Afroitalian Hip Hop: negotiating and building new transcultural Italian belongings

This thesis explores the musical production of Italian Hip Hop artists of African descent. Using Critical Discourse Analysis of song lyrics and semi-structured interviews, it examines how Afroitalian youth employ the discursive practices of Hip Hop music to negotiate and build a sense of cultural identity that responds to the marginalisation and racialisation that they face in Italian society and challenges the idea of Italy as a demographically and culturally homogeneous country. The study also highlights how Afroitalian rappers introduce new cultural and linguistic elements in the Italian cultural landscape, standing as evidence of the increasing transculturality in contemporary Italy.