Hip-Hop from Within: Urban Cultures in Transformation

Abstract

The paper examines the localization of hip-hop culture in the province of Foggia, with a specific focus on the town of Apricena, through an ethnographic study inspired by the methods of visual anthropology. Originating in the Bronx as a form of cultural resistance, hip-hop is reinterpreted by young people in Apulia as a tool of identity expression and social agency. The investigation draws on participant observation, semistructured interviews, and photography, culminating in the production of a fanzine that visually reflects the fieldwork. The analysis explores artistic practices—rap, dance, graffiti, fashion—with particular attention to the use of dialect as a means of symbolic reappropriation and territorial rootedness. Hip-hop culture emerges as a glocal phenomenon, capable of articulating both innovation and tradition, aesthetic participation and the collective construction of meaning.