The study is one of few to examine how living in rural, suburban, or urban settings may alter factors supporting African Americans adolescents' math performance. The study examines the relationship of math self-concept and perceptions of friends' academic behaviors to African American students' math performance. Participants (N = 1,049) are African American adolescents from rural, suburban, and urban schools. Findings suggest that having higher academic perceptions of friends related to greater math self-concept, which then related positively to math performance for students in all settings. However, urban students had less gender stratification in both academic perceptions of friends and math self-concept. Findings highlight how academically supportive factors are present for African American adolescents in various levels of urbanization. (Contains 6 tables and 1 figure.)