Music and musicalities in the hip hop movement: gospel rap

Abstract

This article reflects on issues first raised in the doctoral thesis in Social Anthropology entitled “The Road is Long and the Ground is Slippery!: the hip hop movement in Florianópolis and Lisbon” (Souza 2009) and which provides ethnographic support for the reflections raised here about this vibrant v.8 n.1 angela m. de souza, deise l. montardo musical production. Rap is music that was born in ghettos and peripheries. It has become a strong reference for youth and is inserted in a variety of social, cultural and religious contexts. Reflecting on this musical production is a complex task, mainly in an attempt to create distinctions, boundaries and limits that insist on not being maintained in defined spaces. To the contrary, shifting, movement and circulation are elements of these musicalities, one of which is gospel rap. In a dialog with ethnomusicology, this article approaches this musical style, principally through discussions about “performance” and “event,” essential factors that guide the contours of what we call aesthetic-musical styles within the hip hop movement in which gospel rap is inserted.