Gangsta-rap is frequently discredited in public dis­course and, in some cases, even legally contested. However, it continues to attract signi­ficant atten­tion among young people. The pop-cultural stylistic net­works asso­ciated with Gangsta rap serve as resour­ces for identity forma­tion, which adoles­cents process in socially, locally, and indi­vidually specific ways, using them as distinct expressive markers.
This sub­project lever­aged this context to empi­rically unpack the CRC’s core concept of second-order popular­ization – how popu­larity itself becomes a contested and nego­tiated pheno­menon. Through parti­cipant obser­vations and group inter­views, the ethno­graphic study recon­structed Gangsta rap’s popu­larity while illum­inating its inherent complexity and contra­dictions. By examining Gangsta rap as a polarizing yet pervasive focal point for identity negotia­tions, the research revealed how its cultural resonance hinges on tensions between main­stream appeal and margin­alization.