Where do rappers come from?: Hip-Hop as a remixing of the African-American oral tradition and how it engaged three African-American students

In this study I examine the question, where do rappers come from? It is an investigation of three professional rappers' reflections of how they came to be rappers and what role their high school English Language Arts (ELA) classes played in that journey. The express purpose of this qualitative study is to examine the experiences of these rappers and to determine the roles these experiences played in developing the skillsets that permitted these artists to become professional rappers. The analysis of these students experiences can help teachers better understand, engage and connect with their students.