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Abstract
The underground musical form rap and the Hip Hop culture that developed around it surfaced on the inner city streets of New York in the 1970s. Hip Hop fashion, also referred to as urban clothing or street wear, is the visual manifestation of hip hop culture. The purpose of this study was to examine the influence of hip hop culture on the fashion choices of Black women in the Atlanta metropolitan area. Four focus group interview sessions were conducted with 27 middle-class African-American women ages 26-46. As members of the hip hop generation (those born between 1965-1984) they were expected to share a similar worldview. A thematic content analysis of data collected from each focus group session revealed several themes, such as considerable family influence and pronounced emphasis on personal adornment, that illustrate factors that influence the sartorial choices of middle class Black women in the Atlanta metropolitan area.