SWEDEN’S CARLITO PERFORMS KRIGARSJÄL AT URBAN VOICES 2014

While attending the Urban Voices 2014 music festival in Stockholm, Sweden, Freedom Beat interviewed the festival’s performing artists about their music, the political atmosphere in their perspective countries, music of nonviolent resistance, and how their own music engages these issues.

Carlito on Anti-racist Rap in Colorblind Sweden by Kalle Berggren

We’re struggling from dawn to dusk to liberate our souls,” sings Swedish rapper Carlito, who was inspired by Bob Marley and Angela Davis. In this interview, he shares his view on the role of hip hop music as an anti-racist tool in contemporary Sweden.

It is no surprise that Swedish hip hop has provided the soundtrack to a number of anti-racist demonstrations and public protests in the last few years. Hip hop is a genre with many faces, ranging from apolitical party music to the feminist critique found in lyrics by many female rappers. One of the more significant themes in European hip hop are issues of race and racism. In her comparative study of the cultural expressions of “European Others,” Fatima El-Tayeb, a Professor of African-American Literature and Culture at UC San Diego, underlines how the art form of hip hop has allowed, “Europeans of color to create a language in which to define themselves as belonging to Europe.” In an interview with Freedom Beat,rapper Carlito talks about these aspects in contemporary Sweden. Carlito explains how because he is notwhite, he is seen as a foreigner and denied a Swedish identity. Instead he points to the racial labels svartskallar and blattar, which are basically Swedish versions of the US racial slur, the “N-word.” As such they have a history of being used as pejoratives, but they are also being reclaimed by young Swedes who face exclusion and discrimination.

This might seem l obvious to hip hop audiences across the world who are acquainted with hip hop’s capacity to raise awareness of the social conditions of marginalized groups. However, in relation to dominant political discourses in Sweden, it is quite another story. The belief that “we don’t have race here” is stubbornly defended, not only by the political right, but also among many radical politicians, intellectuals and researchers on the left. Talking about race in Sweden, is often perceived as borderline racist because it is said to reinforce racial categorizations. Rap artists, on the other hand, have not been afraid to talk about race and racism. As Carlito helpfully points out here, “I am not creating a problem, I am describing a problem.”

Over the last 20 years, rap artists have been at the forefront of highlighting issues of race and racism in Sweden. Their critique ranges from racist politicians to structural discrimination in the labor market, and from episodes of everyday racism to the racial segregation of major cities. In particular, there has been a strong emphasis on representing one’s hood, without concealing problems such as unemployment, drug abuse or police racism.. In this interview, we hear how one of these artists aims to use his music to strengthen the self-esteem of the groups of youth who are too often seen as a problem in school, by the media and in society at large. In telling his story, Carlito captures the power of hip hop to function as “a voice for the voiceless.”

Kalle Berggren is a sociologist at Uppsala University, Sweden, researching the politics of race, class, gender and sexuality in Swedish rap.