From roadman to royalties: Inter-representational value and the hypercapitalist impulses of grime

Abstract

This paper explores how digital media can cause the representational value of rap artists to be transformed. Ubiquitous access to digital recording, production and distribution technologies grants rappers an unprecedented degree of representational autonomy, meaning they are able to integrate the street aesthetic into their lyrics and music videos, and thus create content that offers a more authentic representation of their (past) lives. Sidestepping the mainstream music industry, the digital enables these integrations and bolsters the hypercapitalist impulses of content creators. I illustrate these ideas through a case study of grime artist, Bugzy Malone, who uses his music to narrate his evolution from a life of criminality (selling drugs on the street; a ‘roadman’), to one in which his representational value is recognised by commercial brands who want to partner with him because of his street credibility (collecting ‘royalties’). Bugzy Malone’s commercial success is not predicated on a departure from his criminal past, but the deliberate foregrounding of it as a marker of authenticity. The representational autonomy provided by digital media can therefore enable artists to maximise the affective cachet of the once-criminal self.

The affective embeddings of gacha games: Aesthetic assemblages and the mediated expression of the self

“…The bigger point is not that players are compelled, manipulated or otherwise encouraged to put money into a game; rather, it is that they do so in search of an emotional payoff that satisfies their need for social interaction and self-realisation. That this payoff is anchored in nonhuman life reveals the expansive logics of affective embedding, and how they might be providing a new grounding for consumption in the era of late capitalism (Woods, 2021b). This is a grounding that renders the player more-than- human, in turn complicating the role of (ir)rationality – and the accusations of gambling therein – in influencing player behaviours.…”

The Economy of Time, the Rationalisation of Resources: Discipline, Desire and Deferred Value in the Playing of Gacha Games

“…It is in this sense that I suggest that they ‘game-the-game’ through agentic patterns of play. Whilst there is a need to ‘carefully think through the overlapping ways power relations are differentially manifest over time and space through digital augmentation’ (Graham, Zook & Boulton, 2013: 468; see also Woods, 2021e, 2021f), this need is pronounced for gacha games, where the assertion of power boils down to the simple act of (not) investing money into the game. Understanding how players game-the-game by strategically working through the economy of time thus provides new insight into the meritocratic underpinnings of games (Paul, 2018), especially those that are both F2P, and fully integrated into everyday life.…”

Finnish and Swedish ‘gangsta rap’ as a window on the dismantlement of the Nordic welfare state

“…These lyrics can be referenced to young men of colour looking up to the stereotyped images of commodified black masculinity often associated with criminality within popular culture, consumption, and the media (Kantola, 2021; Pikkarainen, 2021; for commodification and accumulation of ‘road’ aesthetics see Bakkali, 2022; Ilan, 2012; Urbanik, 2021; Woods, 2022). These criminal representations are also celebrated in mainstream media through headlines such as ‘In 2021 gangsters took over the Swedish media’ (Lundsström, 2022), referring to ‘Gangfluencers’, Netflix hit Snabba Cash or Swedish ‘gangsterrap’, that was massively consumed that year.…”

“…However, this subcultural capital may also threaten to become what Woods (2022: 2) calls a ‘morally problematic catalyst for self-directed entrepreneurship’ because the dominant aesthetic of drill emphasises various forms of criminality and illegality. This entrepreneurship, combined the social media ‘attention economy’ (Stuart, 2020), drives lyrical-aesthetic production towards increasingly extreme content for competitive appeal.…”