Gangsta culture’s preoccupations mirror a neo-Medieval world of robber barons and blood-honour
Evidence
“Real” is a neo-Medieval scenario; you could compare downsising to enclosure, where the aristocracy threw the peasants off the land and reduced them to a vagabond underclass. Like gangsta rap, Jungle reflects a Medieval paranoiascape of robber barons, pirate corporations, conspiracies and covert operations. Hence the popularity as a source of samples and song titles of martial arts films and gangsta movies like The Godfather, Reservoir Dogs, Goodfellas, Pulp Fiction, whose universe revolves around concepts of righteous violence and blood-honour that predate the liberal, social-democratic era. — Mark Fisher (edited by Darren Ambrose), K-Punk, 1537
Categorization
- XREF: Extends Fisher’s neo-feudalist reading of late capitalism that recurs throughout, echoing his point about capitalism dissolving the social contract into privatised warlordism. — connects to: Historic cities permanently marked criminals through bodily branding to advertise moral difference; Mafia symbols function as threats and markers of territory in hostile environments; Gangsta bling exposes how class escape from servitude has largely failed — Mark Fisher (edited by Darren Ambrose), K-Punk: The Collected and Unpublished…, 1324