Defending Romanian Identity and Specificity through Hip-Hop: Message to Europe

Abstract

It is a known fact that national culture and its subculture components are everything but static elements. Romanian hip-hop has so far made itself known to voice what it sees as being wrong, in any and all aspects of social, political, cultural and private life. Thus, when a nation-wide important change occurs – such as the recent EU integration – hip-hop artists turn into defenders of the national identity and culture, urging the whole of Europe and even Romanians themselves to think twice before forming an opinion about a whole nation – such as mistaking Romanian gypsies for the Romanian people. The cultural consequences of this fresh new trend in society are interesting to say the least.