From the Invisible Ghetto to the Big Stage: Staging Contested Urban Space in Czech Rap

• In Event: Reclaiming Urban Space: Fighting Unequal Representation and Spatial Marginalization in Urban Narratives

Abstract

The urban text of the present is without any doubt the rap text. Inner-city conflicts culminate in it, and through it marginalized groups represent themselves while urban space is appropriated. The historical origin of hip hop culture can be found in US ghettos and the global HipHop-culture developed from the New York Bronx, local ghettos are rarely found in Slavic areas, especially in the Czech Republic. The setting of the first Czech rap song is a new housing estate, the Czech Panelák, and gangsta rap, one of the export hits from the ghettos of marginalized groups in the USA, faced in the Czech Republic barriers for years when it comes to production and reception. However, that changed with Czech Roma rappers, who, as part of the Roma minority, which is extremely discriminated against in the Czech Republic, raise the issues of their marginalization and use the city as a communication vehicle for contested urban space through their specific location, be it in the Smíchov district of Prague or abroad in Great Britain.

Author

• Ruben Höppner, U of Potsdam (Germany)