“Sweden’s most wanted”, raps the controversial artist Yasin in his track 20 Talet. The rapper’s lyrics are without filter, direct, raw, born within a marginalised and often criminal environment, depicting a side of Sweden that might be unrecognisable to many. When people think of Sweden they are likely to think of social equality and prosperity, not poverty and crime. They are likely to think of the upbeat danceable grooves of ABBA not the hard-edged beats of Yasin.
However, there has been a growing scene of gangsta rap led by the likes of Yasin. Coming from multi-ethnic Stockholm suburb Rinkeby, the Swedish-Somali rapper is representative of a wave of Swedish rap that exposes the harsh reality of being a minority-ethnic Swede or immigrant growing up in the marginalised suburbs of the seemingly so egalitarian Scandinavian country.
