Hip-Hop Outside the USA: Cultural Hybridity & Performing Identity

Annalise Friend

Research program: Culture and Representation

The topic of research I would like to pursue is the creation and performance of identity within contemporary, global hip hop. Focusing on key artists as case studies, I aim to highlight the creative and diverse processes of identity performance within the period of "contemporary accelerated globalisation" (Nederveen Pieterse). Artists such as African-Canadian artist K'naan, Maori-Niuean Che Fu, Sri Lankan female MC M.I.A, and Australian Urthboy will be discussed as both writers and performers of oral literature, as well as complex agents of "performative politics", by virtue of the hybrid signifiers of their promotional imagery and live performance, together with the context of their media participation and audience.