise the action through which that people has created itself and keeps itself in existence.”44 In this sense, I discuss the constructions and negotiations of a Chilean or Latino identity through Hip-hop in-between Chile and Sweden in terms of transnational memory work in the fourth and final part of this dissertation. % + !&$ % &" &$ & )+ ! ) !&&%$"!!&&"$!&#%&%5"'$""#%!)& %'%%"! "! &% !&&% in connection to two dominant narratives in Sweden and Chile that I will outline in the following.45 . 43. Gillis 1994, p. 3. Frantz Fanon, “On National Culture”, in The Wretched of the Earth, London 1963, p. 170. 45 *!$2$%"%'%% $##$"!$""

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(39) Music, Private Lives, and Public Identity in France and Sweden. Yet, while D’Urso sets out to “think about how lives and experiences intersect across social and national boundaries” using the concept of sociological imagination, I here focus on the way in which identities are connected to different versions of the past. Alexandra D’Urso, Life Stories and Sociological Imagination: Music, Private Lives, and Public Identity in France and Sweden, Newcastle upon Tyne 2013. 44. 29.

(40) Identity and dominant historical narratives In Sweden there are a number of studies that have focused on the creation and negotiation of Swedish nationalism or national identity. Historian Patrik Hall, for instance, has outlined the development of Swedish nationalism in the last six centuries by using five different concepts: naturalism, idealism, modernity theory, and elitism.46 As ethnologist Billy Ehn points out, national identities are constantly renegotiated, among others through encounters with “others” both inside and outside of national boundaries.47 This “other” can either be perceived as a welcome addition to the national community, or as threatening its inner coherence, whereby the encounter serves to further mobilize inner coherence and belonging. I here focus on the way in which individuals who are identified as such “others” negotiate their belonging to a national identity or community by drawing on two different narratives of a Swedish past: the narrative of the good Sweden on the one and, and the narrative of the old Sweden on the other. Quoting Tobias Hübinette and Catrin Lundström, Hynek Pallas defines the narrative of the good Sweden (det goda Sverige) as a narrative that expresses nostalgia toward a past marked by genderequality, feminism, anti-racism, and solidarity, while the narrative of the old Sweden (det gamla Sverige) expresses nostalgia toward a version of the past that constructs Sweden as a homogenous “white” nation.48 While the narrative of the good Sweden allows for the inclusion of new members of society regardless of their. 46 Patrik Hall, Den svenskaste historien: nationalism i Sverige under sex sekler, Stockholm 2000. See even: Alf W. Johansson, ”Svensk nationalism och identitet efter andra världskriget”, in Vad är Sverige? Röster om svensk nationell identitet, Alf W. Johansson (ed.), Stockholm 2001. 47 Billy Ehn, Jonas Frykman & Orvar Löfrgen, Försvenskningen av Sverige: det nationellas förvandlingar, Stockholm 1993, p. 262–265. See also Ingmarie Danielsson Malmros’ dissertation that concerns itself with the changing narratives on Swedishness in history textbooks: Ingmarie Danielsson Malmros, ”Inledning” in Det var en gång ett land-: berättelser om svenskhet i historieläroböcker och elevers föreställningsvärldar, Ingmarie Danielsson Malmros Diss., Höör, 2012. 48 Pallas here refers to an article written by Tobias Hübinette and Catrin Lundström after the populist part Sverigedemokraterna (Sweden Democrats) that runs on an antiimmigration platform became part of the Riksdagen, the Swedish parliament in 2010. Hynek Pallas,Vithet i Svensk Spelfilm, Diss., Göteborg 2011, p. 87; Cultural theorist Sara Ahmed argues that such narratives amount to a ”nostalgic vision of a world ’staying put’ in a ‘community of white people happily living with other white people.’” Sara Ahmed, “Melancholic Migrants”, in The Promise of Happiness, Sara Ahmed, Durham NC 2010, p. 121.. 30.

(41) cultural background, the narrative of the old Sweden is based on an essentialist view on cultural identities that combines place with race or ethnicity, and therefore advocates exclusion based on these terms. I here focus on different aspects of these narratives in each loop based on four different research questions and theoretical frameworks, starting with a definition of the narrative of the good Sweden as based on solidarity, and the narrative of the old Sweden as based on an essentialist view on cultural identities. In a Chilean context, studies concerning themselves with the creation and negotiation of a Chilean national identity have mainly focused on the Pinochet regime and its aftermath.49 Fernando Camacho Padilla, who has written extensively on bilateral relations between Chile and Sweden before and after 1973, argues that there are two dominant ways to remember the past in contemporary Chilean society, based on either remembering or forgetting the atrocities committed by the Pinochet regime.HC I therefore also discuss the creation and negotiation of identities through Hip-hop in-between Sweden and Chile in connection to the narrative of remembering Pinochet on the one hand, and the narrative of forgetting Pinochet on the other. Yet, before engaging in such an analysis, I will discuss the method that I use in this dissertation.. 49 Clarisa Hardy Raskovan, La Ciudad Escindida – Los problemas nacionales y la Region Metropolitana, Santiago 1989; Constable & Valenzuelo 1991; Steve J. Stern, Remembering Pinochet's Chile: on the eve of London, 1998. Durham NC 2004; &$! 20066&( 8&$!5Reckoning with Pinochet: the memory question in democratic Chile, 1989–2006. Durham NC 2010. 50 Camacho Padilla 2009, p. 91.. 31.

(42) METHOD. ! attempt to write an actor-based entangled history must necessarily also take into account that historians themselves are entangled with their object of research in (at least) two ways: firstly, through their individual backgrounds and knowledge, and second, through the specific moment in which they choose to ask their research question. As John Gillis points out, the individual backgrounds of historians matter5 % =!&&% ! "$% $ !"& &!%)&!

(43) 5'&&!%)&! 8>HDThe moments in which historical questions are asked are also always conjunctural; while all moments exhibit similarities and continuities with other moments in which similar questions were asked, each one of them is historically specific, and therefore, never quite the same.52 Every analysis or research project is in other words always already positioned; it is not only written in a particular place in time and embedded within a specific historical context, culture, and academic discipline. It is also influenced by the personal background and knowledge of the researcher. The following section, that concerns itself with the method used in this dissertation, therefore starts with a brief introduction of myself as a researcher, and the interviewees that are part of this project.. 51. Gillis 1994, p. 5. Stuart Hall, ”What is this ’black’ in black popular culture?” in Stuart Hall – Critical dialogues in cultural studies, David Morley and Kuan-Hsing Chen (eds.), London/New York 2005, p. 468. 52. 32.

(44) Setting the scene I started this project as a PhD candidate at Malmö University in 2011. My motivation to ask these specific research questions can be explained through both my personal, and my academic background. I was born into a middle-class family, and spent my early childhood years in Helsinki, Finland. When I was seven years old, my family moved to Munich, Germany, where I attended school and university. I finished my studies in American Cultural History, American Literature and Spanish Philology in 2005, with an M.A. thesis that focused on African-American and Chicano resistance against identity politics, that is, affirmative action policies, in California. Through, and during, my studies I was increasingly interested in the significance of ethnicity/race, language, culture, migration, and power structures in different societies. Growing up and living in, and in-between different national contexts and languages, and through conversations with friends and acquaintances who shared such a background, I started to reflect on the ways in which cultural or national identities are assigned to, and can be claimed by, individuals or groups. In the early 1990s, I had also started to listen to Hip-hop lyrics that often addressed such questions. After finishing my studies, I first moved to Hamburg, Germany and, in 2008, to Stockholm, Sweden. In Stockholm, I started to apply for doctoral programs with the aim to study Swedish Hiphop culture as a form of resistance and societal critique. As I started as a PhD candidate at Malmö University in 2011, I discovered that many Swedish Hip-hop artists with Spanish-sounding names mention a Chilean background in their lyrics and videos. This is when I began to focus on the intersection of Hip-hop culture and migration in-between Chile and Sweden. While introducing the artist included in this dissertation, it has to be noted that most of them are in some way connected to the Stockholm-based production company The Salazar Brothers. The company, that today produces artists in both Sweden and Chile, was founded by two former members of the seminal Swedish Hiphop group The Latin Kings: the brothers Hugo Chepe (born in 1973 in Santiago, Chile), Cristian Salla (born in 1975 in Santiago, Chile), and their third brother Marcelo Masse Salazar Campos 33.

(45) (born in 1979 in Stockholm, Sweden). The Latin Kings, a group that consisted of Salla, Chepe and their friend, Douglas Dogge Doggelito León, released their successful debut album Välkommen till förorten (Welcome to the suburbs) in 1994. Yet, although they released this album in a Spanish version called Bienvenido a mi barrio (Welcome to My Neighborhood) in 1996, they did not get in contact with Hip-hop artists in Chile at that time. They are today mainly credited for having made audible and visible a younger generation of immigrants who grew up in the förorten, the suburbs of the three biggest Swedish cities Stockholm, Gothenburg and Malmö, in Swedish mainstream media during the 1990s. Their success also inspired other artists such as Juan Havana from the group Advance Patrol, and Rodrigo Rodde Bernal from the group Hermanos Bernal to start rapping themselves. The production company The Salazar Brothers that emerged from The Latin Kings is today very visible in Swedish mainstream media. Chepe, Salla and Masse are frequently interviewed for articles, documentaries and TV shows that highlight the different aspects of the continuing importance of Hip-hop culture in Sweden.. Article I The first article is based on an analysis of the Swedish lyrics of the Hip-hop group Advance Patrol between the years 2003 and 2006. The group consists of rappers Juan Havana (Juan Hektor Paez Larraguibel), Gonza (Gonzalo Rodrigo del Rio Saldias) and DJ Lucutz (Lucas Simon Alsén). Chafic Mourtada, an earlier member of the group died in 2002. Both Juan’s and Gonza’s parents emigrated from Chile to Sweden during the 1970s and 1980s, and both artists were born in 1981 in Malmö. The Salazar Brothers produced a number of songs featured on their four full-length albums released between 2003 and 2009. They have also worked together with other artists and producers, and primarily define themselves as part of the local Hip-hop scene in Malmö, whereas The Salazar Brothers are based in Stockholm. Their first albums mainly contain Swedish lyrics; the album “Utskrivna” (The Undocumented) was released in 2003, and its follow-up album “Ett land som är tryggt” (A Country that is Safe) that only contained five songs was released in 2005. “Aposteln” (The Apostle), Ad34.

(46) vance Patrol’s second full-length album was released in 2006. Yet, only half of the songs on their third album “Enligt AP” (According to AP) that was released in 2007 were in Swedish, and half of them in Spanish. Their fourth and last album “El Futuro” (the future) that was released in 2009 solely contains raps in Spanish, as it was primarily directed at the Chilean, or Latin American market. This latest album was a result of their cooperation with Chilean artist Cesar Cestar Morales from the group Shamanes Crew, whom I interviewed for the fourth article.. Article II The second article is based on an interview with Rodrigo Rodde Bernal from the group Hermanos Bernal (the Bernal brothers) that today mainly raps in Spanish, and primarily aims its music at the Chilean market, and a global Chilean diaspora. Rodde was born in Concón, Chile, in 1983 and has two brothers, Cristian and Jonathan Bernal. Rodde’s family came to Sweden in 1986, when he was three years old, yet they returned to Chile when he was fourteen only to more move back to Sweden four year later. It was during that second stay in Chile, that Rodde decided to become a Hip-hop artist himself. Back in Sweden, he started to perform as a freestyle rapper and later founded the group Hermanos Bernal together with his brother Cristian. The group that had initially primarily rapped in Swedish, started to experiment with Spanish lyrics in the mid2000s. In 2008 they released their debut album “Directo de Suecia” (Direct from Sweden) that primarily targeted the Chilean market. The album was produced by The Salazar Brothers and recorded at their studio, the Red Line Studios, in Stockholm. To promote that album, Hermanos Bernal went on tour in Chile. In 2015, Rodde and Cristian further strengthened their ties with Chilean musicians by founding the record company Zero Shine Music and signing Chilean artists such as Edwin Chumbeque Líbano Gamboa, whom I have interviewed for the fourth article.. 35.

(47) Article III The third article is based on a close comparative reading of the interview I conducted with Rodrigo Rodde Bernal, and an interview with Swedish R&B artist Fredrik FreddeRico Ekelund. While all the other artists included in this dissertation have parents who were born in Chile, FreddeRico, who was born in Lund in 1982, has no familial ties to Latin America. I decided to include him as he, just like the other artists, creates an artist identity that refers to a Latin-American context. FreddeRico grew up in Lund and released his first EP “I’ve got soul” in 2003. In 2008, his song “She’s a bad girl” was featured on a mixtape, together with songs by internationally known artists such as Kanye West, Lil Wayne and Beyoncé. In 2012, FreddeRico was signed by Kalmar-based production company Pitbull Productions Incorporated. “I Will”, the first single that resulted from this cooperation became very popular in Latin America and was soon followed up by a second single called “Don’t Go.” This single was released in 2013, and became a huge success: it debuted in the Central American charts at number 6, and its video reached over one million views on the Internet platform YouTube. None of the other artists that I discuss have reached a similar amount of views on that platform.53 . Article IV The fourth and final article is based on interviews with seven different artists in both Sweden and Chile. These include three of the four Swedish artists mentioned above: Cristian Salla Salazar Campos, Juan Havana, and Rodrigo Rodde Bernal; as well as interviews with four Chilean artists that I conducted in Santiago and Valparaiso: Eduardo Lalo Meneses, Jimmy Fernández, Cesar Cestar Morales, and Edwin Chumbeque Líbano Gamboa. Lalo and Jimmy are both representatives of the older generation of Chilean Hip-hop. Both became b-boys during the late 1980s, and rappers during the 1990s. Lalo who was born and raised in Santiago is one. 53 The Internet platform YouTube did nevertheless not go online before 2005, that is, several years after groups such as The Latin Kings celebrated their greatest successes. This aspect alone can thus not be taken as indicative of the popularity of different artists.. 36.

(48) of the co-founders of the seminal group Panteras Negras54 (the Black Panthers). He has travelled to Europe on several occasions, yet has never met The Salazar Brothers. Jimmy was also born in Santiago. His family moved to Italy during the 1970s, and returned to Chile in the late 1980s, and he is one of the co-founders of the Chilean Hip-hop group La Pozze Latina (the Latin posse).55 Cesar Cestar Morales is a member of the group Shamanes Crew that, as I have mentioned above, has recorded some songs in cooperation with Advance Patrol.56 The group, whose musical style Cestar describes as oriented toward dancehall and reggae rather than Hiphop, is very successful in Chile, and performs at several live events each week. With the exception of Shamanes Crew and The Salazar Brothers, all the other artists that I discuss here have other jobs besides producing music and performing as musicians. The final artist that I have included is Edwin Chumbeque Líbano Gamboa, an independent rapper who does not belong to a group. Chumbeque was born in Valparaiso and spent a few years in Texas with his family during the 1980s. He currently lives in Valparaiso and was signed by Zero Shine Music, the production company founded by Hermanos Bernal in 2015. As the first article engages in an analysis of rap lyrics, I will now briefly discuss the use of this method, as well as its limitations.. 54. The group Panteras Negras has released five albums: “Lejos del Centro” (far from the center) in 1990, “Reyes de la Jungla” (kings of the jungle) in 1993, “Atacando Calles” (attacking the streets) in 1995, “La Ruleta” (the roulette) in 1996 and “Prodigos” (prodigies) in 2012. Eduardo Lalo Meneses currently lives in Santiago de Chile. 55 The group La Pozze Latina released three albums during the 1990s: “Pozzeídos por la illusion” (possessed by the illusion) in 1993, “Una nueva religion” (a new religion) in 1996 and “Desde el '!""%%#"%>?$" &)"$" $$"$%@!DLLL8 + $!-!,'$$!&+(%!!&"8 56 The group Shamanes Crew released its first album “Del Amor al Odio” (from love to hate) in 2003. This first album was followed by “El Ritual” (the ritual) in 2005, “Ninos de Barrio” (the children from the barrio) in 2007, “Desde Chile Para El Mundo” (from Chile to the world) in 2009 and “Redención” (deliverance) in 2010 – an album that included the song “Fuego” that was recorded in cooperation with Advance Patrol – and their latest album “Antología” (anthology) that was released in 2010. Cesar Cestar Morales currently lives in Santiago de Chile.. 37.

(49) Analyzing rap lyrics By studying Advance Patrol’s lyrics in their capacity to refer to the world outside of music, I apply a cultural studies approach to the analysis of popular culture, that is closely related to sociolinguistic studies of popular music in the first article. A comprehensive introduction to such a sociolinguistic approach to Hip-hop lyrics, based on Hip-hop culture in Africa, Asia, Australia, the Americas and the European Union is provided by the anthology Global linguistic flows: hip hop cultures, youth identities, and the politics of language. 57 In its foreword, editor Samy H. Alim stresses that Hip-hop is not only consumed or imitated outside of the United States; it is rather infused with local meaning that can be made visible through an analysis of the language used in Hip-hop lyrics. Such studies have for instance focused on the way in which elements and words from different languages mix with what is called Black English in Hip-hop lyrics. In Sweden, there are studies that argue that Hip-hop lyrics contain elements of invandrarsvenska (migrant Swedish), a dialect that is spoken in immigrant-dominated areas in Sweden.58 While I do not focus on invandrarsvenska in the first article, it is related to these studies.. Limitations My study is also related to Kalle Berggren’s doctoral dissertation Reading Rap that engages in an analysis of Swedish rap lyrics.59 As my first article uses the same method, it shares some of the limitations pointed out by Berggren in one of the articles included in his dissertation. 60 As all song lyrics, the lyrics of Advance Patrol exist in both oral and written form, and can therefore be understood and interpreted in a number of different ways, depending on the. HJ Samy H. Alim, ”Intro: Straight Outta Compton, Straight aus München: Global Linguistic Flows, Identities, adn the Politics of Language in a Global Hip Hop Nation” in Global linguistic flows: hip hop cultures, youth identities, and the politics of language, Samy H. Alim, Awad Ibrahim & Alastair Pennycook (eds.), New York, N. Y., 2009. 58 See for instance: Ulla-Britt Kotsinas, Invandrarsvenska, Uppsala 2005; Sernhede & Söderman 2010, p. 31. 59 Kalle Berggren, Reading rap: feminist interventions in men and masculinity research, Diss., Uppsala 2014. 60 Kalle Berggren, ”’No homo’: Straight inoculations and the queering of masculinity in Swedish hip hop” Norma 2012(7):1, p. 54.. 38.

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