Book contents
- The Cambridge Companion to Global Rap
- Cambridge Companions to Music
- The Cambridge Companion to Global Rap
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Figures
- Notes on Contributors
- Introduction
- Part I Historical and Cultural Perspectives
- Part II Approaches to Rap
- Part III Applications of Rap
- Part IV Contexts for Rap
- 13 Honoring the Honorable
- 14 ‘It Will Never Go Away’
- 15 The Art of Capping
- 16 Drill as Cultural Form
- 17 English Rap in India and the Fault Lines of Sociolinguistic Politics
- 18 Television and the Janus Face of Chinese Hip-Hop
- Selected Bibliography
- Index
17 - English Rap in India and the Fault Lines of Sociolinguistic Politics
from Part IV - Contexts for Rap
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 25 July 2025
Book contents
- The Cambridge Companion to Global Rap
- Cambridge Companions to Music
- The Cambridge Companion to Global Rap
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Figures
- Notes on Contributors
- Introduction
- Part I Historical and Cultural Perspectives
- Part II Approaches to Rap
- Part III Applications of Rap
- Part IV Contexts for Rap
- 13 Honoring the Honorable
- 14 ‘It Will Never Go Away’
- 15 The Art of Capping
- 16 Drill as Cultural Form
- 17 English Rap in India and the Fault Lines of Sociolinguistic Politics
- 18 Television and the Janus Face of Chinese Hip-Hop
- Selected Bibliography
- Index
Summary
This chapter discusses the variegated dynamics of English-language rap in the complex, stratified, and multilingual sociolinguistic environment of India. The first section provides a brief overview of the historical and sociocultural positioning of English in India. The following section lays out a genealogy of English rap in India, discussing its evolution over the past three decades. The third and final section, which forms the analytical crux of the chapter, uses examples from lyrics and an interview to contextually analyze how the choice to rap in English reproduces as well as contests the intersections between sociolinguistic dynamics, politics of regionalism and marketability, caste identities, and racialization. The chapter concludes with a discussion on how English rap in India is simultaneously rife with possibilities for artists while also transcending the oversimplifications associated with English usage in India.
Information
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- Chapter
- Information
- The Cambridge Companion to Global Rap , pp. 249 - 260Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2025
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