Global Hiphopography

This book brings together a range of hip hop scholars, artists and activists working on Hip Hop in the Global North and South with the goal of advancing Hiphopographic research as a critical methodology with critical fieldwork methods that can provide a critical perspective of our world. The authors’ focus in this volume is to present an anthology of essays that expand the remit of Hiphopography as an approach to the study of Hip Hop that is not only sensitive to the social, economic, political and cultural lives of Hip Hop Culture participants as interpreters and theorists, but one that continues to humanize the “whole person” behind the decks, on the mic, rocking on the linoleum floor, painting in front of a wall, and seeking that Knowledge of Self. This book will be relevant to Hip Hop scholars in fields such as cultural studies and history, sociolinguistics, linguistic anthropology and ethnography, and race studies, while Hip Hop heads themselves will find parts of this book that represent their culture in ethical and informative ways. Jaspal Naveel Singh is a hip hop head, knowledge producer and soul searcher. He currently works as a Lectuer in Applied Linguistics and English Language at the Open University, UK. His first monograph Transcultural Voices: Narrating Hip Hop Culture in Complex Delhi (2022) develops a hiphopographic approach called global hip hop linguistics to study breakers, graffiti artists, musicians and rappers in the emergent scenes in urban India. Originally from Germany, he has lived and worked in India, Hong Kong and Wales. Quentin Williams is Director of the Centre for Multilingualism and Diversities Research and an Associate Professor of Sociolinguistics in the Linguistics Department at the University of the Western Cape, South Africa. His most recent books are Struggles for Multilingualism and Linguistic Citizenship with Tommaso Milani and Ana Deumert (2022) and Neva Again: Hip Hop Art, Activism and Education in post-apartheid South Africa with Adam Haupt, H Samy Alim and Emile YX? (2019).