Faith Complex: Michael Eric Dyson on hip-hop theology

The Conducive Nature Of Hip Hop Culture For Missional Praxis

One of the most unique, creative, and influential cultures in not only North America but throughout the world is hip hop culture. Hip hop’s appeal can be seen locally and globally as its style, music, and attitude continue to spread fast through various mediums. In the midst of this culturally explosive movement, we also note that the North American Church is struggling, as its popularity and draw fades with each passing year. However, rebirth is found as thousands of Christians are taping into the fountains of biblical wisdom that are redirecting them back to God’s Mission. A movement known as the missional church, is pleading with the body of Christ to be the Church, and to bring the gospel of Christ in a relevant and contextualized fashion to all peoples. Read more here

Hip Hop and the Nation of Islam

In April 1997, Minister Louis Farrakhan (who arrogated leadership of the reconstituted Nation of Islam in 1978) along with key figures in the Hip Hop Industry summoned rap artists from around the country to attend what eventually became the first official Hip Hop Peace Summit. The driving force behind the summit was to encourage and to educate East and West Coast rappers but mainly to put an end to the East/West rivalry that was threatening to implode the Hip Hop industry.

Read more at Suite101: Hip Hop and the Nation of Islam: The Blueprint of the Million Man March http://alternative-religions.suite101.com/article.cfm/hip-hop-and-the-nation-of-islam#ixzz0oEXouyC9

RZA’s The Tao of Wu: Hip Hop Religion, Spiritual Sampling, and Race in a "Post-Racial" Age

You’d think that seven years after the release of Kanye West’s “Jesus Walks” that there would be little need to explain the link between hip hop music and religion. Yet in a recent NPR interview, I was asked once again what the often profane posture of hip hop has to do with the sacred aspirations of spirituality. So perhaps it is still necessary to pause at the outset and offer a few examples as a reminder to readers of rap music’s long tradition of religious ruminations. Read the rest here

Spiritual Strain of Hiphop Part 2 - Christianity
Although I recently wrote about hip-hop's spirituality and "religion" the Universal Zulu Nation, that doesn't mean people from other religions don't use hip-hop as an expressive tool. Other religions use hip-hop music, dance and graffiti within the contexts of worshiping their god or higher being. Christianity is one of the religions that use hip-hop as that form of tool. Also known as "Holy Hip Hop," hip-hop art in Christian culture has been known as the new and hip way to rally a younger audience into the church. People from the Christian faith that believe hip-hop, although it is "created by man," is used for God's purpose to reach out to the youth. Those who accept Holy Hip-Hop hold similar beliefs as the Universal Zulu Nation, but believe it is the principles of Christianity that need to be pushed in the lyrics and that the Christ figure should be added into songs. Even some famous hip-hop artists are now apart of the Holy Hip-Hop community, including Christopher "Play" Martin (from the hip-hop rap group Kid N' Play) and Kurtis Blow. read the rest of the post here

Spirituality and Hip Hop

Spiritual Strains of Hiphop
Within the culture of hip-hop lies another element often ignored by mainstream society -- religion. There has always been the question of where the people of hip-hop get their energy from, and the answer is often umbrellaed as an energy that is used to fight freedom. However there is a deeper layer in the hip-hop community than the mere desire to be equal, and most people attribute it to a form of religion within hip-hop culture formed by hip-hop pioneer Afrika Bambaataa. Read the rest of this post here

My Hip Hop Role Model

A few years ago the young and tumultuous life of Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson was depicted in a motion picture titled after his 2002 debut album, Get Rich or Die Trying. The film was accompanied by a soundtrack and a book length autobiography, From Pieces to Weight. His music, film, and autobiography tell a rags to riches story of a poor black kid from Jamaica Queens, New York who hustles his way out of chronic poverty, rising from a nihilistic drug dealer to a hip hop superstar and businessman. His story of struggle and hustle is the mythological stuff that consumers of hip hop love and what is typically called the American Dream. Hip hop artists thrive off of this mythology and without it hip hop would not be hip hop. In fact, no hip hop artist is credible and authentic apart from this myth.
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