Exploring Hip Hop Music through the Participatory Research Approach

Abstract

This paper discusses the use of hip hop as an important method for research in social and human sciences which aims to conscientise and transform the lives of female late adolescents. The paper was informed by research that utilised participatory research approaches, namely drawings and lyric inquiry, as a means to elicit stories of female late adolescents who identified strongly with hip hop music in South Africa. Hip hop music constituted an integral component of the research process, as it was used to stimulate the generation of data. The findings illustrate that the use of hip hop music in a research process facilitated empowerment and liberation of the participants. It was found that hip hop music has inherent attributes that provided the participants with spaces within which they could reflect on and articulate the continual, interactional and situational dimensions of their lives