Deviant politics: hip hop as a form of resistance against hyper-criminalization and structural violence

Abstract

The purpose of this research is to examine how hip hop music provides a place for what Rios (2011) calls “deviant politics” where young men put on a tough front associated with hyper-masculinity in response to the way society excludes them on the base of their race/ethnicity and low-income status. The concept of deviant politics will be used to examine how the role of hip hop music in Juárez shapes resistance to hyper-criminalization in order to recover from structural violence. The study addresses two objectives:

1. To examine the hyper-criminalization of Juárez MCs by examining the structural context in which they live and the deviant labels attached to this group attributed to their status as young, male and poor.

2. To illustrate how hip hop is a form of resistance, or what Rios (2011) calls deviant politics, used to combat stigma and the lack of legitimate (educational and work) opportunities.

This study consists of 16 in-depth interviews with Juárez MCs; content analysis is used to interpret the lyrics of four of their songs.