Gangsta rappers from migrant quarters are celebrated as music stars in Sweden, with some being in the spotlight because of serious crimes. Should the media and radio stations continue to offer them a stage?
Flowers and candles mark the place where 19-year-old rapper Nils Einar Grönberg was shot in Stockholm at the end of October.
It was a music video from the internet that unexpectedly set the Stockholm police on the right track. In the rap video, some masked men posed in an underground car park with guns in front of an expensive white car. The car was known to the police from an incident that had shaken up all of Sweden in August 2020: A twelve-year-old girl was fatally struck by a stray bullet that had been fired from this car at a motorway service station near Stockholm. The incident was probably about a settlement between two criminal gangs.
The car, captured on a surveillance camera at the rest stop, was found burned out shortly afterwards. The recordings for the music video, it was later revealed, were made in the days before the shooting. Investigators identified one of the weapons shown in the music video based on the technical evidence as the likely murder weapon. In mid-December, the Stockholm police were able to then communicate, the alleged shooter has been arrested. One hopes for an indictment in a few weeks.
From robbery to murder
The fact that the police are apparently about to solve the case is an important sign to society, in which the event has left deep marks. But it is also a signal to the rival gangs from the suburbs of the large agglomerations that they have to face consequences for their ruthless battles for territory and supremacy. And last but not least, the case documents the links between gang crime and the gangsta rap milieu.
There have been several sensational examples of such interrelationships over the past few months. One of the more harmless ones was an incident in the northern Husby district of Stockholm when a rapper walked into a shop, took goods worth several hundred francs and left without paying. Although the matter was reported and investigated by the police, all witnesses withdrew their testimony – an example of the “culture of silence” that gangs demand on their territory.
It was far more serious Murder of 19-year-old rapper Nils Groenberg in autumn in Stockholm. Grönberg, who performed under the stage name Einar, was one of the most played Swedish rappers. He should have testified in court a few days later. The appeal was about his kidnapping and abuse by members of a criminal network that included rapper Yasin. Yasin was convicted of complicity in a first attempt to kidnap Grönberg in the summer of 2021.
It is incidents like this that raise the question of whether gangsta rap in Sweden is just a genre of music that addresses the segregation and desolate social situation in immigrant suburbs, or whether certain rappers themselves do not contribute to the aggravation of the situation with their criminal activities. The gangs and their work have long been a dominant political issue in Sweden.
“Criminals are criminals, not stars”
On one side of the debate about rappers are actors from the cultural scene who strictly distinguish between artistic creation and their social appearance. At the other end are the right-wing national Sweden Democrats, who have launched an initiative to prohibit public broadcasters from playing gangsta rap. After all, artists with links to criminal gangs would otherwise be indirectly financed with taxpayers’ money.
There is a whole range of views between these two poles. Paula Brandberg, a prosecutor for organized and international crime, said on a discussion broadcast on TV channel SVT that there was no doubt that there were significant links between gangsta rap and gang crime. The music is used to intimidate local communities, to call for a “culture of silence” and to threaten rival gangs. The range that some stars of the scene achieved with their videos is also a means of recruiting new gang members.
The parliamentarian Hanif Bali, who often attracts attention with pointed views, said at the same point that the public should view criminals as criminals and not as stars. Like Brandberg, he is of the opinion that the media exaggeration of rappers who are involved in the gang system creates false role models and identification figures. One example is the rapper Yasin, who won main prizes from the audience and jury at the hip-hop gala of the station P3 in spring, while he was already in custody and was therefore “prevented” from attending the gala.
A problem with deeper roots
According to commentators, a particular problem is the rap scene’s claim that rappers who want to be taken seriously should have an authentic criminal past. A former musician, who has since left the field, said in an interview that not everyone who has such ambitions would also have the stature. But the will to rise as a rapper pulled him into crime.
Activists and social workers from the problematic neighborhoods, however, argue that the rap music merely reflects the precarious situation, including crime, in the suburbs. Your representatives are ultimately victims of these circumstances. That is certainly part of the truth, because the poor integration of immigrants has been one of the biggest problems in Swedish politics for years, regardless of whether it has been led by the left or the bourgeoisie.
The demand from disadvantaged neighborhoods that the overall picture should be considered instead of “details” such as the role of the rappers is therefore justified. But because the misery has built up over a long period of time, it cannot be eliminated overnight. At the same time, the authorities must try here and now to get the gang crime under control. Politicians can only think of a long-term strategy if the state can enforce its monopoly on the use of force.