The Cambridge Companion to Global Rap

Introduces the world's most popular form of performed poetry, from Nicki Minaj to Stormzy, with insights from many academic disciplines.

Richard Bramwell (Edited by), Alex de Lacey (Edited by)

9781316515266, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 14 August 2025

310 pages
25 x 17.7 x 2.2 cm, 0.7 kg

Rap has remapped the way we think about music. For more than fifty years its poetics, performance and political power has resonated across the globe. This Companion offers an array of perspectives on the form, from the fields of sociology, linguistics, musicology, psychology, literary studies, education and law, unpacking how this versatile form of oral communication has permeated nearly every aspect of daily life. Taking a decidedly global perspective, these accounts draw from practice in Australia, China, France, Germany, Jamaica, India and Tanzania; exploring how the form has taken hold in particular contexts, and what this can tell us about the medium itself and the environments in which it was repurposed. An indispensable resource for students and researchers, the collection provides an introduction to global rap studies as well as insights into the some of the most important and exciting new developments in this field.

List of figures
Notes on contributors
Introduction Richard Bramwell and Alex de Lacey
Part I. Historical and Cultural Perspectives: 1. Travelling sounds: tracing the global origins of rhythm and poetry Paroma Ghose
2. A history of sound system and emcee culture Marvin Sparks
Part II. Approaches to Rap: 3. Beats, Rhymes, and Life: connecting the sonic and the social in hip hop music studies J. Griffith Rollefson
4. 'Listen when I flip the linguistics': linguistic approaches to hip-hop and the case of 2Pac Steven Gilbers
5. Pioneers, postmodernisms and aesthetic experience: a brief history of aesthetic approaches to rap music Max Ryynänen and Petteri Enroth
6. The literary singularity of Roots Manuva's Awfully Deep Richard Bramwell
7. The French (hip-hop) revolution is yet to come: a sociology of rap music in France Karim Hammou and Marie Sonnette-Manouguian
Part III. Applications for Rap: 8. Lords of the mic: live collective performance in grime music Alex de Lacey
9. Hip-Hop and mental health: perspectives from psychiatry, psychology, public health, and neuroscience Akeem Sule and Becky Inkster
10. The beat of the gavel: rap, 'race' and criminal injustice Lambros Fatsis
11. Express yourself: education and wellbeing in Australian applied hip-hop workshops Dianne Rodger
12. Rap to skool: hip-hop in the classroom Patrick Turner
Part IV. Contexts for Rap: 13. Honoring the honorable: Tanzanian hip-hop artists, awards shows, and the power of popular song Alex Perullo
14. 'It Will Never Go Away': re-imagining black German identity in 'Ich bin Schwarz' Sina A. Nitzsche and Laura I. K. Spilker
15. The art of capping: exploring digital cloutchasing strategy of black male youth in Chicago's drill rap scene Jabari Evans
16. Drill as cultural form: video-music, chromatism, war and the alternative Malcolm James
17. English rap in India and the fault lines of sociolinguistic politics Elloit Cardozo and Jaspal Naveel Singh
18. Television and the Janus face of Chinese hip-hop: style, ideology, and precarious syncretization in The Rap of China Sheng Zou.

Subject Areas: 20th century & contemporary classical music [AVGC6]