Abstract This article proposes the value hip-hop based education can add to the first-year composition classroom. It provides a framework for using hip-hop based education to scaffold traditional writing assignments, including rhetorical analysis assignments and argumentative essays using concepts like zines, cyphers, and song analysis. Drawing from culturally relevant pedagogy, linguistic justice, and Black feminist pedagogy, this article offers the genre of hip-hop to define and solidify its usefulness in composition studies and its relevance to the Black community, asserting that centering pedagogy relevant to Black students is beneficial for all students. Based on culturally relevant pedagogy's tenets, this article highlights ways culturally relevant materials can be implemented to recognize and value students’ diverse cultures and lived experiences to increase student engagement, agency, and academic success. The concepts presented here promote antiracism and multimodal learning in the classroom contributing to pedagogical research and praxis looking to disrupt hegemonic teaching and learning.

Drawing from interviews conducted as part of a study of older African Americans with multimorbidity, we argue how various forms of racism work together to shape communication between doctors and patients. By focusing on what patients say about pain, we highlight patient descriptions of their relationships with pain management, their interactions with healthcare providers, and how they navigate understanding their chronic conditions. Our documentation of patient experience with stigmas and biases suggests what is needed for more empathetic and effective communication within the doctor and patient relationship. We conclude by using the interview data to propose addressing racial inequality in health care in the United States through educational reform and training initiatives grounded in rhetorical research.