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African American Rap Language Analysis

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The Features of African American Vernacular English Based on the Analysis of the American Rap 1. Introduction to the African American Vernacular English and rap Rap is “a rhythmic chanting often in unison of usually rhymed couplets to a musical accompaniment” in which words are spoken fast not sung. It is the second most popular musical form in the United States, next only to rock. The word “rap” originates from the black slang meaning talking or conversation. It is composed of "content" (what the song talks about), "flow" (rhythm, rhyme), and "delivery" (cadence, tone). Between 16th and 19th century, European colonists brought substantial numbers of the black from the Africa to the America and half of those were sold to the United States. …show more content…

The most familiar example is to change the suffix “er” into “a”, as “nigger” has been transformed into “nigga”. In the rapid speech flow, “should/would/could/have” are simplified into “shoulda/woulda/coulda”. Besides, the suffix “ks” or “cks” has been substituted by “x” for their uniform pronunciation, such as “thanks” to “thanx”, “checks” to “chex”. Furthermore, “s” is often changed into “z”, like “cause” has been changed into “kuz”. There are also many other instances, for example, “going to” has been changed into “gonna”, “out of” into “outta”, “sort of” into “sorta”. In terms of the intonation, lofty tone and falsetto are the characteristics of the Black English. There is a tendency of moving the stress to the front part of words in the Black …show more content…

Rap strengthens their group consciousness. Therefore, rap music is widely perceived as the cultural resistance. For example, “Ice Cube” conveys the black youth’s indignation and resignation at policemen. Music that represents the anger towards the mainstream society is disseminated through MTV, radio, newspapers, magazines and the Internet, as a result, the black youth who has the similar experience will give sympathetic responses. They will discover that their experience and emotions have attracted the attention and response of those in the mainstream society, thus forming a sense of identity and

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