The students indicated that although their lives are permeated by violence, they have developed skills for coping with it; and they have more progressive values than are represented in the rap discourse to which they are exposed. They listen to and dance to the music primarily for the beat, not the lyrics; and they are not concerned about adopting the values and behaviors so explicit in some of the music. This perspective challenges the simple connections that the dominant public discourse and media have drawn between rap music and its conditioning effects on the attitudes and behaviors of Black youth. These same connections have not been made for White youth, who purchase 70 percent of rap music. The study's data collection involved two classes in the school, the combined language arts/social studies class and the academic literacy class. In the first class, data collection focused on a curriculum unit on the book, "Our America: Life and Death on the South Side of Chicago" (Jones and Newman, 1997), which was written by two teenagers. This book and the learning activities and projects developed around it produced a variety of data and products from the students on their understanding and experiences with violence. Data collection in the second class centered on a unit developed around rap and hip-hop. 23 references