Abstract: Subcultures are of significant interest to researchers in the humanities. The processes of digitalization and mediatization, when media network activity and media activities globally affect basic social institutions, suggest a systematic study of subcultures in the context of communication theory. It is noted that the formation and further stability, up to the rooting in the general culture, is characteristic of the youth subculture of hip-hop. The authors of the article set a strategic goal - to find out, on the basis of theoretical and methodological approach, due to what systemic (formal and content) characteristics hip-hop has spread among young people, what communicative characteristics of this subculture determined its flourishing in the period of digitalization. Among the tasks that were solved are the following: characterization of the hip-hop industry as a network media phenomenon is given, the dynamics of its changes at the level of subsystems is considered. The authors for the first time put forward and proved the hypothesis that hip-hop reflects all five stages of development of the system of mass communications. The analysis reveals the rhizome-like nature of the hip-hop subculture as the main reason for the systemic stability of this media phenomenon. The article comprehensively considers the totality of components of the hip-hop subculture as effective communicative practices: graffiti, breakdancing, DJing, rap (rap battles). The tendency of active entry of some subcultural processes and products into mass culture is noted. The peculiarities of hip-hop slang are outlined. The article brings the media-communication approach into the agenda of further scientific research of youth subcultures (primarily hip-hop) and actualizes it.