Standard language in urban rap – Social media, linguistic practice and ethnographic context

•Vernacular and hybrid language use is described as characteristic of hip hop.•In the case studied young rappers use monolingual, standard language in rap videos.•This language use relates to ideologies linking linguistic standard to intelligence.•It also relates to audience considerations and ambitions of artistic success.•These findings suggest there is a case to make for ethnography in CMC research.

This article focuses on a case that compared to previous studies of hip hop language, is surprising; a group of adolescents in Copenhagen increasingly use more monolingual, standard linguistic practices in their hip hop productions on YouTube. We argue that to fully understand this development, it is necessary to take into account the local, socio-cultural meanings given to particular linguistic resources, and that this cannot be fully captured without attention to the ethnographic and sociolinguistic context. We find that the hip hop language and literacy practices in this context are related to both traditional educational norms and artistic aspirations.