The book Jarmark is an insightful study of the eponymous music album – meaning ‘fair’ or ‘fairground’ in Polish – released in 2020 by the Polish rapper Taco Hemingway (real name Filip Tadeusz Szcześniak). Hemingway belongs to the generation of Poles who were born shortly after the political transformation from communism to democracy in Poland, and Jarmark was his fourth studio album. What undoubtedly distinguishes Taco, as he is commonly known in Poland, from other Polish performers is his enormous success: at the time of writing, his songs have been streamed a billion times on Spotify – a success that no other Polish artist has enjoyed or been able to replicate so far.
The reviewed book belongs to the ‘33 1/3 Europe’ series, which publishes monographs on music albums that have had a significant cultural impact on the local and supra-regional music market. It is written by Kamila Rymajdo, who, though Polish-born, is a journalist and cultural researcher based in the UK, who conducts research on music culture and creative industries.
To some extent, the author sees Taco Hemingway as representative of the young generation of Poles who experienced difficulties associated with the transition to a democratic system (the slow decline of the industry sector, the rapid rise of unemployment and poverty, etc.), but also with Poland’s accession to NATO and the EU, large-scale emigration, and in recent years, a shift towards far-right policies. On the one hand, then, Taco witnessed the enormous social and cultural costs that the Polish society has incurred as a result of embarking on a new political and economic path (increased social inequality, the marketization of culture, the deterioration of public debate, etc.). On the other hand, as a Polish émigré to the United Kingdom, he experienced misunderstanding from the British rap community and partial self-exclusion from the local social and artistic life. This book aims to show the cultural significance of Taco’s Jarmark as an album reflecting Poland’s post-socialist and migration history, and recent populist shift (which the singer opposes), thanks to a rich historical and political contextualisation.
The book is written in a clear and captivating way. Rymajdo not only presents the figure of Taco Hemingway (i.e. his biography, views, attitude towards the media), but also discusses the political and social changes that have taken place in Poland over the last 40 years, while providing a brief overview of the development of Polish hip-hop culture. This makes her analyses understandable even to readers unfamiliar with the specifics of Poland’s culture and history. The chapter in which Rymajdo analyses the lyrics of particular songs from this album is impressive. The author shows how Taco uses various literary means (metaphors, irony, realism) to tell his story. She points to numerous lyrical and narrative elements in his work and shows his successful attempts to combine everyday language with poetic representations. Moreover, the book is very well grounded in the scholarly literature on the subject – the author refers to publications in the fields of rap studies, cultural sociology, and migration studies.
As a point of criticism, the book’s concluding remarks fail to mention the influence of Taco Hemingway’s social background on his work and its reception. Unlike the first generation of Polish rappers, who mostly came from the working class, Taco Hemingway originates from a well-educated middle-class background. The author notes this at the beginning of the book (p. 15), but does not return to this point for interpreting Hemingway’s success. It can be assumed that the sense of marginalization and alienation that Hemingway admits to in his music may, in fact, be rooted in a different social class experience from that of some of his listeners. In addition, in the first years after the post-communist transition, he and his family lived outside Poland. Indeed, Taco was born in Egypt and spent his early childhood in China. His father worked for an import-export company, which meant that the whole family often travelled abroad. So we can assume that Hemingway did not directly experience the difficulties brought about by the system transition in Poland, which were an everyday reality for most of his peers.
Taco Hemingway has undoubtedly achieved great commercial success, but does it mean that his album sparked any major public debate in Poland? Reading this book, one gets the impression that the album has been met with a notable and positive response, as the album was widely discussed in the Polish media. However, it is worth noting that rap as such is not the most popular genre in Poland – only approximately 20% of Poles declare an interest in this type of music. For comparison, over 70% of Poles like pop music, 50% are interested in the typical Polish genre of disco polo, and 40% like rock (Domański et al. Reference Domański, Przybysz, Wyrzykowska and Zawadzka2021, pp. 145–168). What is more, rap listeners in Poland are primarily men (Domański et al. Reference Domański, Przybysz, Wyrzykowska and Zawadzka2020), teenagers and young adults (NCK 2021). Therefore, it can be assumed that the real impact of Taco’s Jarmark was largely limited to young listeners (i.e., teenagers and young adults) and the broadly understood rap community. In my opinion, this restriction is not sufficiently highlighted in the book.
Despite these critical remarks, I consider Rymajdo’s Jarmark to be a valuable read, not only for those interested in rap or the history of Central and Eastern Europe. It is a concise, clear book, great also for readers outside the academic community.
