Hip-Hop As Community Psychology? : A Participatory Research Project with Adolescent Co-Researchers

This research explores the ways young people engage with UK Hip-hop and Grime (UKHHG) culture for their wellbeing and what UKHHG culture might teach clinical psychology about supporting young people’s wellbeing.

The research is also broadly concerned with the potential connections between the ideas and aims of liberation and community psychology, and the culture and ideas of UKHHG and young people’s engagement with it. Through a qualitative exploration of UKHHG culture the research question that is investigated is:
What are the relationships between socio-political issues and the wellbeing of young people in inner London, through examining UKHHG culture and community?
The research used a participatory action research methodology. The primary researcher worked with a co-researchers team consisting of two adolescent co-researchers, one young adult co-researcher, two participation youth workers, and two professional Hip-hop artists. The team met together, planning and conducting the research for over four months. The data for this research was collected from three discussion forums with an additional nine young people, eleven young adult and adult artists, and three youth support workers. Using thematic analysis two main themes were identified: UKHHG as a Source of Transformation, and ‘The System’ and ‘The Struggle’. Participants give accounts of UKHHG’s potential as a vehicle for individual and collective transformation and the role that UKHHG can have in supporting and promoting their resilience, as well as the ways it helps them to resist and survive the challenging socio-political contexts they face as members of marginalised communities. Recommendations for clinical psychology include: the need to build on young people’s knowledges, and learn from the resilience, skills and resistance that marginalised communities are already utilizing; using these knowledges and skills to transform the ways that services and community interventions are developed and implemented; approaching work with young people with authenticity through being one’s self, having a critical consciousness, resonating with others, and transparency of intentions.