Concession Constructions as a Dialogic Strategy in the Rap Lyrics of Jimbo Jay

Abstract

This study focuses on the pragmatic-rhetoric functions of concession constructions in the lyrics of Jimbo Jay – an acclaimed rapper on the Israeli Hip-Hop scene, whose songs address a variety of issues (personal relationships, fears, music, the Hip Hop community, Israeli society and more), that richly resonate international Hip-Hop music as well as Israeli culture. For this study, all the lyrics from his two albums released in 2016 and 2019 were reviewed. In these songs, 72 concession constructions were found, most of which perform a dialogic function, with some also performing an argumentative function. The dialogic function is an explicit or implicit confrontation between two voices (as expressions of positions, outlooks, agendas), while the argumentative function is an attempt to convince the addressees that a particular argument is correct, by challenging the contrary argument.

The study focuses on the dialog that emerges in the lyrics between the speaker and Israeli society and examines how he uses concession constructions to this end. A significant gap between the explicit and implicit dialog was found in the lyrics: On the explicit level, the speaker goes with the flow and adopts Israeli norms almost without question, positioning himself as a "genuine" Israeli in doing so. On the implicit level, he uses the concession constructions as polyphonic arenas illustrative of his real point of view and values, allowing him to use his authentic critical voice with regard to Israeli conventions. In terms of the argumentative aspect, the concession constructions signal to the addressees that the implicit stand is superior (more correct, moral, etc.) to the explicit one. 

In that light, the concession constructions in the corpus under review may be seen as a positive politeness strategy – one aimed at mitigating the speaker’s criticism of Israeli norms – and as a dual positioning of the speaker, as an integral part of Israeli society who embraces its cultural codes, while critically observing it from without.