Hip Hop
Angel Haze interview with white DJ
Play videoArtifact 1 of 2 in an analysis of style-shifting as a function of interviewer race. This interview was analyzed as part of a project on Coronal Stop Deletion in the speech of Hip Hop artists. [Published on 02-06-2014]
Scarface interview with Sway's Universe
Play videoScarface appears on Sway's Universe's radio show as a guest and talks about his life and gives stories about his time with Tupac. Used in analysis of his linguistic authenticity.
Machine Gun Kelly Interview on Complex's Everyday Struggle
Play videoCleveland rapper Machine Gun Kelly (Colson Baker) giving an interview for Complex Music's show Everyday Struggle, with hosts DJ Akademiks, Nadeska, and Wayno. Published July 30, 2019.
The Jack Harlow Interview
Play videoAn interview with white rapper Jack Harlow, in which he discusses his presence in the hip-hop community.
Made In-Medine
Play videoThis song is "Made In" by the French-Algerian Kabyle rapper Medine. The lyrics are mostly in French, with code switching to English and briefly to Arabic. The song is about being proud of one's ethnic/cultural heritage and/or immigrant identity. The song celebrates diverse origins and experiences, and the code switching helps to support that message and lend the lyrics a global feeling.
Workplace Norms Conveyed Through Rap
Play videoThe Office is a popular show on NBC from which we can apply linguistic concepts to. In this short clip Dwight and Michael compose a rap for new members of the office that have relocated from another geographical area. This rap is used to introduce the new hires to the social workplace norms that typically take place at Dunder Mifflin. Dwight and Michael utilize rap and rhyming to make the song seem more comical and appealing to the individuals they have never met before. They also try hard to make their office seem "cool" and "inviting."
Hip Hop Artists in China Add American Rap Language and Culture in Their Rap music
Play video“Made in China” is a Chinese rap music. The lyrics contain Chinese and English, and the singers add rhymes of both languages in some words and sentences. Meanwhile, the artists mix Chinese and American hiphop culture together. This song also represents a group of Chinese rappers try to break some traditional “rules” in mainstream culture.
Brother Ali freestyle on GoRadio - 95.3FM
Play videoBrother Ali is a white socially-conscious rapper who, due to being albino and growing up primarily around African-Americans in the Midwest, existed for many years with a publicly ambiguous racial identity. In more recent years (including at the time of this video), Brother Ali has been more explicit about being white In this video, Brother Ali freestyles on a local Twin Cities radio station. He uses numerous features of AAE, including pervasive coronal stop (-t/-d) deletion.
G-Eazy On Stepping Away From H&M, Being A Crazy Gemini, Halsey & More.
The interview that I analyzed for AAE variables. This rapper potentially steps away from traditional notions of AAE/HHL being symbols of authenticity because of the recent spate of "frat rappers."
Nicki Minaj Talks Entrepreneurship and Being a Female Rapper on The Queen Latifah Show
Play videoRapper Nicki Minaj is interviewed by Queen Latifah
Iggy Azalea Freestyle
Play videoIggy Azalea's attempt at her rap persona and linguistic repertoire without practice. Citation: Eberhardt, M. & Freeman, K. 2015. 'First things first, I'm the realest': linguistic appropriation, white privilege, and the hip-hop persona of Iggy Azalea.
New Slang
This article talks about how slang in incorporated with each new generation. We were talking about this in class and this is a little bit more.
How the triplet flow took over rap
Play videoAlthough the usage of triplets (i.e. the “Migos” flow) has become very popular as of late, and is currently heard on just about every rap track that hits the Billboard 100, the usage of triplets in rap is not something new. It has its roots in Midwestern and Southern rap communities in the 80s onward. In rap, a triplet is essentially like setting your verse to 3/4 time - three beats per bar rather than 4. In rap, it can be used as a sort of verbal trick - it could slow down a song by throwing off the expected rhythm our brain is expecting to hear or even speed it up. Listening to verses in triplets can also make the rappers’ flow feel cleaner. Lyrically, the songs can be flexible or rigid, allowing a diverse range of rap styles to be done over the beat.
SchoolBoy Q - Collard Greens(Explicit) ft. Kendrick Lamar
Play video"Collard Greens" by Schoolboy Q featuring Kendrick Lamar contains a verse which is an example of Mock Spanish in pop culture. This verse is from Kendrick Lamar and features him utilizing Spanish words as obscene euphemisms for humorous effect.
HIP HOP SLANGS
Play videoThis is about a Guy who is trying to explain rap slang. Based on the video he is a white male trying to explain the hip hop cultures slang. The thing that I found really interesting about the video is his persona that presents the word. How he tries to explain the word with “appropriate English”. I noticed that this related to our class because we talked about how we appropriate certain styles of language over the other. Even though rap slang is only used by a small group of people it seem to be represented a an inferior way of speak based on the presentation of this video. When they gave examples it was looked at as silly. Just a really interesting video especially when you relate it to this topic.
Be Free- J. Cole
The artist J. Cole uses his lyrics to express the hardships that he has faced in relations to his experiences as a Black man.
Kodak Black Social Artifact Golden Boy
Play videoHe uses a dialect that is familiar with the rap community, and has an accent that is usually associated with the Haitian community. His delivery of the language he uses gives him his swagger, and gives him a style that stands out from other artists. Examples of his lyrics include saying things like "dat" instead of "that", or "witchu" instead of with "with you".
How WSJ Used an Algorithm to Analyze ‘Hamilton’ the Musical
Joel Eastwood and Erik Hinton wrote an algorithm to analyze the different types of rhymes used in the tony Award Winning Broadway Musical "Hamilton", and reveal their Hip-Hop influences. [Published on 06-06-2016]
Rich Chigga - I Only Say N**** When I’m Jamming to Rap Music
This Indonesian "rapper"/comedian with the stage name, Rich Chigga, is receiving backlash from the hip-hop community for making a song that utilizes the n-word. When confronted about this word, he was quoted saying, "My intent was to kinda help take the power out of that word so people would be less sensitive about it but I do understand if some people would be offended and I think doing it in that song’s enough."
It is usually a common theme for people not to say the n-word due to the negative implications of the word. However, he tries to justify his usage by describing how he is attempting to desensitize a word. He is getting backlash for trying to exploit this culture derived from African-Americans and hip-hop. [Published on 07-20-2016]
Kyle vs. Kanye
Play videoHighlights the absurdity of participating in rap culture without adapting some amount of AAE - the protagonist's middle-class white background clashes in the way accounted for in Cutler, Cece, 2003. Note the only potential AAE marker, "dope" which is marked in the above article as a strictly "fake" AAE marker.
'Thug Life' and the Effect of Hip-Hop on Language
This audio talks about how hip hop influence today's language. The word "Thug" is discussed and explained how the words meaning has changed over time.
New York Post: "How Iggy Azalea mastered her ‘blaccent’"
A discussion of Iggy Azalea's understanding/appropriation of AAE, and authenticity. [Published on 01-04-2016]
Rudy Giuliani: Beyoncé’s halftime show was an ‘outrageous’ affront to police
Rudy Giuliani describes Beyonce's halftime show as being inappropriate for the middle american audience of the Super Bowl. He states “This is football, not Hollywood, and I thought it was really outrageous that she used it as a platform to attack police officers who are the people who protect her and protect us, and keep us alive." [Published on 02-08-2016]
Lil' Kim - Single Black Female
Play videoOne song off Lil' Kim's album The Notorious K.I.M. which I analyzed with respect to CSD.
Bryan Silva
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]
Urban Culture French, Northern French & Arabic in contact (rap music from North of France)
Play video- From Lucas' Assignment 1 in Contact Languages - Does it sound French to you? Why/why not? Can you spot the French/Arabic code-switching?
Why do rappers have fake accents?
An interview with David Crystal on the speaking and rapping of Iggy Azalea, a white Australian woman who adopts AAE features in her hip hop style.
NPR: Kreayshawn breaks in, but whose party is she crashing?
A 2011 profile of white female hip hop artist Kreayshawn, leader of a "white girl mob" of Oakland hip hop artists, which highlights the criticisms of her related to her race and gender.
Macklemore: White Privilege
Play videoA song from white hip hop artist Macklemore that addresses issues of race and ethnicity, specifically whiteness, in the hip hop community and argues that white participation in hip hop is an instance of white privilege.