Claim of identity and representation social : the emergence of a new mode of artistic expression of groups of young Palestinians
The Palestinian rap and hip-hop movement is an expression of claims, awareness of moral standards, information, educational and sometimes political or religious views. It aspires to the articulation and the recognition of both a plural and particular identity. The multiplicity of meanings, characteristic of symbolic work, is also situated at the emotional level. The social communication is neither purely instrumental nor coolly functional. The symbolic social expressions are able to mobilize the attention on diverse emotional registers. There are thus symbols which manifest a capacity to be utilized by the social agents as emotional, positive or negative projections, or as the mechanisms of identity allegiance. They seem essential in the promotion of the cohesion of a group and for the distribution of its values and the central elements of ideology. The phenomenon of hip-hop became significant in the Palestinian contemporary musical and cultural landscape. Hip-hop is not only a musical genre ; it is also a lifestyle, a clothing trend, a philosophy, a social posture. The interviewees see each other as creators of new forms of musical expression. The real culture of the street, hip-hop has a language, a state of mind, signs of recognition, a memory and a feeling of claimed or attributed membership.