The Study of Critical Rap Music History and Guidelines for Composing the Critical Rap Music Contents: A Case Study of Critical Rap Music Artists in Thailand

Abstract

The research article has two objectives including (1) to study the history of social critical rap music and (2) the approach to the content composition of rap music artists. The qualitative research method was used by collecting and analyzing data related to the history of critical social rap music. and in-depth interview with 6 purposive artists who have experience writing content of rap music that criticize Thai society.
The results of the study showed that rap music is formed by a combination of writing lyrics (Rhyme) with hip-hop music (Beats). Most content of rap music is about life, society, politics, etc. Therefore, there are interesting styles of rap music, such as political rap or conscious rap, etc., these kinds of rap music become “Critical Rap Music” which has content to critique things in society. The author has applied the concepts related to critical theory to understand social critical rap music as one of the tools for criticizing society. or creating new social space or social power, etc.
The results of the second objective from this study were that for composing rap music content criticizing society. It was found that the personal views of each artist interviewed chose to provide information about only negative views on Thai society, such as social
inequality or social authority, etc. Each of them is inspired to compose music from both their personal opinions and favorite artist styles. and taking into account elements of music such as rhythm or melody, etc. In addition, it was found that “rap music” is considered one of the mediums that fight for what Antonio Gramsci defined as a War of Position as well.