Rapper 2Pac played with his accent to create a new identity
In the 1990s, Rapper 2Pac was the face of the West Coast hiphop scene. However, he originally comes from New York. Linguist Steven Gilbers is researching 2Pac’s changing accent. He is examining how 2Pac's accent reflects his new identity and how accent changes can be linked to biographical data. An accent turns out to be something that you can control, but never copy exactly.
More information
- Steven Gilbers
- Why Tupac sounds different (Dutch article on Kennislink, 2015)
University of Groningen videos
The weekly online video magazine Unifocus highlights topics related to the University of Groningen in the fields of research and society, student life, teaching, policy and internationalization.
You can find more videos in our video portal.

Last modified: | 01 August 2022 4.31 p.m. |
More news
-
13 May 2025
European security: opportunity and threat to democracy
How strong is our democracy? This will be determined by what is currently happening on the world stage, argues Pieter de Wilde, Professor of European Politics & Society at the University of Groningen.
-
08 May 2025
Prof. Petra Hendriks elected member Academia Europaea
Prof. Petra Hendriks, professor of Semantics and Cognition at the Faculty of Arts and director of the Center for Language and Cognition Groningen (CLCG), has been elected a member of the prestigious Academia Europaea.
-
01 May 2025
AI and freedom of speech
On Saturday 3 May, we will celebrate World Press Freedom Day—a day on which we are reminded of the importance of press freedom and our duty to respect and uphold freedom of expression.