Rap significances and practices at the Valleys of Jalisco, Mexico

Abstract

The semiotic analysis of music video clips and the characterization of identity practices served to document continuous and multiple aesthetic, social and cultural manifestations that (re)present hip-hop culture. This culture means ‛alternative’ way of life, religion, criticism and territory. The practices are self-management, collective work and dramatization of identity. The discourses about local rap, cultural icons and social criticism, and identifications in concert are studied in Cocula, San Martín Hidalgo, Ameca and Tala, Jalisco, Mexico, during the last five years. The data are provided to problematize multiculturalism and transversal sociocultural movements to modernity and rurality. In this region, rap scene is alive as the product of empowered actors who expose their version of hip-hop culture by hybridizing traditional identities with those of the global movement.