Language and Societies

Mixed Messages: discourse trends in the hip-hop era

Mixed Messages: discourse trends in the hip-hop era

Evelyn Postell-Franklin

Over the last 30 years, hip-hop culture has matured to a worldwide entertainment phenomena enjoyed by youth across cultural divides. Hip-hop is often confused with “rap” the lyrical style applied in genre of music; much of which contains discourse characteristic of anti-language. In addition to anti-language characteristics, there are class values associated with the culture of hip-hop language in respect to dialectal variation from formal language standards. Particularly the uses of African American Vernacular English (AAVE), Ebonics, and/or slang are viewed negatively against Standard American English (SAE) with in the United States hegemony. To further complicate the issues of class, as it is associated with the language of Hip-hop, the values placed on those using non-standard dialects common in Hip-hop were widely assumed to be the cause of moral decline within and across speech communities.

The non-standard language used in Hip-hop has been coined as Hip Hop Nation Language, and is no longer a coded language used by marginalized groups seeking to increase social awareness of disenfranchisement. It has become more of a code with terms and non-vocal signals to indicate resistance against social control and racial boundaries. This research is designed to examine the use of HHNL among social classes not traditionally associated with Hip-hop.

April 23, 2010 - Posted by schrisomalis | abstract