The authors employ hip-hop music as a literacy heuristic aimed at supporting the literacy development of kindergarten and first-grade students. How do young students learn to write hip-hop lyrics? How do young students engage in hip-hop reading and writing processes? The classroom examples show that students engaged in individual and interactive writing practices and a variety of practices associated with music disciplinary literacy. Hip-hop reading and lyric composition constituted culturally relevant literacy, which connected the students to the literacy practices found in their community and families.