Hip-hop artists are often perceived as societal critics who speak for, or represent a marginalized other, while at the same time re-presenting or staging themselves as individual artists. This article sets out to provide a more detailed account of the representation of such a marginalized other in Swedish Hip-hop by tracing the ways in which representation – as both speaking for and staging – is connected to the marginalized other in the lyrics of the Malmö-based Hip-hop group Advance Patrol. It argues that the representations in their lyrics between 2003 and 2006 shift – between criticizing the logic of “we” against “them” that creates the marginalized other, and an affirmation of such marginalization. These shifting representations thus represent it as a concept that can never be fully assimilated into a dominant hegemonic structure and thus as a concept that resists appropriation into forms of solidarity that claim to know or speak its “truth”.

This article uses an oral history approach to discuss the Chilean diasporisation process in Sweden after 1973 by focusing on the relevance of a Chilean migration experience within Swedish Hip-hop. Based on an interview with Hip-hop artist Rodrigo ‘Rodde’ Bernal, a member of the Swedenbased group Hermanos Bernal, it outlines the complex ways in which he negotiates difference within what will be called the Hip-hop zone in-between Sweden and Chile. The article argues that strategies for mobilisation that stress Chileans as a group in Sweden become intelligible within the specific historical context of migration and diasporisation in-between Sweden and Chile as well as debates on multiculturalism that took hold in Sweden during the 1990s.

This article engages in a close comparative reading of the creation of a “Latino” artist identity by two Swedish artists – Fredrik FreddeRico Ekelund and Rodrigo Rodde Bernal. By focusing on the theoretical concept of white Swedish masculinity, it aims to deepen the understanding of how such identities are created within and against the background of specific historical contexts and locations.

Denna artikel kombinerar ett entangled history perspektiv med muntlig historia för att analysera förhandlingar av identitetskonstruktioner genom hiphop mellan Sverige och Chile. Artikeln är baserad på intervjuer med hiphopartister i Chile och hiphopartister med chilensk bakgrund i Sverige som konstruerar, använder och fyller olika identiteter med mening inom specifika historiska sammanhang. Artikeln består av fyra analysnivåer. Den första analysnivån lyfter den historiska kontexten inom vilken hiphopkulturen uppstod i båda länder från 1980-talet fram till idag. Denna utveckling diskuteras även mot bakgrund av hiphop som genre med historiska rötter i USA. Den andra analysnivån utgår från en komparativ läsning av dessa historiska kontexter som bland annat tar hänsyn till transnationella maktförhållanden mellan Sverige och Chile. På en tredje analysnivå fokuserar artikeln på influenser och kontakter som har haft en avgörande betydelse för hiphoppens utveckling, medan den fjärde och sista nivån diskuterar hur artister i båda länder skapar kontinuitet eller brott med det förflutna. Artikelns slutsats är att artister i båda länder fyller en chilensk eller latino-identitet med mening beroende på olika uppfattningar och tolkningar av det förflutna. Genom att kombinera ett entangled history perspektiv med muntlig historia hävdar artikeln att dessa identitetskonstruktioner är både baserade på specifika berättelser om det förflutna och föreställd inom och över olika nationsgränser.

This article has used a combined framework of entangled history and oral history to analyze the creation and negotiation of a Chilean or Latino artist identity by Hip-hop artists in Chile, and Hip-hop artists with a Chilean background in Sweden. It discusses the way in which such artist identities are constructed, used, and filled with meaning within specific historical contexts. The article focuses on four levels of analysis. On the first level, it outlines the historical context within which Hip-hop emerged in each country from the 1980s until today based on interviews with the artists as well as earlier research on Hip-hop. This includes discussing Hip-hop in both countries as connected to Hip-hop as a genre with origins in the United States. On the second level, the article engages in a comparative reading of these historical contexts that, among others, takes into account the transnational relationship between Chile and Sweden. The third analytical level outlines influences and connections that have had a significant impact on the development of Hip-hop culture, above all in Chile, while a fourth and final analytical level focuses on the way in which the artists create continuity or discontinuity with the past. As a result, this article demonstrates that being Chilean or Latino acquires different meanings as individual artists change their understanding or interpretation of the past. Thereby, it demonstrates that identities are both based on specific narratives of the past, and imagined within and across national boundaries.