24 Bars to Kill: Hip Hop, Aspiration, and Japan’s Social Margins

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The most clearly identifiable and popular form of Japanese hip-hop, ghetto or gangsta music has much in common with its corresponding American subgenres, including its portrayal of life on the margins, confrontational style, and aspirational rags-to-riches narratives. Contrary to depictions of an ethnically and economically homogeneous Japan, gangsta J-hop gives voice to the suffering, deprivation, and social exclusion experienced by many modern Japanese. 24 Bars to Kill offers a fascinating ethnographic account of this music as well as the subculture around it, showing how gangsta hip-hop arises from widespread dissatisfaction and malaise.