Abstract:
Rap music is distinctive among its fellow contemporary pop musics in many facts. One of its essential fatures is the biographical story telling and narrative format available to the rapper. This article explores New Zealand ' life story' rap texts, highlighting how rap's features of auto-biography, candour and self reflexivity reveal insights into the lives of young people. Rap lyrics offer touching personal images of social issues such as class, poverty, ethnicity, identity and family life. The songs examined here broach sensitive issues providing a means for better understanding diaspora and youth communities in New Zealand. The revealing reflections of these narrative raps offer a viable lternative (or addition) to ethnographic conversations of interviews in understanding rap artists and the communities they speak for and represent. ...
