Abstract

Following his 2016 debut in the underground Hip Hop scene with the release of “H.B.O.,” Haitian-American rapper Mach-Hommy has established his niche in the Hip Hop (HH) Nation. Part of what sets Mach-Hommy apart from his contemporaries is his multilingual style: switching between AAE, Haitian and Jamaican Creoles, Spanish, and French, Mach’s raps are characterized by multilingual code-switching practices. While the use of multiple languages in HH is not new (Mitchell, 2001; Pennycook, 2006, 2007), Mach-Hommy’s music provides a rich locus within which to examine the following questions: to what extent to do the code-switching practices in HH align with understandings of conversational code-switching data and how might we see HH’s artistic code-switches as theoretically similar to conversational code-switching?; and, how is identity, especially a multilingual one, indexed by the use of these codes? By transcribing, translating, and coding 59 songs from Mach-Hommy’s ‘Haitian Pentalogy’ album cycle, I discuss how Mach-Hommy establishes a theoretical through-line between HH’s artistic code-switches and conversational switches. As well, I argue that Mach-Hommy uses codeswitches to not only localize himself as Haitian and (African) American, but also to respond to a global ‘transidiomatic imperative’ to be competent in multiple communicative codes. As a consequence of meeting this imperative, Mach-Hommy challenges sociolinguistics’ assumptions about authenticity as a salient dimension of discourse – that is, his use of codes associated with communities to whom he makes no claim of belonging suggests a disinterest in satisfying authenticating norms of language performance.

External Links

View my undergraduate honors thesis, which received university honors (summa cum laude)

References & Helpful Materials

Blommaert, J., & Varis, P. (2013). Enough is enough: The heuristics of authenticity in superdiversity. In J. Duarte & I. Gogolin (Eds.), Hamburg Studies on Linguistic Diversity (Vol. 2, pp. 143–160). John Benjamins Publishing Company. https://doi.org/10.1075/hsld.2.10blo

Deleuze, G., & Guattari, F. (2007). A thousand plateaus: Capitalism and schizophrenia (B. Massumi, Trans.; 12. print). University of Minnesota Press

Jacquemet, M. (2005). Transidiomatic practices: Language and power in the age of globalization. Language & Communication, 25(3), 257–277. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.langcom.2005.05.001

Mitchell, T. (Ed.). (2001). Global noise: Rap and hip-hop outside the USA. Wesleyan Univ. Press.

Pennycook, A. (2006). Global Englishes and Transcultural Flows (0 ed.). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203088807

Pennycook, A. (2007). Language, Localization, and the Real: Hip-Hop and the Global Spread of Authenticity. Journal of Language, Identity & Education, 6(2), 101–115. https://doi.org/10.1080/15348450701341246

For more on Mach-Hommy:

Gee, A. (2022, October 13). Don’t Call Mach-Hommy ‘Reclusive.’ Rolling Stone. https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/mach-hommy-interview-new-albu m-1234609069/

Kovar, S. (2019, March 15). Mach-Hommy on his approach to collaborations, staying true to artistic principles & upcoming album with DJ Muggs. Retrieved from https://www.billboard.com/music/rb-hip-hop/mach-hommy-interview-dj-muggs-84924 27/