From Oslo Spektrum to the global public sphere: Karpe’s ‘Baraf/Fairuz’, YouTube reaction videos and hip hop as sharing culture

Hip hop music is now undeniably a global phenomenon. While existing scholarship has investigated both the genre’s global popularity and the emergence of local hip hop scenes around the world, less attention has been devoted to how the music of local and/or national hip hop artists circulates in the contemporary global public sphere. This article addresses these local-global dynamics through a case study of Norwegian hip hop duo Karpe and how YouTube reaction videos have mediated their relationship with an international audience. Through audio-visual and thematic analysis of nine YouTube reaction videos, all responding to Karpe’s live performance of ‘Baraf/Fairuz’ (2022), we investigate the multiple layers of meaning(-making) that characterize this form of user-generated media. Engaging with the idea of hip hop as intrinsically a sharing culture, we argue that the reaction videos we study provided fans with a distinctly social space wherein to interpret and negotiate the musical, emotional and sociocultural significance of Karpe’s music while also placing certain constraints on these processes. Ultimately, we suggest that reaction videos can shed light on some key dimensions of hip hop culture’s continuing evolution in the digital age.