ABSTRACT
At fi rst glance, the English found in Tanzanian Hip Hop culture shares much in common with the variety of English conventionally known as African American English (AAE). Many linguistic elements associated with AAE occur in casual conversations and electronic communications, and they also appear frequently in Tanzanian Hip Hop music, teen magazines, and certain advertisements that target young consumers. AAE forms typically occur as language mixing and codeswitching with Swahili, but examples comprised entirely of English can also be found. Symbols of urban Hip Hop culture such as clothing (see Figure 5.1), musical styles, and references to African American Hip Hop icons in rap lyrics also point to a strong affi liation with African American Hip Hop culture. Th erefore, interesting questions regarding authenticity and identity are raised about their linguistic practices when Tanzanians use varieties of English that seemingly draw on AAE. Are these youth crossing (Rampton, 1995) from Tanzanian varieties of English into AAE, borrowing the linguistic and semiotic styles of another culture? Or, are they appropriating what may be better described as Global Hip Hop Nation Language to fi t their local East African context, their language use resulting in a simultaneously localized, yet global, form of expression, such as a raplish (Pennycook, 2003)?
