Rap as an Expression of Social Changes in the North-East of Siberia: Hip-Hop, Urbanization, and Ethnicity of the Yakut (Sakha)

Abstract

The article discusses the interrelation of youth cultural forms and social transformations in the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia). The development of modern infrastructures and technologies, people’s mass migration from villages to towns, as well as the expansion of global cultural forms have caused changes in how contemporary urban Yakuts (Sakha) perceive and express their ethnic identities. One of the brightest expressions of such changes has become the formation and rapid development of rap, or hip-hop, among the Yakut youth at the outset of the 20th century. If earlier Yakuts were exclusively associated with village lifestyle, then the present-time Yakut hip-hop, largely conditioned by recent geopolitical events, symbolized the appearance of a new generation of urbanized Yakuts who do not necessarily link themselves with the village, but are open to global cultural trends and at the same time understand and value their national cultural heritage.