Rebel Without a Pause: Discovering the Relationship between Rap Music and the Political Attitudes and Participation of Black Youth.

In this dissertation I investigate if and how the consumption of rap music is associated with Black political engagement. I use the 1993 National Black Politics Survey to assess if consumers of early rap music – particularly Black youth – also had distinctive political attitudes and behaviors. I have three findings: (1) there are strong associations between consumption of rap music and certain political sentiments, (2) there are strong associations between rap consumption and particular forms of dissident participation, (3) individuals who listen to rap music and/or consider it a source of political information typically report political attitudes and behaviors that are in strong alignment with the political rap messages of the early 1990’s. Using the 2005 Black Youth Project survey data, I assess whether relationships between consumption of rap music and political outcomes were different in 2005 relative to 1993. I compare young Black respondents to White and Latino respondents with respect to political attitudes, participation, and rap music consumption. Although many White youth listen to rap music, the consumption of rap music does not have the same strong relationships to political participation and political attitudes when compared to Black youth listeners. I find that regularly listening to rap music is associated with greater support of political attitudes sympathetic to marginalized groups amongst Blacks. Like in 1993, listening to rap music was strongly associated with disapproving opinions regarding the police and government authorities. Compared to 1993, listening to rap music was not strongly associated with the female empowerment variables or any of the forms of political participation. However (unlike in 1993), listening to rap music was strongly associated with coalition building with other non-White racial groups. I conduct interviews with 3 Black leaders who have had considerable success in mobilizing Black youth. I inquired about these leaders’ opinions on rap music’s impact on Black youth political development. I discovered effective ways in which their organizations have utilized aspects of hip-hop culture to galvanize young Blacks. Between 1993 and 2005 there is still a strong parallel between the rhetoric of rap music and youth political attitudes and participation.PhDPublic Policy and Political ScienceUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/113312/1/raportia_1.pd