The latest in the “Advances in sociolinguistics” series, this edited volume explores cultural and linguistic elements of hip hop from all over the international community known as the Hip Hop Nation (HHN). As editor Marina Terkourafi notes, aspects of hip hop culture have spread and been reinterpreted all over the world. Her introduction highlights the main concerns of the contributing authors: aspects of social marginalization and political engagement associated with hip hop, rap artists' concerns with maintaining authenticity, and the coming together of the local and global in the genre.

Each chapter contributes a compelling look at hip hop in one of the far-flung corners of the HHN. In Ch. 1, Jannis Androutsopoulos examines how German migrant rap artists help to increase acceptance of multilingualism in a monolingual society by using strategic code-switching to flag their ethnic identities while marketing their music to majority audiences. Next, Samira Hassa explores how code-switching in French hip hop highlights various social issues, constructing a genre that expresses the struggle of multiethnic immigrant youth in France. Angela Williams investigates localization in Egyptian hip hop in Ch. 3, describing how themes like patriotism, Pan-Arabism, and identification with Blackness help artists construct multilayered local identities. In Ch. 4, Sarah Simeziane describes how Roma hip hop in Hungary uses references to race as a way of indexing the Romas' ethnic difference and social disadvantage. Next, John T. Littlejohn & Michael T. Putnam provide an interesting look at the ways in which racial minority artists use taboo references to Hitler and the Third Reich in German gangsta rap. Jamie Shinhee Lee investigates how hip hop playas in South Korea keep it real by finding a balance between global hip hop ideology and local issues. In Ch. 7, Franklin L. Hess uses the notions of mimicry and fetishization to understand how Greek low bap hip hop artists articulate a broadening Greek identity and respond to US imperialism. Evros Stylianou explores how Cypriot hip hop artists are forced to confront contradictions in how the Greek Cypriot dialect is viewed by native speakers (Ch. 8). Endre Brunstad, Unn Røyneland, & Toril Opsahl examine the ways in which aspects of the global hip hop culture are regionalized through style, themes, and language use in Norwegian hip hop. Next, Jennifer Cramer & Jill Hallett investigate how different regional identity markers are used to distinguish US hip hop from the “Dirty South” and the Midwest. In Ch. 11, Matt Garley provides a quantitative analysis, exploring how German hip hop fans use nativized hip hop-related anglicisms selectively in order to alternately claim German hip hop identity and distance themselves from American social meanings attached to hip hop terms. And finally, Cecelia Cutler examines how a White American MC works to establish herself as an authentic rapper by constructing a cultural connection to Blackness.

Languages of global hip hop is an excellent reference for sociolinguists, discourse analysts, and scholars interested in hip hop, identity, and the interplay between globalization and localization in discourse.