“My White, Blue, and Red Heart”: Constructing a Slovak Identity in Rap Music

Abstract

Slovak rap artists who have released their material through commercial networks remain conscious of their origins and broadly represent Slovak rap's intentions. They fixate lyrically on local urban realities. In addition to illustrating how rap offers a vector of privileged access to discourses within Slovak society, this essay presents an insight into how a global music idiom has been appropriated and re‐elaborated with local meanings. The stance of “alienated observer” is not informed by experiences of ethnic or racially based social marginalization. Rather, everyday life within Slovakia's analogous urban settings has been refracted artistically through rapped pronouncement and imagery.

Notes

1. All translations from the Slovak are my own.

2. Music piracy is estimated to account for around 45% of all music consumed in the country (Fila). The Slovak website of the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry ⟨www.ifpi.sk⟩ regularly updates album sales and radio airplay information.

3. In “Aby si niečo dosiahol, tak musíš proste makat'” by Lúza on the compilation album Viktor Hazard—Rap Superstar mixtape vol. 1 .

4. In “Idem si svoje/Dneska ide karta” on the compilation album Nejbr HipHop Mix .

5. In “Nezabúdaj na to odkial' si” on Čistychov's debut album Né Produkt!

6. See the track “Idem si svoje/Dneska ide karta.”

7. In “Spomienky na časy” on Zverina's album Svetlo v Tme.

8. See Kardinál's utterances in “Nezabúdaj na to odkial' si.”