Language, identity and unintelligibility: A case study of the rap group Higher Brothers

2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 43-59
Author(s):  
Jin Liu
Keyword(s):  
Hip Hop ◽  
Rap Music ◽  
The United States ◽  
Verbal Art ◽  
African American Culture ◽  
Language Identity ◽  
Before And After ◽  
The Media ◽  
Global Identities

The Chengdu-based quartet Higher Brothers recently became the first China-born hip hop group to gain global fame. As rap music – originally a local, ethnic African American culture in the United States – has been continually relocalized all over the world and thus globalized, the Higher Brothers have undergone another process of glocalization. This presents a new case study to further examine the dynamics between the global and the local. Because rap is an intensely verbal art, this article explores how the Higher Brothers construct and negotiate their complicated and multiple (local, national and global) identities from the perspective of language. It analyses the language used in their songs – Sichuan Chengdu Mandarin, Standard Mandarin (Putonghua) and English – before and after they signed with 88rising, the media company that brought the group to the West. Due to the rappers’ distinctive ways of vocal production, many of their trap-style songs prove hard to understand not only for global audiences but also for most Chinese national audiences and even for the quartet’s local audiences. Drawing on recent studies of mumble rap, this article explores the politics and sonic aesthetics of unintelligibility of the Chinese trap music.

Flow

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mitchell Ohriner
Keyword(s):  
Hip Hop ◽  
Rap Music ◽  
Music Analysis ◽  
The United States ◽  
Close Reading ◽  
South Bronx ◽  
The World ◽  
Key Concepts ◽  
Voice Flow ◽  
Computational Music Analysis

Originating in dance parties in the South Bronx in the late 1970s, hip hop and rap music have become a dominant style of popular music in the United States and a force for activism all over the world. So, too, has scholarship on this music grown, yet much of this scholarship, employing methods drawn from sociology and literature, leaves unaddressed the expressive musical choices made by hip-hop artists. This book addresses flow, the rhythm of the rapping voice. Flow presents theoretical and analytical challenges not encountered elsewhere. It is rhythmic as other music is rhythmic. But it is also rhythmic as speech and poetry are rhythmic. Key concepts related to rhythm, such as meter, periodicity, patterning, and accent, are treated independently in scholarship of music, poetry, and speech. This book reconciles those approaches, theorizing flow by integrating the methods of computational music analysis and humanistic close reading. Through the analysis of large collections of verses, it addresses questions in the theories of rhythm, meter, and groove in the unique ecology of rap music. Specifically, the work of Eminem clarifies how flow relates to text, the work of Black Thought clarifies how flow relates to other instrumental streams, and the work of Talib Kweli clarifies how flow relates to rap’s persistent meter. Although the focus throughout is rap music, the methods introduced are appropriate for other genres mix voices and more rigid metric frameworks and further extends the valuable work on hip hop from other perspectives in recent years.

Shop talk: The influence of hip hop on Filipino‐American barbers in San Diego

2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 13-23 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher Vito
Keyword(s):  
Hip Hop ◽  
San Diego ◽  
Rap Music ◽  
Life Story ◽  
The United States ◽  
Filipino Americans ◽  
Filipino American ◽  
Hip Hop Culture ◽  
Sense Of Identity ◽  
Shop Talk

Barber culture frequently intersects with hip hop. Barbershops often incorporate rap music, street wear apparel and popular culture into their daily environment. In tandem, an important part of hip hop culture is the haircuts and designs that people choose to get. Many Filipino-Americans across the United States utilize barber and hip hop culture to help create their own unique sense of identity ‐ a sense of identity forged in the fires of diaspora and postcolonial oppression. In this first instalment of the GHHS ‘Show and Prove’ section ‐ short essays on hip hop visual culture, arts and images ‐ I illustrate the ways in which Filipino-Americans in San Diego use barber shops both as a means of entrepreneurialism and as a conduit to create a cultural identity that incorporates hip hop with their own histories of migration and marginalization. I interview Filipino-American entrepreneur Marc Canonizado, who opened his first San Diego-based business, Goodfellas Barbershop Shave Parlor, in 2014. We explore the complex linkages between barbershops, Filipino-Americans and hip hop culture, as well as discuss his life story and plans for the future.

The United States confronts Ebola: suasion, executive action and fragmentation

2016 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 81-104 ◽  
Author(s):  
Scott L. Greer ◽  
Phillip M. Singer
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
United States ◽  
Republican Party ◽  
Ebola Virus ◽  
The United States ◽  
Health Politics ◽  
Variable Capacity ◽  
The Media ◽  
Executive Action

AbstractThe United States’ experience with the Ebola virus in 2014 provides a window into US public health politics. First, the United States provided a case study in the role of suasion and executive action in the management of public health in a fragmented multi-level system. The variable capacity of different parts of the United States to respond to Ebola on the level of hospitals or state governments, and their different approaches, show the limitations of federal influence, the importance of knowledge and executive energy, and the diversity of both powerful actors and sources of power. Second, the politics of Ebola in the United States is a case study in the politics of partisan blame attribution. The outbreak struck in the run-up to an election that was likely to be good for the Republican party, and the election dominated interest in and opinions of Ebola in both the media and public opinion. Democratic voters and media downplayed Ebola while Republican voters and media focused on the outbreak. The media was a key conduit for this strategic politicization, as shown in the quantity, timing and framing of news about Ebola. Neither fragmentation nor partisanship appears to be going away, so understanding the politics of public health crises will remain important.

scholarly journals Humor As a Means of Manipulating a Social Group’s Opinion in Modern Online Communities (A Case-Study on ‘the Houses of’ 2ch and Pikabu)

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elena Mikhalkova ◽  
Pavel Tretyakov ◽  
Irina Pupysheva ◽  
Alexey Ivanov ◽  
Nadezhda Ganzherli
Keyword(s):  
Discourse Analysis ◽  
Critical Discourse Analysis ◽  
Critical Discourse ◽  
Social Nature ◽  
Norms And Values ◽  
Before And After ◽  
Communication Space ◽  
The Media ◽  
General Difference

The Internet is a communication space where newly formed communities are searching for ways to reflect on their social nature. We provide a theoretical framework to demonstrate how humor was used to manipulate social groups before and after the emergence of the media. We use Critical Discourse Analysis and pragmatics to study several cases of social manipulation through humor. The two Internet communities, 2ch and Pikabu, being among the largest Russian-speaking entertainment communities, often compete and use humor as a way to manipulate their representatives for social purposes: to consolidate, fight back, reflect on the norms and values of their community. Our research shows that these communities follow the old traditions of humor and laughter in order to organize a poorly regulated information space. Although 2chers tend to use trolling more often, there is no general difference between these communities in the way they use humor to manipulate their social group. Keywords: humor, laughter, Internet, social cognition, Critical Discourse Analysis, pragmatics, speech act

scholarly journals Rap Music

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Austin McCoy
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Los Angeles ◽  
Hip Hop ◽  
Rap Music ◽  
Mass Incarceration ◽  
The United States ◽  
Hip Hop Culture ◽  
Cultural Form ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
Latinx Youth

Rap is the musical practice of hip hop culture that features vocalists, or MCs, reciting lyrics over an instrumental beat that emerged out of the political and economic transformations of New York City after the 1960s. Black and Latinx youth, many of them Caribbean immigrants, created this new cultural form in response to racism, poverty, urban renewal, deindustrialization, and inner-city violence. These new cultural forms eventually spread beyond New York to all regions of the United States as artists from Los Angeles, New Orleans, Miami, and Chicago began releasing rap music with their own distinct sounds. Despite efforts to demonize and censor rap music and hip hop culture, rap music has served as a pathway for social mobility for many black and Latinx youth. Many artists have enjoyed crossover success in acting, advertising, and business. Rap music has also sparked new conversations about various issues such as electoral politics, gender and sexuality, crime, policing, and mass incarceration, as well as technology.

scholarly journals Rap in Music Therapy with Appalachian Youth with Adverse Childhood Experiences

2018 ◽  
Vol 18 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jessica S. Fletcher
Keyword(s):  
Music Therapy ◽  
Hip Hop ◽  
Adverse Childhood Experiences ◽  
Rap Music ◽  
The United States ◽  
Internal Conflict ◽  
Childhood Experiences ◽  
Music Therapist ◽  
Supervision Process ◽  
Adverse Childhood

Children and adolescents in Appalachia are often exposed to Adverse Childhood Experiences and may have higher levels of depression, anxiety, and aggression than youth in other areas of the United States. The unique challenges of working with youth in Appalachia and the unexpected prevalence of rap as a preferred genre are summarized in this article. Rap is a frequently requested genre with youth in Appalachian Ohio and the youth in the area frequently identify with common themes in rap such as social criticism, social empowerment, humanistic values, and negative behavior criticism. Despite success with these methods within music therapy sessions, this Caucasian music therapist has experienced internal conflict due to the potential for cultural appropriation by using rap music in music therapy with clients who are not indigenous to Hip Hop Kulture. Discussion of the implications of therapeutic application, this therapist’s self-reflections and supervision process, potential for appropriation, and personal outcomes are included.

Initial Improvement in Ride Quality of Jointed, Plain Concrete Pavement with Microsurfacing: Case Study

1996 ◽  
Vol 1545 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-10 ◽  
Author(s):  
James S. Moulthrop ◽  
Larry Day ◽  
W. R. Ballou
Keyword(s):  
Plain Concrete ◽  
The United States ◽  
Concrete Pavement ◽  
Ride Quality ◽  
Construction Techniques ◽  
Before And After ◽  
Initial Improvement ◽  
And Performance

Safety, cost, ride quality, and performance are characteristics of pavement systems that are considered high-priority customer demands by transportation agencies throughout the world. Ride quality is the characteristic most notable to the traveling public. Throughout the United States, numerous state and federal agencies have developed specifications that require that road contractors meet a minimum level of ride quality before a pavement is approved for payment. Studies have shown that initial (as constructed) ride quality is an important factor in determining overall serviceability and length of time to rehabilitation or reconstruction. A case study in Cowley County, Kansas, in which the ride quality of an existing jointed, plain concrete pavement was significantly improved by the placement of a thin, polymer-modified, asphaltemulsion microsurfacing system, is described. The existing pavement conditions, the construction techniques used by the contractor, and the smoothness measurements before and after construction are noted and discussed. It was found that a marked reduction in roughness can be accomplished with unique construction techniques and microsurfacing.

scholarly journals The American Reception and Settlement of Hungarian Refugees in 1956–1957

2016 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
pp. 197-205
Author(s):  
Peter Pastor
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Collective Identity ◽  
The United States ◽  
High Educational Level ◽  
Melting Pot ◽  
The People ◽  
Us Government ◽  
Before And After ◽  
The Media ◽  
The One

In the wake of the Hungarian Revolution of 1956, close to two hundred thousand Hungarians crossed into Austria.  About thirty thousand of these refugees were allowed to enter the United States. Their common experience of living under totalitarian communism and participating or being a witness to the exhilarating thirteen days of the revolution and their sudden, previously unplanned, departure from the homeland gave them a collective identity that was different from the one shared by the people of previous waves of Hungarian influx to the United States. The high educational level of the refugees attained before and after their arrival made their absorption into the mainstream relatively easy. The integration process was facilitated by the shaping of a positive image of the 1956 refugees by the US government and the media.  The reestablishment of the communist system in post-1956 Hungary contributed to the perception that, for the refugees in the United States, there was no hope for return to the homeland.  This assumption strengthened the attitudes of those who wished to embrace the American melting pot model.  Many of the 1956-ers in the United Sates, however, were also comfortable with the notion of ethnic pride and believed in the shaping of a dual national identity.

scholarly journals Trade Impacts Of The Us Anti-Dumping Actions: A Case Study Of Vietnam

2021 ◽  
Vol 03 (04) ◽  
pp. 111-117
Author(s):  
Lan Anh Le ◽  
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Bilateral Trade ◽  
Trade Flow ◽  
Product Market ◽  
The United States ◽  
Protection Measures ◽  
The Us ◽  
Before And After ◽  
Foreign Competitors

Anti-dumping is among of the important trade protection measures that imported countries use against oversea enterprises. The United States is considered one of the most countries use anti-dumping measures to protect the domestic product market from the foreign competitors exporting identical or similar products into the US market. Vietnam’s exporters also have to face the US anti-dumping investigations, becoming a barrier to the favorable trade flow from Vietnam to the United States. This article uses the data on trade between the US and Vietnam for many years to takes a close look at the importance of promoting and developing bilateral trade between the two countries; as well as point out the remarkable changes of Vietnam’s export to the US before and after initiating anti-dumping investigations. Based on the importance of bilateral trade cooporation and the impacts of the US anti-dumping actions to Vietnam’s export, this article gives several implications to Vietnamese exporters to avoid the US antidumping investigations.

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