ABSTRACT
December 2003. The Atmosphere nightclub in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Joe Flizzow and Malique1 – Too Phat – come on stage; their gait has a loose rhythm, a languid movement of the body, a hinging of the knees that feels like a walk from elsewhere. Their hands wave in the air, fi ngers pointing, gesticulating with the urgent rhythm of the music. Their matching clothes hang loosely from their bodies: white trainers, baggy jeans, shirts hanging out (one a black T-shirt, the other an orange basketball shirt). Both wear baseball caps set off at a slight angle to the side. Against the background beat from large speakers at the side of the stage they rap at speed, microphones held up in front of them. Behind them, a break-dancing crew, also in baggy jeans, caps and T-shirts, do back spins, windmills, head spins. Joe Flizzow at the mic:
Hip hop be connectin’ Kuala Lumpur with LB Hip hop be rockin’ up towns laced wit’ LV Ain’t necessary to roll in ice rimmed M3’s and be blingin’ Hip hop be bringin’ together emcees2
How do we understand this English rap in a Malaysian night-club, with its African American infl uences on pronunciation and syntax (Hip hop be connectin’) its references to the world of hip-hop (blingin’, bringin’ together emcees) and current popular culture (Louis Vuitton clothes, BMW 3 series wheel rims)? Is this just a fl ow of culture from the centre to the periphery? Is the whole world becoming a stage for American culture? Does this suggest the gradual death of the rich heritage of Malaysian song and dance as American culture sweeps across the region, led by MTV, music channels, iPods, clothing fashions? Is this the ultimate triumph of global marketing, of the spread of American culture to take over the world, rendering traditional local cultural forms as nothing but a fetishist interest of cultural nationalists and anthropologists? And is the global spread of English the vanguard of the army of Western cultural imperialism, the Trojan Horse from which squadrons of cultural demons spread during the night? Or is it the other way
round: is this fascination with copying Western cultural forms the precursor that opens the fl oodgates of English?
