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Negotiating violence and creative agency in commissioned Mexican Narco rap

Negotiating violence and creative agency in commissioned Mexican Narco rap
Negotiating violence and creative agency in commissioned Mexican Narco rap
This article explores agency as an ability to act and exert power creatively when failure implies literal death. It draws on interviews with an ex-narco and rappers who willingly accept narco-commissions in 2010s Tamaulipas, Mexico, a context where precarity and necropolitical logics prevail. It asserts that many rappers exert power creatively, despite the risks. Rappers shape narco-aesthetics by determining the lyrical and sonic elements of songs; draw on experiences of narco-life to contribute to narco-ethics; and mould narco-masculinities by encouraging listeners to stay firm. It proposes that prevalent discursive Us-Them dichotomies facilitate Othering and stigmatisation of actors in the narco-world, and serve to accentuate narco-power.
agency, drug-trafficking, masculinity, Mexico, rap music, violence
0261-3050
347-362
Malcomson, Hettie
d8a28a18-c129-4a08-8805-3365d51d253c
Malcomson, Hettie
d8a28a18-c129-4a08-8805-3365d51d253c

Malcomson, Hettie (2019) Negotiating violence and creative agency in commissioned Mexican Narco rap. Bulletin of Latin American Research, 38 (3), 347-362. (doi:10.1111/blar.12977).

Record type: Article

Abstract

This article explores agency as an ability to act and exert power creatively when failure implies literal death. It draws on interviews with an ex-narco and rappers who willingly accept narco-commissions in 2010s Tamaulipas, Mexico, a context where precarity and necropolitical logics prevail. It asserts that many rappers exert power creatively, despite the risks. Rappers shape narco-aesthetics by determining the lyrical and sonic elements of songs; draw on experiences of narco-life to contribute to narco-ethics; and mould narco-masculinities by encouraging listeners to stay firm. It proposes that prevalent discursive Us-Them dichotomies facilitate Othering and stigmatisation of actors in the narco-world, and serve to accentuate narco-power.

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Accepted/In Press date: 2 November 2018
e-pub ahead of print date: 7 May 2019
Published date: July 2019
Keywords: agency, drug-trafficking, masculinity, Mexico, rap music, violence

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 430712
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/430712
ISSN: 0261-3050
PURE UUID: b9021290-09e5-465a-aaaa-5cf8a87ab9f1

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Date deposited: 08 May 2019 16:30
Last modified: 16 Mar 2024 06:29

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