Based on field research among participants and employees at a series of rap projects, this article examines the use of rap music in social integration work among ethnic mi- nority youth from the perspective of anthropology of music. By highlighting the spe- cific discursive formations around the expediency of the production of rap music as a non-formal educational resource, the article focuses on the personal, political and social aspects of freedom of speech and the ways in which these are negotiated by re- pressive tolerance within the projects. On this background, it is discussed how the so- cio-economic aims of the rap-as-resource industry affect the participants’ expressions, and it is questioned whether the musical and personal agencies that are ideally offered by the projects are consistent with the actual freedom of action and expression that becomes available to the participants.