Sociolinguistic Artifacts

Bryan Silva is a celebrity on Vine, a video sharing website that caps videos at 6 seconds. Silva uses Vine to promote his career as a white rapper. As part of establishing his legitimacy as a rapper, he employs use of AAVE and uses his lyrics (and his body) to demonstrate his masculinity. The video is too short to hear the initial consonant, but in the word "with" he uses a /d/ instead of an /ð/. In the only post-vocalic /ɹ/ environment ("your"), he drops the /ɹ/. His use of the word "ain't" is also a demonstration of his AAVE. The content of this particular line also reinforces his masculinity. He discounts "fufu lame shit" (i.e. experiences he's not proud of or chooses not to associate with) and threatens to "send some shots at your fitted" (a type of hat). Silva perceives rap as a masculine genre. By employing what he perceives to be masculine linguistic and stylistic features, he stakes his claim as a rapper. In other videos, Silva says the n-word and says that he has a right to use it (and other AAVE features) because he grew up in a black neighborhood. [Published on 04-11-2014]