When C Gambino took to Instagram per week in the past to announce that he was going to launch a music referred to as “The Final Time”, and that it will be the “final music” he launched, it appeared largely as a PR coup of the sort that younger rappers (and younger web celebrities normally) like to do.
Hip-hop weblog Dopest was fast to write down an article telling followers to relaxation simple. This was not the tip of the masked rapper from Gothenburg’s profession.
Sadly, they had been flawed.
At 22.40 on Tuesday night, the police had been alerted to a taking pictures in Backa in Gothenburg. A person is discovered shot in a parking storage and brought to hospital, however his life can’t be saved. C Gambino, who just some months in the past gained the Hip-Hop of the Yr award on the Grammys, is lifeless.
“Final time” grew to become his final music, which has already brought regarding the conspiracy theories on Instagram to circulate. Did the rapper know he was going to die quickly? Most likely not, most likely it is regarding yet one more younger man who has fallen sufferer to a mindless wave of violence that appears to don’t have any finish.
In his e-book “Genuine: drill and gang tradition within the consideration financial system”, the American sociologist Forrest Stuart writes regarding how younger rappers in Chicago’s weak areas exaggerate their capital of violence and legal data to construct their profiles on social media.
Intergroup violence actually nonetheless exists, however it’s a part of a performative technique. Capturing a rival is now not regarding attempting to achieve management of the drug market, however regarding exhibiting followers on Insta who’s essentially the most harmful.
The homicide of Einár this yr suits nicely into this context, as hip-hop journalist Emil Arvidson exhibits in his e-book “Svensk gangsterrap” from final yr. Numerous rappers mocked one another in songs and on social media till one in all them was shot lifeless. The killers posted a video of the weapon and the textual content “smoked” with a gun emoji. A scalp had been taken and the views had been rampant.
Many people will keep in mind how his voice glided easy as honey over songs like “Computerized”
I’ve – maybe naively – thought that masked artists like C Gambino, 23 and 1 Cuz have chosen a unique path. With their anonymity, they’ve actively made the choice to maintain the rap persona separate from the precise self. If the balaclava (or in Gambino’s case, the latex masks) is on, you’ll be able to calmly rap regarding cost gross sales and different legal antics with out risking your life.
With out speculating on whether or not the killing of C Gambino has something to do together with his hip-hop profession, the truth that the shot man was rapidly recognized because the rapper means that anonymity was hardly watertight.
Be that as it might, it may solely be acknowledged that yet one more of hip-hop-Sweden’s best skills has left us. Many people will keep in mind how his voice glided easy as honey over songs like “Computerized”.
