Sherba, Gabrielle2022-09-072022-09-072022-05https://udspace.udel.edu/handle/19716/31296This project seeks to (1) highlight the importance of hip-hop/rap music in the lives of low-income Black youth, (2) trace low-income Black youths’ internal processing of hip-hop/rap music and (3) demonstrate the communicative potential of hip-hop/rap in understanding the lived experiences of low-income Black youth. To gain insight on low-income Black youths’ interaction with hip-hop, a select group of low-income Black youth from the Riverside neighborhood in Wilmington, DE participated in an online survey and semi-structured follow-up call pertaining to their hip-hop/rap listening. The youths’ responses indicate that hip-hop is a vehicle for youth to (1) identify and process their lived experiences and (2) engage in healthy emotional regulation. In addition, lyrical hip-hop translations provided by youth, alongside contemporary sociolinguistic framings of hip-hop language, reveal phenomenological complexities in low-income Black youth’s lived experiences that are otherwise ineffable. Centrally, the study connects the role of hip-hop among low-income Black youth to its linguistic potential and offers hip-hop as a valuable tool for youth-centered researchers and educators.Hip-hopRapBlack youthWilmington, DEHip-hop nation languageYPARThesis