Soundtracks of citizenship: social and political genealogies of Moroccan hip hop

Since the 1990s, Hip hop created unique platforms for reclaiming the nation and forging citizenship desires. I explore this blending of citizenship desires into soundtracks and lyrics as a pedagogy of citizenship that hip hop artists activated through songs, role modelling, and the forging of creative spaces in which responsible citizenship is defined and enacted. I first highlight hip hop as a new field of identification and diasporic imagination for the first generation of Hip hop artists in the 1990s. Before analyzing the lyrics of a few tracks, I stress the social and political genealogy of Moroccan rap to illustrate the rappers’ articulation of national belonging in the context of Islamization of public discourse and the global fight against terror. Hip hop has shaped new spaces for the pedagogical enacting of citizenship engagements in music, fashion, and community engagement.