Hear what rapping sounds like in 14 different languages

From Arabic to Welsh

Headphones
(Image credit: (iStock))

As a pre-teen, before he became a South Korean hip-hop star, San E immigrated to the U.S. with his family. He tells Billboard that when he would play Korean hip-hop for his American friends, "They'd be like, 'They can rap in Korean?' I always wanted to let everybody know hip-hop is worldwide; it can be rap in all different languages you never heard."

He had a dream to one day show the world the linguistic diversity of hip-hop, and now with the help of 13 international rappers, he's created #HIPHOPISHIPHOP, a showcase of multilingual flow. It's also a charity single: All proceeds will be donated to children's education through UNICEF.

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Arika Okrent

Arika Okrent is editor-at-large at TheWeek.com and a frequent contributor to Mental Floss. She is the author of In the Land of Invented Languages, a history of the attempt to build a better language. She holds a doctorate in linguistics and a first-level certification in Klingon. Follow her on Twitter.