2025/12/25 by Amine Baouche, Baouche, Amine
Arts and Humanities · Social Sciences · #Caribbean and African Literature and Culture #Linguistic and Sociocultural Studies #Linguistics and Discourse Analysis
paper · doi:10.34616/ajmp.2025.25.28
openalex publication_date 2025/12/25 · openalex created_date 2025/12/26 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/22
This article examines the notion of egotrip in French rap. While this concept mainly refers to rappers’ tendency to praise themselves (or anything related to themselves), it also includes a fundamental element of rivalry, whereby rappers belittle, denigrate, and invalidate their “competitors.” Two conceptualizations of egotripping are discussed: those of Julien Barret (2008) and Christian Béthune (2003), based respectively on the prominence of phonetic relationships and figures of speech, and on the anchoring of individual rappers in an oppressive cultural context. By attempting to link these theories of egotrip – which are widely used in studies on rap – to a theory of poetic subjectivity, the aim is to explore the artistic, and therefore collective, potential of the rivalry inherent in egotrip, beyond a study of the technicality of language or an affirmation of individuality.