Analysis of Social Rap as a Political Discourse of Resistance

Abstract

There has been a growing academic interest in rap and in hip hop culture from Sociolinguistics, Ethnography, Cultural Studies, and Critical Pedagogies. However, research on rap from the perspective of political discourse analysis is not so profuse and in the Chilean context, in particular, is limited. In this line, the present study aimed to identify the linguistic choices in the 2012 rap song Dónde Empieza, written and performed by Chilean rappers Portavoz and Subverso, and to relate these choices to the strategic functions of political discourse. To do this, a model of political discourse analysis created by Chilton and Schäffner (2001) was used. The results showed that in this political discourse of resistance, strategies of coercion, legitimization-delegitimization, and resistance, opposition and protest are used and that the function of dissimulation is excluded.