Asap Rocky wants to be part of the new, softer hip-hop manhood

An American rapper in the middle layer whose hits few can name by name. It had been a reasonable description of ASAP Rocky on June 29, 2019, the day before the alleged abuse in central Stockholm. But after this summer, Grandpa even knows who he is.

Artist colleagues such as Rod Stewart, Pharrell Williams and Macklemore have supported him on social media. US President Donald Trump has called Stefan Löfven to release the rapper and national prosecutors such as Leif GW Persson and Carl Bildt have been told in the media about the case. Throughout last year, Swedish media published 109 articles on ASAP Rocky. So far this year, the corresponding figure is 6185.

A qualified guess is ASAP Rocky would do anything to avoid the entire story, not least to avoid sitting in Swedish detention for over a month. Still, it can't be denied that it was the biggest career boost he could ever dream of. It would have been easy for him to create a bad boy persona based on the event, to play on the image of himself as criminal, uncompromising and scary. But ASAP Rocky has not chosen the supposed, already paved road.

The fact that male American hip-hopers end up in fairness with justice is far from anything new. On the contrary, it has long been, if not expected, so far from being odd and rather part of the image to present itself as dangerous and harsh.

The early rapper, most of the rapper, 50 Cent, was shot nine times, one of which was so bad that he was close to breaking with. Yet he was rarely portrayed as a victim. On the contrary, the Grand theft auto-like action game was released about the rapper where the player was given the role of 50 Cent, that is to buy weapons, shoot people and use the points to unlock ugly words. On one of the movie posters advertising the movie Get rich or die tryin ', with the same title as his most famous album, he posed with a microphone in one hand and a gun in the other.

Long before Snoop Dogg became the face of a Swedish e-payment company, he basically had a card at the prison for crimes such as drug and weapon possession. After breaking a tax-free shop at Heathrow Airport in London, he was deported from British airways and revoked his British visa. Nor was he allowed to enter Australia when he was to play at the MTV video music awards in 2007, because of his criminal record.

During the 1990s, Dr. Dred for several cases of female abuse. One notable case was when he repeatedly threw a female television host into a wall for not appreciating her journalism. “If anyone is fucking with me, I will be fucking with them. I just did it, you know. Talking about it now doesn't help. By the way, it wasn't a big deal, I just threw her through a door, "Dr. Dre's comment on it all in the Rolling stone magazine.

The list could be made longer. ASAP Rocky, on the other hand, has chosen a different line, and rather presented itself as small, vulnerable and weak. During the preliminary investigation, he told police that they "had to use force" because they "feared it would escalate". “They followed us for four blocks. We tried to order a taxi and download scooter apps to get there, "said ASAP Rocky.

During the trial, he said they did not know what would happen, that "it got a little scary". During his first concert after the release, he repeated that he did not mind Swedes, and that it was all an "unfortunate event".

Does he say these things because it benefits him in legal terms? Of course. Are there young, male rappers today who are still hooked on violent gangster romance? Undoubtedly. The Swedish example ZE is far from any soft ice cream.

But the fact that a great, male American rapper dares to present himself as scared and in the downside shows that after all, the role of men is changing, even in the harshest of macho cultures.