{"id":513628,"date":"2024-06-12T12:40:00","date_gmt":"2024-06-12T15:40:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/?p=513628"},"modified":"2024-06-12T12:40:00","modified_gmt":"2024-06-12T15:40:00","slug":"hip-hop-begins-to-establish-itself-as-a-field-of-academic-study","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/hip-hop-begins-to-establish-itself-as-a-field-of-academic-study\/","title":{"rendered":"Hip-hop begins to establish itself as a field of academic study"},"content":{"rendered":"

In a June episode of the Mano a Mano<\/em> podcast, Mano Brown and Tha\u00edde talked about the changes they had seen in Pedreira, a neighborhood in the far south of S\u00e3o Paulo that the rappers both know well. \u201cThis place used to be really poor. Of course the keen eye of a sociologist would find tons of flaws there\u2014we\u2019re talking about a favela, after all. But for us, it is clear how the people there fought and prospered,\u201d says Brown, the host of the podcast. The different ways people see poor urban areas, as alluded to by Brown, a member of the rap group Racionais MC’s, reflects a movement that has been growing in Brazil over the last 20 years and involves the incorporation of hip-hop\u2014a social, political, and cultural movement that emerged in the USA in the 1970s\u2014as a subject of study at Brazilian universities. As hip-hop turns 50, these forms of expression previously marginalized in academia are now coming to be seen as \u201csociohistorical explanations of how Brazil works,\u201d according to anthropologist Waldemir Rosa of the Federal University for Latin American Integration (UNILA).<\/p>\n

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Jos\u00e9 Cruz\/Ag\u00eancia Brasil<\/span><\/a> …and graffiti in S\u00e3o Paulo: as well as rap, hip-hop culture includes other forms of artistic expressionJos\u00e9 Cruz\/Ag\u00eancia Brasil<\/span><\/p><\/div>\n

Hip-hop was born in New York City, in areas affected by poverty, violence, lack of infrastructure, and the illegal drug trade, home to much of the city’s Black and Latino population. A party thrown in the Bronx in August 1973, which featured music by Jamaican-American DJ Kool Herc, is considered the inaugural milestone of the movement. He is credited with inventing the \u201cbreak,\u201d introducing new sounds or changing the rhythm of songs using record-mixing equipment. At the same event, people began to improvise rhymes over DJ Kool Herc\u2019s music, creating rap, an acronym for rhythm and poetry. In addition to music, hip-hop encompasses artistic expressions through graffiti, break dancing (a style of urban dance based on break beats), and others.<\/p>\n

According to sociologist Daniela Vieira dos Santos of the State University of Londrina (UEL), hip-hop first emerged in Brazil with break dancing in the 1980s, inspired by American movies about the new form of dance, such as Wild Style<\/em> (1972), directed by Charlie Ahearn, and Beat Street<\/em> (1984), directed by Stan Lathan. During this period, members of the movement in the city of S\u00e3o Paulo, known locally as hip-hoppers, danced at parties called black balls. At the end of the 1980s, the events began being held at the S\u00e3o Bento subway station and on 24 de Maio Street in the city center, which became meeting points for people in the scene. \u201cThe first art form that reached the young participants of these black balls was break dancing, followed by rap. Just like in the USA, people in Brazil became involved in this cultural movement to escape the violence and danger of their urban lives,\u201d explains UNILA\u2019s Rosa.<\/p>\n

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Reproduction<\/span><\/a> Invitation to the party that gave birth to the hip-hop movement 50 years agoReproduction<\/span><\/p><\/div>\n

Of the various forms of artistic expression encompassed by hip-hop, it is rap that has had the greatest impact over the last five decades, due to how easy it is to share music, according to the UEL professor. The first albums from the genre recorded in Brazil were the compilations Hip hop cultura de rua <\/em>(Hip-hop street culture; 1988) and Consci\u00eancia black \u2013 Volume 1 <\/em>(Black consciousness \u2013 Volume 1; 1988). The latter, released by the record label Zimbabwe Records, featured two tracks by Racionais MC\u2019s, which was formed the same year by Mano Brown, Ice Blue, Edi Rock, and KL Jay: \u201cTempos dif\u00edceis\u201d (Difficult times) and \u201cP\u00e2nico na zona sul\u201d (Panic in the South Zone). The same compilation also included the song \u201cNossos dias\u201d (Our days) by Sharylaine. According to Vieira dos Santos, Sharylaine was the first woman to record a rap song in Brazil. It was around this time, according to the UEL professor, that the first hip-hop groups began to form in the city of S\u00e3o Paulo, spreading the principles of hip-hop culture, politically educating the poor urban youth, and suggesting ways to overcome inequalities. \u201cRap really consolidated itself as a musical genre in Brazil at the end of the 1990s, thanks in large part to the success of Racionais MC\u2019s, considered the most important rap group in the country when they released the album Sobrevivendo no inferno <\/em>[Surviving in hell; 1997]\u201d, explains the sociologist.<\/p>\n

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Steven Ferdman\u2009\/\u2009Getty Images<\/span><\/a> DJ Kool Herc in New York, 2019Steven Ferdman\u2009\/\u2009Getty Images<\/span><\/p><\/div>\n

Gabriel Gutierrez, a researcher from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ), says that academic work on hip-hop flourished in the USA in the 1980s, often associated with the field of African studies, especially the sociology of culture. \u201cIt was a specific type of rap called Afrocentric rap, which has a strong political focus and was made famous by the duo Public Enemy, that propelled academic interest in hip-hop,\u201d says Gutierrez, who has been studying the movement for around 10 years. According to the scholar, many of these Afrocentric rap groups were composed of the Black middle-class and university students from New York City. \u201cThey created protest music that many politicians and the police were unhappy about, but even so, they were absorbed by the cultural industry. These artists had contracts with major record labels, were invited to appear on television, and were constantly in the media,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

In Brazil, the first academic papers on hip-hop were written in the 1990s. One pioneering paper was the doctoral thesis \u201cInvadindo a cena urbana dos anos 1990 \u2013 Funk e hip hop\u201d (Invading the urban scene of the 1990s \u2013 Funk and hip-hop), defended at UFRJ in 1998 by historian Micael Herschmann. He is now supervising Gutierrez’s postdoctoral fellowship at the same institution. One of the earliest works, according to musicologist Walter Garcia of the Institute of Brazilian Studies at the University of S\u00e3o Paulo (IEB-USP), was a doctoral thesis on rap in the city of S\u00e3o Paulo, completed at the University of Campinas (UNICAMP) in 1998 by anthropologist Jos\u00e9 Carlos Gomes da Silva, who is now a professor at the Federal University of S\u00e3o Paulo (UNIFESP). Another example is Elaine Nunes de Andrade\u2019s master’s thesis on rap and education, written at USP\u2019s school of Education (FE) in 1996. Garcia began studying rap based on the Racionais MC’s albums Raio X do Brasil <\/em>(X-ray of Brazil; 1993) and Sobrevivendo no inferno <\/em>(Surviving in hell; 1997) and after reading two issues of the magazine Caros amigos<\/em> (Dear friends). The first featured a report on Mano Brown and the second was a special on hip-hop, based on the undergraduate work of anthropologist Spency Kmitta Pimentel, currently a professor at the Federal University of Southern Bahia (UFSB). \u201cMy intention was and continues to be to critique Racionais MC\u2019s aesthetics in the context of a broader study of popular and commercial music in Brazil,\u201d says Garcia. Holocausto urbano <\/em>(Urban holocaust; 1990) was the group’s first record in a complete discography that consists of eight original titles and two compilations. The musicologist says that despite differences between the albums, \u201cthe artistic value of Racionais MC\u2019s comes from the combination of musical merit and the topics addressed.\u201d According to Garcia, musical merit is a mixture of several artistic elements: the choice of words, rhymes, figures of speech, narratives, the construction and interpretation of characters, musical accompaniment, balance, and more. And the topics addressed, which cover various forms of structural violence in Brazilian society, cause listeners to feel \u201cnot only sensations and affections, but also to critically reflect on the economic and social origins of the phenomenon.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Luana Fischer\u2009\/\u2009Folhapress\u2002<\/span><\/a> Tha\u00edde and DJ Hum perform at a festival in S\u00e3o Paulo, 1999Luana Fischer\u2009\/\u2009Folhapress\u2002<\/span><\/p><\/div>\n

Richard Santos, a sociologist from UFSB, points out that just as occurred in the USA, Brazilian television started broadcasting programs about hip-hop between the 1980s and 1990s, which sparked young people’s interest in researching the subject. Santos, also known as Big Richard, was once a promoter of the movement and other marginal cultures in Rio de Janeiro and S\u00e3o Paulo, in addition to directing and presenting television programs on various TV stations. Now vice dean of outreach and culture at UFSB, he was at the forefront of the process to award Mano Brown an honorary PhD in early November.<\/p>\n

Hip-hop as a subject of study in academia has grown in part thanks to a Brazilian law (Law 10.639\/2003) that establishes the mandatory teaching of African and Afro-Brazilian history and culture in education, according to Rosa, from UNILA. Boosted by the introduction of affirmative action in Brazilian universities\u2014designed to encourage Black and other minority populations into academia\u2014the first study in the 2000s sought to analyze the relationships between hip-hop and racial identities in fields such as sociology, history, and literature. Later, continues Rosa, hip-hop began to be studied by urban anthropology researchers, with a focus on youth and racialized identities. For his master’s degree, which he completed at the University of Bras\u00edlia (UnB) in 2006, he investigated the construction process of young, Black, heterosexual, masculine identity in the lyrics of rappers from poor urban neighborhoods in S\u00e3o Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, the Federal District, Goi\u00e1s, and other locations. During his PhD, defended at UFRJ in 2014, the anthropologist analyzed the relationships between hip-hop and the public authorities. \u201cI found that organizations and associations sought to establish legal entities during the 2000s so that they could access public funding to promote cultural and community activities,\u201d says Rosa. He adds that since 2010, as the movement has continued to gain ground in academia, hip-hop has begun to experience an epistemological turn, seen as a potential way of explaining the functioning and history of Brazilian society.<\/p>\n

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Rovena Rosa\u2009\/\u2009Ag\u00eancia Brasil<\/span><\/a> A pioneering artist on the Brazilian scene, rapper Sharylaine in 2023Rovena Rosa\u2009\/\u2009Ag\u00eancia Brasil<\/span><\/p><\/div>\n

The introduction of hip-hop as a subject of study in academia is aligned with an increasingly intense institutionalization process of the movement. Break dancing, for example, is set to feature as an Olympic sport for the first time at the Paris Olympics in 2024. In Brazil, part of this trend is the establishment of state and municipal decrees recognizing hip-hop as a form of cultural heritage, as well as the creation of public funding streams, museums, and cultural centers. In October, the Brazilian Ministry of Culture (MinC) launched a R$6-million call for proposals designed to recognize and value hip-hop culture. In July, a law was passed (Law 7.274) that acknowledged the movement as a cultural and intangible heritage of the Federal District, and the city of Campinas in S\u00e3o Paulo State is currently preparing to issue a similar decree. The government of Rio Grande do Sul plans to inaugurate the Hip-Hop Culture Museum in Porto Alegre in December. The 4,000-square-meter space, situated in a former school and conceived by rapper Rafael Rafuagi, will bring together a collection of around 10,000 items, including instruments, record players, pamphlets, and other documents, collected from across the state of Rio Grande do Sul. \u201cIn addition, we have just presented a participatory inventory of hip-hop culture in each state of Brazil to the National Institute for Historical and Artistic Heritage [IPHAN] requesting that it be made heritage,\u201d says Rafuagi. The aim of heritagization is to encourage the development of artistic and historical expressions through the appreciation and revitalization of certain cultures.<\/p>\n

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Arquivo Edgard Leuenroth\u2009\/\u2009UNICAMP<\/span><\/a> Mano Brown on the cover of Brazil\u2019s first hip-hop magazine in 1993Arquivo Edgard Leuenroth\u2009\/\u2009UNICAMP<\/span><\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cHip-hop managed to legitimize itself in society despite historically facing prejudice,\u201d says UNICAMP anthropologist Jacqueline Lima Santos, one of the organizers of Festival Internacional Hip Hop 50, held by the institution in November to celebrate the movement’s fiftieth anniversary. Together with Vieira dos Santos from UEL, Lima Santos manages an imprint focused on hip-hop publications at the publishing company Editora Perspectiva. In 2021, they translated the book Black Noise: Rap Music and Black Culture in Contemporary America<\/em> by American sociologist Tricia Rose into Portuguese. Originally published in 1994, the book was the result of pioneering research carried out on the subject in the USA. In 2023, they edited Racionais MC\u2019s \u2013 Entre o gatilho e a tempestade <\/em>(Racionais MC’s \u2013 Between the trigger and the storm), a compilation of studies and academic papers on the rap group written in Brazil in recent years. \u201cThrough these publications, activities at universities, and dialogue with artists from the scene, we want to expand the field of study on hip-hop in the country,\u201d says Lima Santos. Vieira Santos, from UEL, believes studies need to delve deeper into issues such as female roles in the movement. \u201cWomen have been involved in hip-hop from the very beginning. But they generally remain on the sidelines, and many are made invisible,\u201d points out the researcher.<\/p>\n

Arthur Dantas Rocha, author of the book Racionais MC\u2019s \u2013 Sobrevivendo no inferno <\/em>(Racionais MC’s \u2013 Surviving in hell; Editora Cobog\u00f3, 2021), investigates how the group from S\u00e3o Paulo was received by the press and cultural sectors between the releases of the albums Raio X do Brasil<\/em> and Sobrevivendo no inferno<\/em>. \u201cAt the time, the records were already well-known and celebrated in poor urban areas, but elsewhere, there was a general distrust of rap, which was an undervalued musical genre,\u201d says Rocha. \u201cIn fact, much of the discourse was clearly racist, with some wrongly stating that the members of Racionais MC\u2019s were ex-convicts.\u201d At the same time, he says, artists such as Caetano Veloso and Chico Buarque highlighted the value of the group’s work, in contrast to the views of the press.<\/p>\n

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Malu Carvalho\u2009\/\u2009UFSB<\/span><\/a> Mano Brown receiving an honorary PhDMalu Carvalho\u2009\/\u2009UFSB<\/span><\/p><\/div>\n

The tone began to shift in the first decade of the 2000s due to various factors. One was that rap started a process of becoming more professional, with rappers like Emicida opening production companies dedicated to their artistic careers. In postdoctoral research funded by FAPESP and completed at UNICAMP in 2019, Vieira dos Santos, from UEL, identified that the musical genre began to occupy a new social and symbolic position in society following this professionalization process, constituting what she called \u201cthe new condition of rap.\u201d Sociologist Felipe Oliveira Campos reached a similar conclusion in his master’s research, completed at USP’s School of Arts, Sciences, and Humanities (EACH) in 2019. \u201cIn the 1990s, rap shows were known for their dangerous conditions and were often delayed for hours. The producers helped change this,\u201d says Campos. The 2022 documentary Racionais: Das ruas de S\u00e3o Paulo pro mundo <\/em>(Racionais MC\u2019s: From the streets of S\u00e3o Paulo to the world), directed by Juliana Vicente, addresses this topic. During his master’s degree, Campos researched the S\u00e3o Bernardo do Campo Church Rap Battle. Created in 2013, the event takes place weekly in front of the city’s central church, a place where workers held demonstrations during Brazil\u2019s military dictatorship (1964\u20131985). More than a thousand people show up every week, many of them from municipalities in the S\u00e3o Paulo Metropolitan Area, who take part in rap battles and improvised rhyming.<\/p>\n

Today, according to UFRJ\u2019s Gutierrez, the rap music market is complex and multifaceted, covering everything from political to romantic music. \u201cDespite this range, the poetics of these songs share a common element, in that they chronicle life on the street and in the neighborhoods where the artists live or grew up,\u201d explains the researcher, who is now doing a postdoctoral fellowship in which he is investigating the rap market in Brazil, especially in Rio de Janeiro. The first rappers in the state were highly influenced by Miami bass, a form of rap that originated in Florida, USA. \u201cThe musical style is good to dance to and has Latin elements. It arrived in Rio in the 1970s, where it encountered samba, Candombl\u00e9, and Umbanda, later giving rise to Funk carioca and the early seeds of the hip-hop scene,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

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@cineastafavelado<\/span><\/a> Rapper performs at Batalha da Matriz in S\u00e3o Bernardo do Campo, S\u00e3o Paulo@cineastafavelado<\/span><\/p><\/div>\n

In Brazil, some researchers, such as psychologist M\u00f4nica Guimar\u00e3es Teixeira do Amaral of USP\u2019s School of Education, have used hip-hop as a pedagogical tool in schools. In research funded by FAPESP and completed in 2018, she found that many schools in S\u00e3o Paulo failed to comply with laws 10.639\/03 and 11.645\/08, which require Afro-Brazilian and Indigenous history and culture to be taught in schools. In the study, Amaral developed methodologies and strategies with which educational institutions could implement the legislated topics. By encouraging intersections between school culture, expressions of hip-hop, and shared teaching between artists and teachers, the researcher suggests working with content on African history, in addition to Afro-Brazilian and urban cultures, in elementary school curricula.<\/p>\n

Rapper Daniel Garnet, who has a degree in physical education and is now a PhD student at FE-USP, also makes a similar recommendation. In his academic research, he created methodologies that use rap battles in pedagogical processes. Thus, in workshops given at USP, in public schools, and at Funda\u00e7\u00e3o Casa, he uses the musical genre to address verse metrics in poetry, rhymes, and figures of speech, as well as teaching classes on the history of Africa and Brazil. \u201cRap battles and break dancing occupy a special place in the minds of young people, who like challenges and testing their limits. Furthermore, they represent a combination of the arts and education, which means they can help awaken a student\u2019s interest in other school subjects,\u201d concludes Garnet.<\/p>\n

Projects
\n1.<\/strong> The new generation of rap and cultural industry (n\u00ba 16\/11769-1<\/a>); Grant Mechanism<\/strong> Postdoctoral Fellowship Abroad; Supervisor<\/strong> Renato Jos\u00e9 Pinto Ortiz; Beneficiary<\/strong> Daniela Vieira dos Santos; Investment<\/strong> R$236,883.97.
\n2.<\/strong> The new generation of rap and cultural industry (n\u00ba 15\/20592-5<\/a>); Grant Mechanism<\/strong> Postdoctoral Fellowship in Brazil; Supervisor<\/strong> Renato Jos\u00e9 Pinto Ortiz; Beneficiary<\/strong> Daniela Vieira dos Santos; Investment<\/strong> R$531,558.12.
\n3.<\/strong> What rap says and schools contradict: A study on street art and youth on the margins of S\u00e3o Paulo (n\u00ba 16\/06256-5<\/a>); Grant Mechanism<\/strong> Research Grant \u2012 Scientific Publications \u2012 Books in Brazil; Principal Investigator<\/strong> Monica Guimar\u00e3es Teixeira do Amaral; Investment<\/strong> R$4,000.
\n4.<\/strong> The ancestral and the contemporary in schools: Recognition and affirmation of Afro-Brazilian histories and cultures (n\u00ba 15\/50120-8); Grant Mechanism <\/strong>Research Grant \u2012 Public Policy Research; Principal Investigator<\/strong> Monica Guimar\u00e3es Teixeira do Amaral; Investment <\/strong>R$195,977.72.<\/p>\n

Scientific articles<\/strong>
\nGUTIERREZ, G. Rap de mensagem e conhecimento de oposi\u00e7\u00e3o. A comunica\u00e7\u00e3o do 5E no hip hop e sua manifesta\u00e7\u00e3o dentro do rap brasileiro<\/a>. Revista Trilhos<\/strong>, vol. 3, no. 1. 2022.
\nSANTOS, D. V. A nova condi\u00e7\u00e3o do rap.<\/a> Estudos de Sociologia<\/strong>, vol. 27, pp. e022005\u201321. 2022.
\nROSA, W. A na\u00e7\u00e3o como narrativa masculina: As constru\u00e7\u00f5es nacionalistas do g\u00eanero e a fala das mulheres no rap brasileiro entre 1,990 e 2,005<\/a>. Humanidade & Inova\u00e7\u00e3o<\/strong>, vol. 7, p. 106. 2020.<\/p>\n

Books<\/strong>
\nVIEIRA, D. & SANTOS, J. L. (orgs.). Racionais: Entre o gatilho e a tempestade<\/strong>. S\u00e3o Paulo: Editora Perspectiva, 2023.
\nROCHA, A. D. Racionais MC\u2019s \u2013 Sobrevivendo no inferno<\/strong>. S\u00e3o Paulo: Editora Cobog\u00f3, 2021.
\nAMARAL, M. G. T. O que o rap diz e a escola contradiz: Um estudo sobre a arte de rua e a forma\u00e7\u00e3o da juventude na periferia de S\u00e3o Paulo<\/strong>. S\u00e3o Paulo: Alameda\/FAPESP, 2016.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On the movement’s 50th<\/sup> anniversary, artistic expressions such as rap and break dance are studied by anthropology and education researchers","protected":false},"author":601,"featured_media":513665,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[165],"tags":[201,248,261,204],"coauthors":[1600],"class_list":["post-513628","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-humanities","tag-anthropology","tag-music","tag-sociology","tag-visual-arts","position_at_home-sumario"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/513628","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/601"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=513628"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/513628\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":513692,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/513628\/revisions\/513692"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/513665"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=513628"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=513628"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=513628"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=513628"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}