RAP MUSIC, AN ARENA FOR SOCIO-CULTURAL DISTINCTION

Rap music is one of the cultural goods that have been developed especially among teenagers and youths in the present decade. This rapid development takes the attention of academic researchers and institutions. The present research is trying to understand the place of Rap music among teenagers and youths who are playing Rap music in Rasht city: Iran, Guilan province. There are two important questions in this research. The first is: whether Rap songs in the studied time/place have resistance aspects? And, the second is: where is the position of distinctive strategies in these songs? For investigating this research, 24 rappers in Rasht (Guilan province) were interviewed by qualitative approach, and three texts of the songs also were analyzed based on qualitative content method. The results showed that Rap music can include resistance and subcultural approach; and more important, it can create arena for discrimination and personification of social/cultural identity among teenagers and youths. Individuals who are attempting to construct their identity based on specific reading of their generation about society, politics, culture, and art. This type of identity in today's pluralistic cultures has collage- like nature.