The Emergence of Estonian Hip-Hop in the 1990s

Abstract

In this article I trace the ways in which hip-hop as a global form of expression has become indigenized in post-Soviet Estonia. Hip-hop’s indigenization coincides with the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. After the dissolution of the USSR, dominant Estonian social discourses eagerly celebrated re-entering the European-American world and embracing its values. The uncensored global media outlets accessible after 1991 and rapid developments in information technology shortly thereafter were crucial to the history of Estonian-language rap. Hip-hop artists’ extensive involvement with new media and technologies reflects an extremely swift transition from ill-equipped to fluent manipulation of technology, which affected cultural production and structures of participation in various sociocultural spheres. While hip-hop culture emerged in the South Bronx during the early 1970s as a radical voice against increasing economic hardship and social marginalization, Estonian hip-hop was established in the early 1990s and developed in the context of a rapidly growing economy, rising living standards, and strong national feeling within a re-independent Estonian state. Hip-hop artists’ production vividly reveals both the legacies of Soviet rule and the particular political economy of post-Soviet Estonia.