UCLA

Los Angeles has long been a hip-hop mecca, with artists using their music to put their local neighborhoods and cities “on the map.” This study examines how Los Angeles hip-hop artists engage in what I refer to as lyrical cartography, a creative practice in which they construct alternative geographies that confront ongoing gentrification and displacement. Through a photoethnographic analysis of Dom Kennedy’s lyrics and hiphopographic explorations of the city (Spady, 1991), this thesis recontextualizes these cartographic practices by highlighting the shifting landscape of Los Angeles. Tracing Kennedy’s lyrical references to specific locations, the study reveals how hip-hop preserves both memory and change. By visiting these sites, I document their current status, highlighting the effects of urban transformation. Ultimately, this work showcases hip-hop’s role in the preservation of cultural heritage and how the music serves as a continuous form of resistance against dominant narratives of race, class, and urban space, as well as the colonial politics of erasure.