My research objective is to investigate the relationship between nihilism among young black men of the inner-city and their creative impulse towards the creation of hip hop music. I will use ethnographic methods to interrogate the origins of passive nihilistic values among black male rappers in the city of Detroit, specifically focusing on the structural and environmental factors that give rise to a pathological rejection of the intrinsic value of human life. I will seek to address the effects of nihilism in the social spheres of the black inner-city, taking on the concept of music as a vessel whereby these values consolidate and get passed on.