The verdict was handed down on Wednesday: Grammy winner Yasin Mahamoud is sentenced to ten months in prison and rapper Haval Kahlil is sentenced to two years and six months in prison.
- There is a big split in the rap world right now due to the fact that several of the most popular rap artists have quite important positions in several criminal networks according to the police, says SVT's reporter Diamant Salihu who has long covered gang crime in Sweden.
He further says that he does not believe that Yasin and Havals will lose an audience after Wednesday's verdicts:
- I think that the large audience may be affected because this is a serious crime and also against a person who was 17 years old at this time.
But if you only look at the number of gigs on Spotify, for example, Yasin still has a very loyal audience that listens to him despite these accusations and the negative attention that has been.
"No shock to their audience"
Music journalist and author Nicholas Ringskog Ferrada-Noli agrees:
- These are serious crimes but not of the nature that it will affect the view of the artists.
Both of them already had a career in which the lyrics are largely based on them dealing with crime and that lifestyle.
It's no shock to their audience or fans.
It would have been a different matter if Christer Sjögren had been convicted of this type of crime, he says.
In Dagens Nyheter, Nicholas Ringskog Ferrada Noli describes how music has a partly different function in today's culture than it had during the 20th century.
He describes Yasin and Haval as a new type of artist based on the platform they built:
- Throughout the 20th century, the record company was extremely important, they had control over the offer.
It looks different today.
The distribution is different and you can spread your music and create hype without record companies.
It's new that this type of person gets to make music and spread it.
This means that even those who are not desirable people from traditional record companies, messy, criminals, they too can have a voice.
I think that is interesting, he says.
Great interest in Yasin's perspective
Petter Hallén, music journalist and host of P3 Din Gata, tells TT that he believes that many of Yasin's and Haval's fans have already had a great interest in the artists' lives and that this is not something that will decrease due to today's judgments.
- I think many of his fans are looking forward to when he will release new music and what he will say in it. There is a great deal of interest among them to get his perspective on this story. I have a hard time seeing that he will sit on a morning sofa, it is through the music that you have been able to take part in his life, says Petter Hallén.