This article focuses on the emergence of what the author refers to as "global ill-literacies," that is, the hybrid, transcultural linguistic and literacy practices of Hip Hop youth in local and global contexts, as well as the pedagogical possibilities that scholars open up as they engage these forms. By reviewing a broad but focused range of literature in education, literacy studies, Hip Hop studies, sociolinguistics, and linguistic anthropology, the author focuses his attention on research that examines the ways that engagement with Hip Hop cultural practices mediates a variety of social, cultural, linguistic, and educational processes that impact youth. In doing so, the author works toward the development of a theoretical framework of ill-literacies by integrating, critiquing, and advancing the insights of this new body of work, which he refers to throughout as ill-literacy studies. (Contains 1 table and 2 notes.)