Danger in Their Rhymes: ‘Crime’ and Misogyny in Greek Trap Music

• In Event: Cultural Criminology 3: Online Harms & Art-Based Methods

Abstract

Trap music in Greece has been greeted with noisy headlines, loud politicking, punitive state interventions and fevered public debates that blame this popular rap subgenre for the glorification of ‘crime’, the objectification of women and the celebration of disreputable lifestyles. Modelled after American trap music, Greek trap music trades in lurid tales of criminality, macho posturing and ill-gotten wealth which attract fans and critics alike. The former consume it as an art form they celebrate, while the latter condemn it as a problem genre they are outraged by. Greek trap is therefore put ‘on trial’, facing accusations of inciting violence, promoting drug use and glamourising criminal lifestyles—as evidenced by a recent hearing at the National Council for Radio and Television (NCRTV). Thinking against the selective criminalisation of trap music for controversial content that is normalised in other forms of public rhetoric and artistic expression, this paper aims at challenging popular but misguided logics and tactics that turn (t)rappers’ rhymes into crimes— without sufficient evidential weight to warrant such illiberal and unjust crackdowns on a music genre that is hardly recognised as such. Drawing on my research expertise on the criminalisation of UK drill music, rap culture and the policing of Black/Afro-diasporic music(s), my presentation will critically address how and why the lyrical content and visual imagery of Greek trap music is perceived and pursued as literal evidence of criminal wrongdoing, while also reflecting on why a music genre is blamed for the gendered, hetero-patriarchal violence that is a structural feature of Greek society and culture.

Author

• Lambros Fatsis, City University of London