Street language is transmitted to the hip hop culture through rap music. One can hear a Chinese or Filipino hip hopper using the same slang as the African American hip hopper. Irrespective of their ethnicity hip hoppers use adjectives such as dope, da bomb, legit, hittin, all that, to describe something that is excellent. The word "nigga" is one of the must popular words of hip hoppers. Contrary to the traditional derogatory meaning of the word, hip hoppers use the word as a term of endearment. One can hear a white, Asian, or Latino hip hopper saying, "TJ is my nigga," which means "TJ is my good friend." The vernacular of this culture changes constantly. What might be a cool statement today, might be "played out" (outdated) in a year.
Street language has become a pidgin language of sorts. Even if hip hoppers have different first languages, they still can understand the slang of hip hop. Hence, this culture is bounded linguistically. I can personally recall my trip to Japan in 1995 in which my friend saw a Japanese teenager with a Snoop Dog cap on--the teenager could barely speak English but he was fluent in street slang!!
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sent from blackberry -->
http://piknikproject.blogspot.com/
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