The World Is Phat: Reggaeton, grime, baile funk, and the globalization of hip-hop
“Hip-hop has always been obsessed with geography. Coming from the streets may give a rapper credibility, but coming from particular streets – or, for that matter, a particular hood, side, city, region, or coast – gives him an identity and situates him within the larger hip-hop culture. But this obsession with the local has produced a kind of isolationism: While the world devours American hip-hop, America ignores the hip-hop of the rest of the world. The recent influx of three international styles – reggaeton from Puerto Rico, grime from Britain, and baile funk from Brazil – suggests that this situation may finally be changing. Taken together, they dispel the notion that globalization breeds homogeneity. Each is the product of a country importing American hip-hop, blending it with native traditions, and refashioning it in its own image…”
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