Year: 2019

Rhetoric of Infestation in Karpe Diem’s «Lett å være rebell i kjellerleiligheten din» Part II

Today, I want to continue my discussion of Karpe Diem’s «Lett å være rebell i kjellerleiligheten din» (“Easy to be a rebel in your basement apartment”). Again, this will not be a comprehensive discussion of the song, but hopefully it will serve as an entry point. One that I have discovered over the course of this process, and something I anticipated, is that a … Read More Rhetoric of Infestation in Karpe Diem’s «Lett å være rebell i kjellerleiligheten din» Part II

Rhetoric of Infestation in Karpe Diem’s «Lett å være rebell i kjellerleiligheten din» Part I

My research into Norwegian hip hop is ever evolving. I keep finding new artists and songs everyday, but the one group that has really caught my attention is Karpe Diem, a group that consists of Magdi (Egyptian/Norwegian) and Chirag (Indian/Norwegian). Their 2015-2016 project Heisann Montebello (Hello Montebello) exists as a political statement on behalf of individuals who ask, as Pumba puts it, «Hvor faen … Read More Rhetoric of Infestation in Karpe Diem’s «Lett å være rebell i kjellerleiligheten din» Part I

Identity and Nationality in Pumba’s «Hvor jeg kommer fra»

When I started digging into Norwegian hip hop, I came across Pumba pretty quickly and the video for his song «Hvor jeg kommer fra» (“Where I come from”). Released in 2008, «Hvor jeg kommer fra» came seven years after the racist murder of Benjamin Hermansen, a Ghanian-Norwegian fifteen year-old, in Holmlia in Oslo. Pumba (Richard Edward Bravo) was born in Norway and is of … Read More Identity and Nationality in Pumba’s «Hvor jeg kommer fra»

Norsk Hiphop: Hkeem’s «Ghettoparasitt»

Note: My translations may be off. I am still learning Norwegian. So, if anything is mistranslated, please let me know. As well, the second part of my lecture on The Great Gatsby will go live soon. A few weeks after we moved to Bergen last August, I heard some music coming from outside. There was a pop up stage down the road, with various … Read More Norsk Hiphop: Hkeem’s «Ghettoparasitt»

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The Great Gatsby Lecture

For my lecture last fall on F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby (1925), I decided to focus on the ways that Fitzgerald’s novel does not speak for all of its readers but also how the novel overtly challenges the myth of the American Dream. This challenging of the myth does not only occur with Gatsby. Rather, it occurs from the very beginning of the … Read More The Great Gatsby Lecture