Rap Music and Hip-Hop Culture: The Influences on the Urban and African American Communities

Abstract

This paper discusses and examines rap music and hip-hop culture and how it isn’t only helpful for African-American adults, but it can be implemented in school systems to help minority students become more creative and help them master different skills that they can use in the classroom. I attempt to research the way in which rap music and hip-hop culture impact the African-American community, how a hip-hop based education can be implemented into a school curriculum and how rap music can help people in their individual counseling sessions. The purpose of this study is to address the positive influences that rap music has and that despite being a stigmatized genre, rap music touches on many important social issues and topics like police brutality, mental health awareness, and other real issues that are prevalent in our world currently. By analyzing rap lyrics, interviews, and documentaries, I hope to show how rap music can appropriately be used inside the classrooms and in therapy sessions to help males from the urban community as well as the inner-city youth. Since hip-hop addresses social inequalities as well as resistance and empowerment, it can be very useful in inspiring the African-American community to be better in their communities as well as reaching the youth and helping them to be better in the classroom.