This paper discusses the potential of youth popular culture to create an engaging and empowering 21st-century curriculum in schools. Specifically, it investigates three key questions around the issue of developing a culturally relevant curriculum for students traditionally disenfranchised by U.S. schools: (1) What popular cultural literacies are urban youth investing themselves in?; (2) Why are they investing themselves in these areas?; and (3) How can schools more effectively incorporate those literacies into the school culture? It begins with the proposition that teachers should make better use of their access to youth cultural interests. Next, it draws on education theory and interviews with students from an urban high school to examine the relevance of youth popular culture to curricular design. It concludes with a call for educators to build on the momentum of the 1980s multicultural education movement by developing pedagogical strategies and curricula that draw on youth cultural literacies. Ultimately, it aims to synthesize data and theory as a means of discussing promising ways to teach urban students. (Contains 5 notes.)