The Rap Research Lab is a creative technology studio that explores rap as a cultural indicator through educational, editorial, and creative interrogations. We are a team of researchers, radical educators, technologists, and artists who use rap as a lens through which we can better understand popular and youth culture, explore questions of social justice, and facilitate empowerment through community data projects. We explore rap music as a text that raises questions of identity, race, gender, class, place, and locality in our modern era. We design projects and ask questions, both collaboratively and individually, that challenge notions of ownership and agency in cultural spheres. We lead workshops for youth and adult educators to learn and teach media research skills, sociocultural inquiry, and data visualization through The Hip Hop Word Count.