How can we move forward without knowing our past? More importantly, how can we know where we’re going, if we have not studied our past direction? These are some basic, yet significant questions that we must begin to answer for any of our lives. Moreover, these are questions that can be applied to a cutlrual movement such as Hip Hop.

As someone who has studied Hip Hop extensively, I am astonished by the connections between the last several decades of music, U.S. leaders, and the current explosion and power of Hip Hop music and culture. Hip Hop has almost taken over our airwaves. When you can use rap music to sell a Carl’s Jr. hamburger, you know you’ve got something. What follows here is a basic understanding of Hip Hop matters; how society, religion, and pop culture all mesh together to form this urban ethos we see in our media and within television shows.

If we are to seriously connect with this culture with a Christian lens, then a very basic understanding of the history is important here.

Aside from Hip Hop and blues, few other genres of popular music have had the influence and multiethnic appeal of jazz music. Jon M. Spencer noted expert on Black and slave music, notes that jazz music had its roots in both slave protests and slave praises from southern plantations. According to Spencer, many of the experiences and values of slaves are evident in the structure and themes of jazz music:[i]

· The Cries of the Slave to God and to man.

· The Slave Comforted with the consolation of religion and with the hope of deliverance.

· The Slave Exhorted to Patience and Hope

· The Rights of the Slave

· Appeals in Behalf of the Slave to their masters, to rulers, to freedom, to women, and to Christians.

· Slaveholders Admonished

· The Friends of the Slave Encouraged to Act and to Pray

· Emancipation at hand and Accomplished

· Thanksgiving and Praise

· Dismissions: Getting the people ready for the song to end.

· Doxologies

Spencer argues that this type of music structure found its way into jazz music, and that jazz music has a theological progression.[ii] As a piece of theological reflection, jazz music began to ask the question “why?” In fact, many rap producers will sample jazz music, not as a “rip-off” but as a tribute to a music genre that laid the foundations of Hip Hop culture.

From Jazz to Black Popular Culture

Throughout the 1930’s, the rise of “Black music” emerged as many Whites began to listen to jazz, blues, and during the late 1950’s, rhythm and blues.[iii] Black pop culture greats like Louie Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday, and gospel great Mahalia Jackson, all gave voice and “steam” to a cultural phenomena termed Black popular culture.

Stuart Hall attempts to define Black popular culture:

By definition, black popular culture is a contradictory space. It is a sight of strategic contestation. But it can never be simplified or explained in terms of the simple binary oppositions that are still habitually used to map it out: high and low; resistance versus incorporation; authentic versus inauthentic; experiential versus formal; opposition versus homogenization. There are always positions to be won in popular culture, but no struggle can capture popular culture itself for our side or theirs. [iv]

Black popular culture, which gained even more momentum in the late 1970’s and early 1980’s, began to “turn-out” American popular culture. Though it was very difficult in the beginning for many Black artists to gain fame and notoriety, Blacks persisted, and paved the way for the explosion of urban culture in the 1990’s.[v]

Ray Charles did more for Black culture than most others in his generation. Ray combined and fused the musical structure of gospel, jazz, and ragtime blues into a unique musical score that grabbed the soul and would not let go. Charles was one of the first Blacks to enter the homes of Whites, without Whites feeling uncomfortable and awkward.

I think I should also mention that Hip Hop would not be where it is today, without the strong support of the Latin community. A lot of Black popular culture is also Latin popular culture. Moreover, Latin’s helped shape and form Hip Hop today into what it is. Many people only see the Black faces of Hip Hop, but any real historian of Hip Hop knows that Latin’s were there and still are, in force, within Hip Hop culture.

The Civil Rights Movement marked the beginning of a louder voice for the underprivileged, the marginalized, and the voiceless. During this era, Martin Luther King, Jr. became the primary spokesperson for all Black people. As he faced injustices and racial discrimination, King was dedicated to the idea of non-violence and peacemaking.

King entered leadership at a time when people in the urban community needed a voice in the public sphere. King gave them that voice along with hope, anticipation, and optimism. He represented a voice for not only the Black community, but for the urban community as a whole: Black, Latino, and White.

King embraced a Jesus who was, as James Cone describes, Black, powerful, and for the family.[vi] King began to live out the suffering Christ in his own daily life. For the urban community, King’s life and leadership were authentic and transparent.

Many don’t realize that King openly discussed both the negative and positive aspects of consumerism. This was not the cultural norm for his context. After World War II, capitalism was considered to be the “best” way of life for the world. King did not see it that way; while he did not support communism, he saw the weaknesses of capitalism, especially at the expense of urban and Black community.

The music during the Civil Rights Movement and the leadership of King reflected the social order of the 1960’s protest. Musical artists such as Janis Joplin, The Beatles, and James Brown began to shake the very foundations of American religion, beliefs, and fundamental worldviews. Other social groups such as the Black Panther Party took matters into their own hands and began to fight violence with violence.

The Civil Rights Movement gave voice, platform, and meaning to many Hip Hoppers. Moreover, it gave the Hip Hop community today the freedom to do what they do. In other words, if it were not for the Civil Rights Movement and all of the people involved—both male and female, White and Black—Hip Hop culture today would not be what it is today, nor would people of color have the freedoms to stand up and speak on social injustices. The Civil Rights movement is the single more important event in Hip Hop history and has helped shape many of our cultural events in the U.S. today such as Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday, voting rights for Blacks and women, and the ending of legal segregation.

Yet the Civil Rights Movement, with its use of technology, the media, and the press, opened up a valley of opportunities for both the masses and individual leaders beyond Martin Luther King, Jr. Men and women alike began to realize that they had a voice in the public sphere, and no one was going to take that voice away from them.

Malcolm X represented the anger and pessimism of the day. In him, love combined with rage, the profane mixed with the sacred, and activism merged with militantism. Malcolm was able to articulate and execute the vision of independence, justice, and equal rights for Black America.[vii]

Malcolm’s role within Black America was to establish an urgent and even stronger voice. According to Cornel West, “Malcolm X articulated black rage in a manner unprecedented in American History. His style of communicating this rage bespoke a boiling urgency and an audacious sincerity.”[viii]

Malcolm’s vision was that Black Americans would begin to think critically about what was happening around them socially. Malcolm also wanted to bring some type of unity, or communal aspect, to the ghetto, which encompassed many Black views.[ix]

Michael E. Dyson writes:

For many adherents, Malcolm remained until his death a revolutionary black nationalist whose exclusive interest was to combat white supremacy while fostering black unity. Although near the end of his life Malcolm displayed a broadened humanity and moral awareness—qualities overlooked by his unprincipled critics and often denied but his true believers—his revolutionary cohorts contended that Malcolm’s late-life changes were cosmetic and confused, the painful evidence of ideological vertigo brought on by paranoia and exhaustion.[x]

Malcolm X[xi] was controversial in that he embodied one of the first militant approaches to dealing with injustice, poverty, inequality, discrimination, bigotry, racism, and prejudice in the United States. Malcolm gave voice to a new generation in the 1970’s which said, “We’re not going to take it anymore!”

As a result, people of color began to question the dominant metanarrative and suggest new micro narratives that emphasized equality and justice. Because of this, Malcolm helped to establish a new cultural code within Hip Hop culture as rappers consistently discussed and embraced the activist side of who Malcolm was.[xii]

Concluding Thoughts

Jazz music, the rise of Black popular culture, the Civil Rights Movement, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Malcolm X are all powerful shaping forces in this culture we now call Hip Hop. Further, these people and cultural movements help to give voice to a movement that is, what Chuck D has stated, “…our CNN!” Hip Hop has given voice, community, meaning, and Jesus to many.

As Christians, we cannot overlook Hip Hop. Even though Hip Hop culture can, at times, reflect a non-Christian attitude, we as followers of Tha Christ are still called to transform culture and to move out on the mandate in Matthew 28: to lead, teach, and instruct the Nations (The Ethnos in the Greek in which we get the word Ethnicity) in Christ’s lifestyle, teachings, and ways. This also means engaging in a deeper discussion of race, gender, politics, and class; Hip Hop helps develop that conversation.

Like it or not, Hip Hop is here for a long time. We as Christians must move out and engage with the culture that shapes the worldview of many. Hopefully now that we better appreciate the historical roots of Hip Hop, we will better be able to analyze its lyrics, its meaning, and its significance in the lives of many, including myself!