An analysis of code-switching in the lyrics of selected Malaysian hip-hop songs

As one of the biggest music genres in the world, the widespread popularity of hip-hop has prompted many hip-hop artists from around the world to apply code-switching in their songs (Smet, 2019). Despite the popularity of hip-hop songs in Malaysia, the research on code-switching in the lyrics of Malaysian hip-hop songs, specifically on Malay-English code-switching is still underexplored. Hence, this study aimed to analyse the types of code-switching, and the functions of code-switching used in Malaysian hip-hop songs. To ensure that the objectives of the research were met, three Malaysian hip-hop songs were selected and analyzed based on the theoretical frameworks by Poplack’s (1980) types of code-switching and Appel’s and Muysken’s (2006) six (6) functions of code-switching: referential, directive, expressive, phatic, metalinguistics and poetic. The findings revealed all three (3) types of code-switching, namely Intersentential, Intrasententia, and Tag-Switching were used in the selected songs, with Intrasentential recorded the most occurrence of all three. Meanwhile, only four (4) functions of code-switching were found throughout all three songs, with Poetic being the most popular function of all four. Therefore, it is demonstrated that codeswitching in Malaysian hip-hop songs is prevalent and more than just a random switch, as each of them conveys its own function. The present study only focuses on selected Hip-Hop songs with Malay- English code-switching, therefore bigger scope and other languages are recommended for future studies.