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Rapstar and the narrative of criminal realism
One million views in 24 hours show that Noizy (Rigels Rajku) remains among Albania’s most-followed artists and, consequently, among those with the greatest influence on audiences.
His latest video, Rapstar (Rap Star), released on YouTube on Thursday, passed 1 million views after Friday.
The song’s narrative differs little from the art of criminal realism, a genre we have analysed before in Exit News. This genre seeks to disseminate a code of values and views of life based primarily on the street and, in some cases, on crime. Its effect on society is normalising criminality and standardising the criminal role model.
The artists who follow it do not always tell the truth, but they do not always lie.
In Rapstar, Noizy says he has fulfilled his childhood dreams, even though in other songs he has said he dreams like a billionaire. The new song describes a life beginning in deprived urban surroundings and marked by instability that did not stop him from building a career and buying his mother a villa, as he says he had promised.
However, he says that before music he was a “gangster” but now has the status of “Rapstar”. This status seems to legitimise his wealth, fame and every insinuation he makes in his lyrics.
Untouchability and the songs’ messages
The author of Albania’s hashish anthem, 3 Fletshat [Three-Paper Joints], which celebrates cannabis use, boasts in his latest song about the substitution of money for flight in his encounters with the police (Rapstar).
This line may carry many implications. One is corruption, through which untouchability is achieved, the dream of every lawbreaker.
In its songs, the art of criminal realism boasts of buying untouchability by corrupting the system. This also appears in the lyrics of other artists in the genre, such as those who are making Albanian gangs famous in Switzerland, Germany and Great Britain.
The song describes imprisoned friends whose future depends on a prosecutor.
It portrays money sent to Kosovo as a way to secure their release.
(Mozzik, A Milly)
Of course, not everything in the songs is true, but not everything is false either.
For example, we can say that if the cars, luxury and money are fake, the weapons displayed in the videos are real, and vice versa.
The same can be said of the insinuations Noizy often makes in his lyrics that he is involved in drug trafficking.
The song links conspicuous wealth with drug imagery.
(Noizy, Kallabllak [Crowd])
Noizy invokes online searches as a way to look behind his public persona.
He suggests they would reveal a role beyond singing.
(Noizy, 100 kile [100 Kilos])
The models and values conveyed
For those who follow the genre of artists such as Noizy, who says he is “against the law, against the devil” (Nuk kan’ besu [They Didn’t Believe]), it is worth stressing that this should not be the dream or example for one’s life, in pursuit of a status built on false values.
In this way, criminal realism standardises and normalises criminality, boasts of buying untouchability by corrupting the system, displays weapons and a luxurious life, and redefines values and status in society.
Unfortunately, for a society that has unconsciously turned crime into a virtue, such vast consumption of criminal realism, 1 million views in 24 hours, should be an alarm signal about the messages it carries.
Previously published in Exit.al