Rapping the 'Better folk': Ideological and scalar negotiations of past and present

- Rap engages in and projects language ideological debates in multilingual societies.
- Ideologies are (re)constructed on several scales, scopes of understandability.
- 'Fixed' ideological categorizations between language and social status are assumed.
- These categorizations are also criticized and made fluid and contestable via irony.
- Reconstruction and critique of ideological negotiations of belonging and Otherness.

Drawing on sociolinguistics of globalization, discourse studies and global hip hop studies, this article examines how the ideological sociocultural and -historical reality of Finland is (re)constructed and (re)negotiated in a local rap song and how the song takes issue with the official, but often tension-ridden Finnish-Swedish bilingualism. Its specific, ironic take arises from the fact that the rap artist is Finnish-speaking, but echoes a Swedish-speaking minority who are traditionally and stereotypically seen as a privileged, historical elite. The song exemplifies how rap can constitute a site for investigation of language ideological debates in bi/multilingual societies and how nationalistic-laden ideologies (one nation-one language-one state) are taken for granted, brought forth but also significantly problematized and questioned.