Icelandic hip hop
From ‘Selling American Fish to Icelanders’ to Reykjavíkurdætur (Reykjavík Daughters)
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1558/jwpm.v2i2.25724Keywords:
Iceland, rap, hip hop, rímur, language and identityAbstract
This article presents a history of rap and hip hop in Iceland from its beginnings in English language hip hop in the mid 1990s to the present day. From beginnings which imitated US rap in English, to a growing concern with Icelandic subjects in the late 1990s, to a “boom year” in Icelandic language hip hop in 2002, when it became completely indigenized, and was influenced by the native genre of rímur, a ritual form of versification with roots back into medieval times, it has undergone a dramatic feminization with the emergence of Reykjavíkurdætur (Reykjavík Daughters), a 22-member female collective which made its presence strongly felt in 2014.
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