“I feel English as fuck”: translocality and the performance of alternative identities through rap

ABSTRACT

This article deploys the concept of translocality, in order to move beyond the transnational framework that underpins global hip hop studies. Over the last forty years rap music has become a vibrant and distinctive part of mainstream British life. Through rap young people construct identities that draw upon their local experiences while also connecting them with young people from other localities. These translocal identities affirm a multi-ethnic, urban experience of England in mainstream popular culture. Based on a year of ethnographic research in London and Bristol, we argue that a distinctive rap culture is produced through the performance, production, circulation, and reproduction of rap in and between English cities.

KEYWORDS:

• Translocality
• grime
• rap
• performance
• identity
• global hip hop

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

ORCID

Richard Bramwell http://orcid.org/0000-0002-3411-5223

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Arts and Humanities Research Council [grant number AH/M011275].