“Far Away from Home,” yet “Live and Direct from Nordvästra”

Expressions of (Non)Belonging in the Case of Rap Artist Yasin

Abstract

Since the mid-2010s, gangsterrap – a new Swedish DIY scene rooted in the international gangsta rap subgenre – has gained massive commercial success, while also being highly problematised in the public debate in the Nordic countries. This article provides an empirical case of popular music’s intersection with the rise of gun violence and urban marginality within a Nordic welfare state, emphasising how the music and the artist can be understood in terms of taking part in communities of belonging beyond national borders. More specifically, the material analysed here includes interviews with, and songs by, Swedish rap artist Yasin.

The concept of digital diaspora (Ponzanesi 2020, 2021) enables a focus on how spatiality, belonging, and self-identification are created, and it can be seen as articulating new possibilities for affective, social, and political connections and rupture. Also, digital diaspora is understood as being constituted through practices reflective of intersecting power relations (Candidatu, Leurs, and Ponzanesi 2019: 34). By focusing on narratives of (non)belonging(s) and home, in this article we examine how practices of (non)belonging(s) create connections between past and present popular culture and can be perceived as a restorative and unifying tool among Somali diaspora youth, but also their parents. As a result, this article presents different sensibilities about the changing perceptions of closeness, home, and belonging in Sweden, a Nordic welfare state.