Marcyliena Morgan

Hip-Hop & the Global Imprint of a Black Cultural Form

Hip-hop, created by black and Latino youth in the mid-1970s on the East Coast of the United States, is now represented throughout the world. The forms core elements – rapping, deejaying, breaking (dance), and graffiti art – now join an ever-growing and diversifying range of artistic, cultural, intellectual, political, and social practices, products, and performances. The artistic achievements of hip-hop represent a remarkable contribution to world culture; however, the “hip-hop nation” has created not just art and entertainment, but art with the vision and message of changing the world – locally, nationally, and globally. International representations of hip-hop capture and reinterpret hip-hops history by incorporating local as well as African American aesthetic, cultural, social, and political models. This essay examines the global movement of the hip-hop nation and its artistic incorporation into global youth culture. It considers how that movement is both a social and political process that integrates symbols of African American culture and political struggle.

‘The world is yours’: the globalization of hip-hop language

ABSTRACT This article is †an analysis of the cultural, linguistic and artistic features of hip-hop that cultures translate into their social world and embed in their culture, language ideology, and performance styles. It begins with an analysis of features of hip-hop in the U.S. that appear in global hip-hop. It then considers the modes of dissemination of African American music, language and politics worldwide and the influence of various forms of media and technology. It then presents two case studies, one in South America (São Paulo, Brazil) and the other in Europe (Paris, France). Finally, it critiques the place and role of hip-hop in popular culture, academia and countries throughout the world.