In this article I use metaphoric criticism as a framework for a content analysis of underground hip hop lyrics. Findings suggest that form equals argument: that meaning and identity reside in no one place, but reappear often on the surface of quotidian experience.

As a child I never imagined that the scenes I saw growing up in Queens, New York, of block parties and ciphers in the parks, would redefine the world. Yet that’s exactly what’s happened. Hip hop has become a powerful part of today’s global entertainment culture, the part that introduced today’s USA to the world. Hip hop is so powerful, in fact, that it does everything from making social commentary to dishing insults, from creating new words to selling cell phones, beer, and burgers. It tells us what’s cool and at the same time, what’s hot.

Teaching is an adventure steeped with prospects for personal and professional development. My experiences have ranged all the way from sharing basic financial concepts with clients of a Fortune 500 firm, to ESL and literacy training for inner city adults, to tutoring junior high school students in after school programs, to instructing community college classes in educational success strategies and, most recently, to developing, marketing and teaching innovative undergraduate courses.