La presenza di Dio nei testi del rap polacco

Abstract

Poland certainly represents a unique situation when it comes to faith and the presence of God within rap production. The theme has not only been present in Poland since the origins of this music movement, but the most famous track from Polish rap, one of the most famous songs ever in post-Wall Poland, is closely linked to God: Jestem Bogiem (I'm God, 2001) by Paktofonika. The rhymes of the refrain: “Jestem Bogiem/Uświadom to sobie, sobie/Ty też jesteś Bogiem/Tylko wyobraź to sobie, sobie” (I'm a God/Realize this, yourself/You are God too/Just imagine it, imagine it) project the prerogatives of God onto the human being. When he writes the text, the author (Magik) identifies divinity with the achievement of targets through the use of one's abilities; in his intentions there is in no way the ambition to replace God. The God we carry within us is the one who feeds on our best actions.The link between Polish rap and the topic of faith, however, became closer well before Jestem Bogiem started being played on the radios and musicassettes of young Polish people. This is a relationship that has existed since the beginning of the rap movement in Poland. Already from the name of one of the very first Polish rap group, Kaliber 44, founded in 1994, from the titles of the collections and individual tracks contained in their works two characteristics strongly emerge: the connection with literature and that with religiosity. The present work therefore aims to reconstruct the history of the relationship between Polish rap and God also in its various thematic declinations: the direct comparison with divinity and the brave one with its opposite and inevitable, the devil. In this sense, rappers like Eldo, who continually underscores the difference between faith and religion, Łona and Słoń act as models for changing the communication paradigm with God