Rap and politics: a special focus on Tunisian rappers

Abstract

This paper deals with the topic of conflict and peace in the field of rap. In the first part, we tried to collect some interdisciplinary research around the world in a short review of the state of the art focusing on the communicative and political aspects of the rap of the origin and of its different evolutions. In the second part of our article, we describe the development of rap music in Tunisia over the time. The leitmotiv is the use of the rap as a form of political communication, using lyrics for claiming for a different society with the aim of addressing the performance to politics and to citizens, both in a local and a global perspective.