Hip-Hop

[Page 341]Hip-hop and education have a complex relationship. As H. Samy Alim wrote two decades ago in relation to hip-hop culture’s “firm grasp” on urban students, it is unreasonable for American educational institutions to demand dominant varieties of language and literacy practices from their students “while most teachers ignore and remain wholly, even happily, ignorant of their students’ capabilities” (Alim, 1997, p. 73). Although largely ignored by educational institutions, many scholars are now referring to hip-hop as the most remarkable artistic, social, literary, and linguistic youth movement of the late 20th and early 21st centuries. This entry provides a brief definition of hip-hop and related terms, followed by an introduction to the field of hip-hop and education and discussion of out-of-school learning through hip-hop.

Although the ...