Using Hip Hop as a tool to Navigate and Heal While Under Attack

Abstract

Hip-hop culture is historically and continues to be a vehicle for creating a platform of expression for marginalized, oppressed, and vulnerable groups. Rooted in Blackness, hip-hop has long utilized storytelling to explore social, economic, and environmental justice content and highlight the interconnectedness of privilege and oppression. Through the lens of Hip-Hop music, art, spoken word, poetry, and more, the culture has explored the social and political history of the United States including the challenges of both individual and systematic discrimination. This framework provides the structure to develop an understanding of the various discourses of social justice and examine what anti-oppressive practice may look like in any setting. Furthermore, a Hip-hop framework allows for the use of self-reflection, oral and written communication, and creative expression to demonstrate a better understanding of how storytelling in hip-hop culture exposes social isolation, economic disadvantage, structural inequality, and lack of access to power.