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“Deeper Than Rap”: Cultivating Racial Identity And Critical Voices Through Hip-Hop Recording Practices In The Music Classroom, Jabari M. Evans

Journal of Media Literacy Education

Using a pilot program in one Chicago elementary school as a case study, this article reports findings of an ethnographic investigation on the impact of Hip-hop based music education at the elementary school level. The findings describe how this program facilitated a process by which the youth participants were empowered through (a) identity building within a community of practice, (b) musical expression as internal critical dialogue and an external critical voice and, (c) a classroom ethos supportive of expression related to contemporary Black youth subjectivity. The findings of this study suggest that implementation of Rap music making as an in-school …