Making subjects grievable: Narco rap, moral ambivalence and ethical sense making
Making subjects grievable: Narco rap, moral ambivalence and ethical sense making
Music provides unique opportunities to interrogate difficult issues including narcoviolence. Scholarly and media representations of those working for Mexican organised criminal groups are often one-dimensional, and fail to engage fully with their human experience. Drawing on music-focused ethnographic research, I argue in this article that subjects who participate in organised crime are made grievable and human through the portraits that commissioned rappers empathetically create of them. I explore how narco rap songs portray organised criminals as brave, respectable, able to cope with emotional trauma and attain redemption, while effacing physical suffering and guilt. I interrogate how commissioned rappers read and empathise with their clients, create appropriate songs, and negotiate the moral dissonances this work creates, particularly when religious figures are invoked. I conclude that the human complexity of those working for organised criminal groups and their ethical struggles must be engaged with if we are to propose action on drug trafficking and related activities.
Mexico, Narcoviolence, ethics, grievability, rap music
205-225
Malcomson, Hettie
d8a28a18-c129-4a08-8805-3365d51d253c
1 July 2021
Malcomson, Hettie
d8a28a18-c129-4a08-8805-3365d51d253c
Malcomson, Hettie
(2021)
Making subjects grievable: Narco rap, moral ambivalence and ethical sense making.
Ethnomusicology Forum, 30 (2), .
(doi:10.1080/17411912.2021.1944253).
Abstract
Music provides unique opportunities to interrogate difficult issues including narcoviolence. Scholarly and media representations of those working for Mexican organised criminal groups are often one-dimensional, and fail to engage fully with their human experience. Drawing on music-focused ethnographic research, I argue in this article that subjects who participate in organised crime are made grievable and human through the portraits that commissioned rappers empathetically create of them. I explore how narco rap songs portray organised criminals as brave, respectable, able to cope with emotional trauma and attain redemption, while effacing physical suffering and guilt. I interrogate how commissioned rappers read and empathise with their clients, create appropriate songs, and negotiate the moral dissonances this work creates, particularly when religious figures are invoked. I conclude that the human complexity of those working for organised criminal groups and their ethical struggles must be engaged with if we are to propose action on drug trafficking and related activities.
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2020-07-06 Making subjects grievable
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2021-05-05 Making subjects grievable
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Submitted date: 7 July 2020
Accepted/In Press date: 11 June 2021
Published date: 1 July 2021
Additional Information:
Funding Information:
This project was funded by a Leverhulme Research Fellowship [Grant number RF-2017-529]. I am extremely grateful to the Leverhulme Trust for funding this project; to the interviewees for generously giving me their time and insights; and to the anonymous reviewers, editors, friends and colleagues (you know who you are) who provided really helpful comments and suggestions. All shortcomings are my own.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.
Copyright:
Copyright 2021 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.
Keywords:
Mexico, Narcoviolence, ethics, grievability, rap music
Identifiers
Local EPrints ID: 442739
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/442739
ISSN: 1741-1912
PURE UUID: fb89b96b-b130-4bdc-8c6b-339816d0ef87
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Date deposited: 24 Jul 2020 16:30
Last modified: 17 Mar 2024 05:44
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