“Now I See the Importance of History”: Tracing the Geneaology of Hip Hop, Young People and the Academy

This dissertation analyses the development of hip hop’s use in research and pedagogy in academic researching institutions. In particular, my research traces scholarly/ journal documentation of hip hop as an example of youth identity culture, taking seriously the ways that research has historicized and constructed the relationship between hip hop and Black youth over time.

I reviewed over 2000 documents using a Systematic Integrated Literature Review (SILR) whereby I manually coded academic peer-reviewed journals according to specific exclusionary criteria. Ultimately, 414 documents were collected, coded, and analysed according to various abundance and variety criteria such as keyword frequency, publishing year, journal, field of study, and methodology used. The trends and patterns that emerged formed the basis of my thematic analysis.

Through this comprehensive review, terms such as Culturally Relevant Pedagogy, Identity, Urban, Marginality, and Resistance emerged as leading concepts that often explain Black youth positionality in hip hop culture.

This dissertation asserts that the terms and methods used to articulate an image of Black youth identity can lead to particular outcomes for how such youth are imagined in academic spaces. There is confusion and complexity in the use of terminology regarding youth attitudes and behaviours, and this complexity often results in similar ideological narratives being produced time and time again.

My work joins with other scholarship that takes seriously the links between culture and power, and it highlights how academic and ideological legacies can be furthered and extended to reflect the young people at the centre of the research. The findings illustrate in part how institutional research can conceptualize, frame, reify, and position young people.