Global Noise and Global Englishes

Abstract

Global Noise: Rap and Hip-Hop Outside the USA, alluding to Tricia Rose’s US rap-music book, Black Noise, aims to do much more than merely extend the reach of the study of rap and hip-hop beyond the USA, as its subtitle might suggest. While acknowledging the importance of the work of both Rose and Potter, this collection’s editor, Tony Mitchell, contests their respective views that rap and hip-hop are essentially expressions of African-American culture, and that all forms of rap and hip-hop derive from these origins. He argues that these forms have become ‘a vehicle for global youth affiliations and a tool for reworking local iden- tity all over the world’.