Transcultural Voices: Narrating Hip Hop Culture in Complex Delhi

by Jaspal Naveel Singh

This thesis is presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Language and Communication

Submitted to the Centre for Language and Communication Research, School of English, Communication and Philosophy at Cardiff University, Cardiff, Wales, United Kingdom.

30 September 2016

Singh Transcultural Voices

Statement 1 This work has not been submitted in substance for any other degree or award at this or any other university or place of learning, nor is being submitted concurrently in candidature for any degree or other award.

______Jaspal Naveel Singh Date

Statement 2 This thesis is the result of my own investigation, except where otherwise stated, and the thesis has not been edited by a third party beyond what is permitted by Cardiff University’s Policy on the Use of Third Party Editors by Research Degree Students. Other sources are acknowledged by explicit references. The views expressed are my own.

______Jaspal Naveel Singh Date

Statement 3 I hereby give consent for my thesis, if accepted, to be available for photocopying and for interlibrary loan, and for the title and summary to be made available to outside organisations.

______Jaspal Naveel Singh Date

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Für Eva

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Contents

List of figures ...... ix List of tables ...... x Transcription conventions ...... xi Acknowledgements ...... xii Glossary of terms ...... xiv Abstract ...... xvii

Chapter 1 – Introduction ...... 1 1.1 Normalising, voice, narrative ...... 1 1.2 The ethnographic complex ...... 4 1.3 Complexifying global hip hop linguistics ...... 6 A post-varieties approach to researching global hip hop ...... 6 Transculturation ...... 9 More than rap music ...... 12 1.4 Developing research questions ...... 14 Emic questions ...... 14 Etic questions ...... 18 1.5 Structure of the thesis ...... 21

Chapter 2 – The study of transcultural voices ...... 23 2.1 Introduction ...... 23 2.2 Voice as a heuristic ...... 23 The physical and the social voice ...... 23 The semiotic surface and the deep structure ...... 25 2.3 The dialogic indexicality of voice ...... 29 Indirect meaning-making ...... 29 Presuppositions and entailments ...... 29 2.4 The complexity of voice ...... 31 Mobility ...... 31 Hybridity ...... 33

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2.5 A model for analysing voice ...... 34 2.6 Voice styles ...... 36 Recognising difference ...... 36 The primacy of the social ...... 38 Introjecting the other ...... 38 2.7 Audible heteroglossia ...... 40 Constructed dialogues ...... 40 Dialogism ...... 42 2.8 Stance, positionality or point of view ...... 44 Clarifying the terminology ...... 44 Epistemic and affective stancetaking ...... 45 2.9 Narrative voices ...... 46 Turning towards narrative ...... 46 Evaluation and the ‘own’ voice ...... 47 Narrative structure ...... 47 Three levels of narrative positioning ...... 48 2.10 Inaudible heteroglossia...... 50 Beneath the semiotic surface ...... 50 Markers of enunciation ...... 51 2.11 Authorial voices ...... 54 Subjectivity? Identity? Authorship? ...... 54 Samplin and appropriation ...... 55 2.11 Conclusion ...... 57

Chapter 3 – A linguistic ethnography of hip hop in Delhi ...... 59 3.1 Introduction ...... 59 3.2 Turning towards ethnography ...... 59 3.3 Linguistic ethnography...... 61 Tying ethnography down and opening linguistics up ...... 63 Pluralising my locus of enunciation ...... 65 3.4 Fieldwork details ...... 67 3.4.1 Collecting data ...... 68 Participants: Local hip hop heads and hip hop travellers ...... 68 Recording field notes and interview talk ...... 70

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Interviews and conversations...... 72 Narratives in interviews ...... 74 Recording public performances ...... 76 Recording hip hop music ...... 77 3.4.2 Research ethics ...... 81 Informed consent...... 81 Anonymity ...... 81 Analytical ethics ...... 84 3.4.3 Researcher identities as role ambiguity ...... 86 The creation of my hip hop identity ...... 86 The half-Indian, non-Hindi-speaking researcher in the field ...... 89 The other researcher ...... 91 The exotic and the familiar: Diasporic researchers in an urban space ...... 92 3.5 Conclusion ...... 94

Chapter 4 – Othering voices: Normalising the self through prosody...... 96 4.1 Introduction ...... 96 4.2 Zine’s narrative: The ignorance of the people ...... 97 Contrastive voice registers: Normal and piano ...... 100 Register modulation: Silence, whispering and shouting ...... 107 Negotiating the evaluation of the story ...... 114 Discussion: Comparing the voices ...... 116 4.3 Bunty’s narrative: Restructuring the organisation ...... 117 Styling voice registers: ‘Indian’ and ‘American’ ...... 121 Summons-answer sequences ...... 126 4.4 Conclusion ...... 136

Chapter 5 – Synchronising voices: Travelling the Delhi to Bronx wormhole ...... 138 5.1 Introduction ...... 138 5.2 Historicity and discursive wormholes in globalisation research ...... 139 5.3 The Bronx as myth: Historical compressions and synchronisation ...... 141 5.4 The narrative systems of discours and histoire ...... 146 5.5 The prevalence of the Delhi-Bronx comparison ...... 148 5.6 Aeke’s narrative: The etymology of D2BX crew ...... 153

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5.7 Eucalips’s narrative: Indian beatbox tradition ...... 158 5.8 Seti X’s narrative: Alternative motherlands ...... 164 5.9 Discussion and conclusion: Transformative positionalities ...... 170

Chapter 6 – Overstandin voices: Affective rationalising and embodiment of hip hop . 172 6.1 Introduction ...... 172 6.2 Scientik’s narrative: A methodology for hip hop ...... 174 Different bodies, different expressions ...... 174 Studying and practicing ...... 176 Hip hop connects everything ...... 178 The creation miracle ...... 182 6.3 Embodiment of myth ...... 184 6.3.1 Breakin in Delhi ...... 187 6.3.2 Turn-taking organisation and the importance of the freeze...... 192 6.3.3 The recontextualisation of the b-boy stance ...... 196 6.4 Problematising empirical linguistic data in linguistic ethnography ...... 199 6.5 Conclusion ...... 200

Chapter 7 – Discussion and conclusion ...... 203 7.1 Myth as a summary of the main argument of this thesis ...... 203 7.2 Discussions of the etic research questions ...... 205 Findings for RQ1: What voices, other than the narrators’, speak in the narratives? ...... 205 Findings for RQ2: Do narrators construct a voice for themselves? ...... 207 Findings for RQ3: To what extent can the study of voice inform our understanding of identities and globalisation? ...... 212 7.3 Concluding remarks ...... 214

References ...... 216 Appendix I: Consent form ...... 247 Appendix II: Additional narrative fragments ...... 249 Rane’s narrative: The embodiment of hip hop in India ...... 249 Daku’s narrative: Jugaad style ...... 251 Zebster’s narrative: The social impact of hip hop in India ...... 252

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MC Kaur’s narrative: The best way to use YouTube ...... 253 Prabh Deep’s narrative: There is no separation between the languages ...... 255 Appendix III: List of all recordings ...... 258 Breakdown of interviews/conversations ...... 258 Breakdown of recordings of public performances ...... 259 Appendix IV: Maps ...... 260 Map of Delhi ...... 260 Map of India ...... 261

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List of figures

Figure 1.1: Prabh Deep, ‘Breaking’ and ‘Grafitti’, photo by the author, Delhi, 2013

Figure 2.1: A two-dimensional visualisation of the polyphonic voice of the author

Figure 3.1: The fieldworkers’ recording equipment, a field diary, a pen and a digital recorder, photo by the author, Cardiff, 2013

Figure 3.2: The makeshift home studio for recording music, photo by the author, Delhi, 2013

Figure 3.3: MC Kaur playing the Akai MPC2000XL sampler, photo by the author, Mumbai, 2013

Figure 3.4: Jaspal setting up his recording equipment in MC Freezak’s home, screenshot, video by MC Akshay Kumar, Delhi, 2013

Figure 3.5: MC Akshay Kumar recording raps, MC Freezak doing second vocals, screenshot, video by the author, Delhi, 2013

Figure 4.1: Intensity contour and spectrograph of Dialogue 4.6

Figure 4.2: Voicing through intensity in Zine’s narrative

Figure 4.3: Intonation contour for line 5, Extract 4.2

Figure 5.1: Mythological extension. Adapted from Barthes (1957: 200)

Figure 6.1: Breakers practicing on the 14th-century Satpula dam, photo by the author, Delhi 2013

Figure 6.2: Toprock, Chakreis Jam, screenshot, video by the author, Delhi 2013,

Figure 6.3: Downrock, Chakreis Jam, screenshot, video by the author, Delhi 2013

Figure 6.4: Powermove, Chakreis Jam, screenshot, video by the author, Delhi 2013

Figure 6.5: Freeze, Chakreis Jam, screenshot, video by the author, Delhi 2013

Figure 6.6: Prabh Deep and Sun-J posing in the b-boy stance for a music video shoot with Dattatreyan, photo by the author, Delhi, 2013

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List of tables

Table 3.1: Indexing roles in the ethnographic encounter

Table 5.1: Temporal-polyphonic splitting of Excerpt 5.8

Table 5.2: Temporal-polyphonic splitting of Excerpt 5.9

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Transcription conventions Adapted from GAT2 (Selting et al. 2011)

Sequential and segmental structure . utterance boundary/tone unit boundary “…” constructed dialogue CAPITALS prominent syllable : vowel lengthening - unfinished syllable/utterance <