Williams, Quentin25/04/201725/04/20172016Williams, Q. (2016). Youth multilingualism in South Africa's hip-hop culture: a metapragmatic analysis. Sociolinguistic Studies, 10(1-2): 109-1331750-8649https://hdl.handle.net/10566/2759http://dx.doi.org/10.1558/sols.v10i1-2.27797This paper describes the practice of youth multilingualism in South Africa's hip-hop culture, in an online social media space and an advertising space. Based on a multi-sited ethnographic fieldwork study of youth multilingual practices, comprising of the following data sets - multilingual interviews, observations, multilingual interactions and performances, documents and online social networking interactions - the paper reports on how young multilingual speakers active in the hip-hop culture of the country talk and write about the intermixing of racial and ethnic speech forms, as well as use registers in the practice of gendered identities. The argument I put forth in the paper is that the examples of youth multilingualism suggest a complex picture of youth multilingual contact in postcolonial South Africa, and one that require a sociocultural linguistic response that accounts for the cultural influence of youth multilingualisms in local hip-hop culture. To such an end, I suggest that multilingual policy planning in the country should be readjusted to the complex sociocultural changes we see emerge with youth multilingual practices.enThis is the author version of the article found online at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1558/sols.v10i1-2.27797YouthMultilingualismMetapragmaticsHip-hopSouth AfricaArticle