Skip to Content
 
 
 

Christian Hip Hop Resources

Articles, Blogs, and News

Course 406 - Theology of Work

Course 406 - Theology of Work (3 credits) This course will look at the theology of work and how work fits into ministry and God’s Kingdom.

Read more

Krumping

 

Borgman, Dean. (2005)  “Krumping,”  S. Hamilton, MA: Center for Youth Studies.  

I watched krumping before I knew what it was. I just knew it was something beyond breakdancing and stepping. Nobody in the crowd around me knew either. We were at a large Urban Youth Workers Institute conference in Azusa, CA-and this was before “Rize.”

 

Of course, folks from around L.A. knew of clowning and krumping for some years. It had begun folk-art, a particular expression and celebration of life in response to violent surroundings. It was an L.A. thing. It had really started with Clowning in 1992, but a few groups dropped the clowning and developed new, energetic moves. These exciting dances were incorporated into music videos: Missy Elliott’s “I’m Really Hot,” Black Eyed Peas’s “Hey Momma,” the Chemical Brothers” “Galvanize,” and Skinny Puppy’s “Pro-Test.” Music aficionados around the world were suddenly thinking, talking and imitating what’s being called krumping. Still, clowning and krumping were not known by most.

 

That would change in the summer of 2005 with “Rize” and the publicity around it. This artistic expression from L.A. would experience a national and global explosion of interest and excitement.

 

As hip-hop and break dancing had sprung up in the South Bronx as folk art in the 1970s, the 1990s saw krumping emerge in South Central and Compton. “Krumpers can say what they want, Tommy the Clown invented clowning, and there wouldn’t be krumping without me,” Tommy (or Thomas Jefferson) has declared.

 

You would never imagine black hip-hop clowns really doing nothing until I brought it to the world. God allowed me to bring it to this world.

 

The clowning and the krumping dance movement, it is a very positive thing because it really keeps kids off the streets. Kids really don’t have too much to do around here. This is something that is exciting for them. To Missy and everybody that has grabbed this whole clowning, krumping, hip-hop style of clown dancing. I want to say thank you for putting it on the national scale. You’re doing it.

 

In the early 1990s Thomas Jefferson turned from crime and drug dealing to faith in Christ and clowning about the same time. He needed a new job and became a favorite at birthday parties and barbecues. But his career took off when he added, to the usual “ballooning and joking,” dance moves from music videos—some stripper dancing that might be considered the first stage of krumping’s evolution. This evolution involved several dance stages: the whip, the wobble, a clapping dance, and the wilding. David Chapelle, who produced “Rize” calls krumpers, “the children of Rodney King” because of the way the dance mimics the motions of a riot.

 

Guy Trebay calls krumping “equal parts break dancing, pantomimed battle and demonic possession.”  I see it as a celebration of the human spirit and body—which includes sensual elements. It expresses the creativity of youth to get beyond “juice” and violence.  It incorporates the legacy of African dance, and all the contributions of African-American dance to the American scene. It draws on images of and Pentecostal ecstasy (the word kumped comes from the way kids describe those overcome in the Spirit). It is also, like old school hip-hop, a challenging alternative to gang banging and deadly violence. Not only an alternative, it is a positive transcending of negative pressures.

 

Tight Eyez is a performer in “Rize” and a highly respected dancer noted for his athleticism and ferocity.

 

I realized that dancing was the one thing I could do in a positive direction, that if I did it maybe I could avoid getting shot and ending up dead.

 

It looks violent, and people get scared by it a little (especially in the way Tight Eyez comes at them). But if you live in my kind of situation, you have some anger you need to express.

 

Tight Eyez and some of his crew, the Remnant, have also come to krumping after experiencing Evangelical Christian faith. They, too, have a place in “Rize.”

 

Although krumping originated in the African American community, and most of its dancers are still Black, there are also Hispanic, white and Asian groups. The Rice Track Family are a Filipino krumping group from Long Beach. Founder of the Rice Track Family, Hot Rod Soriano, tells his story by way of explaining krumping:

 

People from the outside don’t see the violence, but we live it every day. In this neighborhood, if you’re not an athlete or a rapper or a gang-banger, you aren’t going anywhere.

 

Some people, when they have problems, write in their diary. Krump dancing is our diary. It’s our everyday. (And some dancers say that if they lay off for a couple of days, it’s plainly noticeable.)

 

There may be a thousand dances and some 80 crews in an informal network that keep informed by word of mouth around L.A. Dancing contests may feature crew against crew but usually end up one-on-on in the Battle Zone.

 

Some may underestimate these new dance styles and their culture, but it should be remembered how rap was also dismissed as a transient fad. 

 

QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION AND DISCUSSION

 

1.     When did you first know about krumping?  How have you first impressions been reinforced or changed?

 

2.     Do you see krumping as a stage and part of hip-hop or as something new and different.

 

3.     Does your interest in krumping end with its performers, their appearance and dances, or are you genuinely interested in their culture, in where and why it originated and how it will develop?

 

4.     What do you expect as to the future of krumping?

 

IMPLICATIONS

 

1.     The origins, early development and incorporation of krumping into music videos, and then “Rize” is a fascinating story and significant social lesson.

 

2.     Along with hip-hop clowning and krumping must be seen as important developments in the youth and pop cultures, as creative alternatives to gang violence, as a necessary therapeutic response to deeply inflicted pain, and as a celebration of positive youthful longings.

Dean Borgman    c. CYS

Music lyrics:Do you hear what I hear?

Ruffin, K.N. (1995, August). Do you hear what I hear? Essence, p. 130.

OVERVIEW

" ‘Flexxxx, time to have sex!’ " is what my 7-year-old cousin belted out as she danced provocatively through the living room." According to the author, music that is abundant with sexual lingo has engulfed younger and younger kids, most of whom do not even understand the gift of sex. They are bombarded with its images and sounds through songs and music videos. It is apparent that this little girl has fallen into the clutches of media.

Notes Ruffin, "In isolation, the lyrical content of Top 40 songs may seem harmless, but because these songs echo themes of sexual domination in our culture, they become the soundtrack of our lives." Those who listen to music with lyrics like " ‘Let me lick you up and down’ " or " ‘Freak in the morning and freak in the evening’ " are listened to so much that listeners are no longer are aware of the danger of these lyrics. Teenagers are especially vulnerable to this type of music, as they blast this type of music in their cars and rooms, and at parties. In a lot of hip-hop music, woman are often viewed as sex objects. Men play with them in all sorts of degrading, dehumanizing ways. A woman’s mind, gifts, and creativity are invaluable compared to her body.

If a seven-year-old girl is repeating the "Flex" song, how much more are teenagers repeating it? Furthermore, how does a teenage girl feel about being portrayed as a sex toy? Does she even understand? Probably not. To them, the music is "harmless." However, the more and more she listens to it, she internalizes the message. The lyrics do become the "soundtrack of her life" when she finds herself in a boy’s car. The lyrics become apart of her when she wears the tight jeans or with a cut-off shirt to get a boy’s attention. She is flaunting what she believes is her only gift. Boys will often take advantage of her package. She will be unraveled and hurt. This young lady and others like her cannot help her retrieve what is lost.

QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION AND DISCUSSION

  1. How would you respond to a seven-year-old who exclaimed, "Flexxx...time to have sex?" What would you say to convey that the song is inappropriate?
  2. Have you ever caught teenagers or yourself unknowingly singing songs with sexual metaphors until someone pointed it out?

IMPLICATION

 

Talk to girls about their sexuality. They do not recognize that music subconsciously affects their behavior.

Elizabeth Pierre cCYS

RAP MUSIC RESOURCES

 

RAP MUSIC  RESOURCES

 

ORGANIZATIONS

Answers.com

- "rap music"
Just that: an extensive categorization of rap music and links. You will be amazed.

Cross Movement


Urban Ministry to a Hip-Hop Generation. Cross Movement Ministries and Cross Movement Records now two separate organizations. The latter is a Christian Rap label.

Feed Mobile


A Canadian magazine that focuses on Christian hip-hop (rap music) worldwide.

KeyWorlds Link Lane

 
Extensive list of links, all kinds of secular hip-hop sites.

 

BOOKS

 

Dyson, Michael Eric (2001) Holler if You Hear Me: Searching for Tupac Shakur, NY: Basic Civitas Books of Perseus Books Group, 292 pp. Endorsement from Cornel West, Quincy Jones and Russell Simmons ought to be enough. Chapter headings: “Dear Mama: motherhood and a hood’s mother,” “The Son of a Panther: A postrevolutionary childhood,” “No Malcolm X in my History Text: school, learning, and Tupac’s books,” “Give Me a Paper and a Pen: Tupac’s place in hip-hop,” “For All the Real N….s Out There: Authenticity Blues,” “Do We Hate Our Women: female per versions,”But Do the Lord Care: God, suffering, compassion, and death in the ghetto,” “I Got Your Name Tatted on my Arm: reading the black body”… should be enough to arouse interest in this book.

 

Gee, Alex & John Teter (2003) Jesus and the Hip-Hop Prophets: Spiritual Insights from Lauryn Hill & Tupac Shakur, Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 116 pp.  Some will object to linking Lauryn and Tupac with Jesus, but this is a provocative little book that interprets lyrics in light of urban streets and spiritual thoughts that can rise from those streets and from hip-hop. Alex Gee is pastor of Life Family Worship Center, Madison, WI and John Teter is area director for InterVarsity for the Metro South Bay in LA.

 

George, Nelson (1998) Hip-Hop America, Penguin,  240pp. Rolling Stone describes Nelson George as “the most insightful hip hop writer on the planet.” Michiko Kakutani of The New York Times adds (he is) “knowledgeable, opinionated, fascinating… animated by a passion for the music.” George is not only committed to this movement and music; he is able to criticize it.

 

Kitwana, Bakari (1994) The Rap on Gangsta Rap: Who Run It?: Gangsta Rap and Visions of Black Violence, Chicago, IL: Third World Press, 75pp. One of the first black criticisms of rap gone thug, this courageous little book is praised by Bell Hooks and Useni Perkins.

 

Kitwana, Bakari (2002) The Hip-Hop Generation: Young Blacks and the Crisis in African-American Culture, New York: BasicCivitasBooks, 230 pp. This book is more about black generations, the history and culture of hip hop, but it also provides some background and critique of rap music and its stars.

 

LL Cool J with Karen Hunter (1997) I Make My Own Rules, NY: St. Martin’s Press, 234 pp. The Source comments: “A stellar example of how to endure, grow up and become an adult in the perpetually adolescent world or rap.” Cool himself says, “There are rebels and there are innovators. I’m an innovator.”

 

Neate, Patrick (2004) Where You’re At: Notes from the Frontline of a Hip-Hop Planet, New York: Riverhead Books of Penguin, 274pp. A hip-hop aficionado and participant describe the hip-hop scene from the South Bronx in New York, Tokyo, Johannesburg, Cape Town, and Rio De Janeiro. Focusing primarily on rap music, this is written from the standpoint of some of its artists and fans.

 

Nelson, Havelock & Michael A. Gonzalez (1991) Bring the Noise: A Guide to Rap Music and Hip-Hop Culture, New York: Harmony Books, 298 pp. Plenty of facts here for the hardcore aficionado or interested new fan. “Here you will learn about the importance of Public Enemy, the meaning of KRS-One’s name, M.C. Hammer’s place in the rap universe, the rise of gangsta rap and much more. Applauded by Nelson George.

 

Ro, Ronin (1996) Gangsta: merchandizing the rhymes of violence, NY: St. Martin’s Press, 194 pp.  A fast-and-hard-living Latino jumps into the rap discussion with “energy, insight and bad attitude.”

 

Sexton, Adam, ed. (1995) Rap On Rap: Straight-Up Talk on Hip-Hop Culture, New York: Dell Publishing, 270pp. These provocative and insightful essays provide another bold, Black exploration and critique of rap and hip-hop. This book will really help someone understand rap’s form and meaning.

 

Stanley, Lawrence A. (1992) Rap, The Lyrics: The words to rap’s greatest hits, NY: Penguin, 400 pp. Here are 150 lyrics from the era of classic rap. Of course you can fiddle through Google or your favorite lyrics site, but here they are laid out for you in hard copy like a classic poetry anthology.

 

Toop, David (1984, 2000) Rap Attack #3: African Rap to Global Hip-Hop, London: Serpent’s Tail, 229 pp. The Source calls this “The One Classic Standout.” The author has collected interviews with early pioneers and has examined rap’s climb to multi-million dollar business. Here you will also get into “the hidden world of B Boys, Hip Hoppers and Planet Rockers,” according to Charlie Gillett. The Village Voice opined that Toop “records the vertiguously metamorphic nature of Afro-American culture.” The Record Mirror concludes this to be “the most authoritative book yet on the New York street phenomenon.” Of course these statements were all from the mid-1980s, but the book is still used.

Dean Borgman, cCYS


To use rap music as a means for sparking conversations on contemporary issues such as violence, drug use and abuse, sex, and education.

To use rap music as a means for sparking conversations on contemporary issues such as violence, drug use and abuse, sex, and education.

OVERVIEW

For many kids who are disillusioned in a strange world with great freedom, rap music has a rage and fury with which they can relate. When being harassed and threatened by other kids in a gang, listening to hard-core or gangsta rap is a means by which to vent anger, isolation, and frustration without actually hurting anyone. On the other hand, this may not be the healthiest way to deal with one’s emotions and may lead to further posturing as a "tough kid." This may lead one into even more trouble with peers, parents, teachers, and the police. These kids need direction and guidance to sort the positive from the negative. Teens are an impressionable group of kids who, especially those in trouble, often have difficulty decoding fantasy from reality.

GROUP BUILDING

With one or several kids, listen to some popular rap music. Casually discuss the artists and their songs as the music plays.

GROUP DISCUSSION

Considering the individuals in your group, ask any of the following questions:

  • What is your favorite type of music? What is it about this music that you like so much?
  • Do you listen to rap music? What about rap do you like? Dislike? Why?
  • What kinds of rap do you like/dislike? Why?
  • What is your favorite rap song? Album? Artist?
  • When do you listen to rap?
  • How often do you listen to rap?
  • How many rap albums do you have? What are they?
  • How do your parents feel about the music you listen to?
  • How do your friends feel about the music you listen to?
  • What do most of your friends listen to?
  • How do you feel about rap music? How does it make you feel? What does it mean to you? How do you think the artist feels?
  • Pick your favorite rap song. What is the message in that song? How does that message make you feel? What does it mean to you?
  • What would your youth leader think about this music?
  • What song makes you the happiest? Saddest? Angriest? Why?
  • Is rap too violent?
  • What kind of grades do you get in school?
  • Have you ever been in trouble with the police? Have any of your friends or family?
  • Other information: age, parents, siblings, birthplace, birthdate, ethnic background, etc.

WRAP-UP

Discuss with kids the fact that rap musicians are role models and rap music offers to them messages. Ask them if those are the types of role models and messages that they should be following. Pursue their responses.

EVALUATION AND FOLLOW-UP

Get together with these kids again—soon—and begin to further discuss their reasons for listening to rap music. Consider meeting with them individually (be sensitive to their various needs). Show them how rap music may positively and negatively affect them. Be open and accepting but also assertive. Respect their appreciation for rap music and the way that the music expresses their own feelings about life. But show them that the messages sent through the music are not necessarily the best words by which to live.

IMPLICATIONS

  • Kids idolize rap musicians, just as they do athletes and movie stars. While one should not immediately blame rappers for all of the ills of society, do not overlook the fact that many youth are influenced by the messages and images portrayed by them. It is important for youth workers, particularly in church or parachurch programs, to educate themselves and the parents and kids that they work with on the role of popular culture and its impact on our lives.
  • If rappers and hip hop music can influence popular culture, than we, too, as youth workers, influence music and popular culture. Just as rappers are role models, youth workers are role models. As such, it is vital to teach kids how to digest elements of a popular culture responsibly and knowledgeably.

Abe Chaparian cCYS

Rap on rap

Sexton, A. (ed.). (1995). Rap on rap: Straight-up talk on hip-hop culture. New York City: Delta.

OVERVIEW

Sexton argues the following about rap music:

  • It should be taken seriously as art.
    • Neither instruments nor training was available to the inventors of rap.
    • It takes instrumental and vocal skill.
    • It includes challenging poetry—some with classic patterns of rhyme schemes as in Kool Moe Dee’s, "Birdland." (AABA-CCDC-EEFE-GHG).
  • Its four basic components should be recognized.
    • "The crucial backing tracks" (including, but not always limited to, samples-funk or disco music borrowed from original sources).
    • Lyrics.
    • A rapper’s delivery or ‘flow’—articulation, phrasing, and the like.
    • Everything else, more or less: "look," originality, aura of legitimacy, charisma. The hard-to-quantify stuff." (p. 8)
  • Rap should be critiqued.
    • Snoop Doggy Dogg is arguably the most inventive vocalist in popular music since Sam Cooke. But that doesn’t make the brutality of Snoop’s ‘mostly wearying and obnoxious’ lyrics any less abhorrent. Big Daddy Kane, too, possesses virtuosic talent as a rapper, as well as an outsized persona, but Kane’s killer chops are rarely equaled by the banal music behind him. (p. 9)
  • Rap is inadequately critiqued by blacks and whites.
    • Perhaps some black critics fear that they will be accused of disloyalty if they criticize freely. African-American writer Bell Hooks has written (in the anthology Black Popular Culture), "I often confront audiences that are enraged by rigorous criticism...rooted both in the general fear and suspicion of intellectuals and in the traditional black modes of practicing the art of critique which make it appear solely a negative act." (pp. 5-6)
    • There is a fascination and attraction to black culture on the part of many young whites that hinders critique from that quarter.

When Greg Tate allows that Public Enemy’s impromptu lyrics about the racism of the U.S. power structure works, but agrees that their dehumanization of gags, women, and Jews does nothing toward black freedom—that is an example of solid criticism according to Sexton. On the other hand, Vibe magazine’s three-hundred word review of Doggystyle includes only one sentence regarding Snoop Doggy Dogg’s "relentless misogyny." Vibe states, "As for the ‘b---- this, ho that’ rhymes that make up the bulk of Doggystyle (and the ghastly cover cartoon), they’re mostly wearying and obnoxious." Sexton takes Vibe to task for such minimization of a serious flaw.

Kephura Burns provides some historical background for rap and the dozens:

Be we preachers, players, or just plain folks, our ability to wield words with wit and rhythm has given us power when there was little within our grasp. We are a race of rappers from way back.

In the 1950s, when the brothers on my block were rhythmically slapping their chests and thighs, ‘doin’ that crazy hand jive,’ it seemed as novel to us then as rap must have seemed to kids in the South Bronx a generation later. Come to find out, we were ‘rapping’ in the 1850s-trading tall tales, handing out verbal abuse in rhymes, and providing our own rhythmic, chest-whacking, thigh-slapping, accompaniment. Back then it was called ‘pattin’ juba.’

Among the Rundi of Burundi in east central Africa, everyone plays the game of matching wits through verbal thrusts and parrying...In the Caribbean, Trinidadians put music to the dozens and invented Calypso...The Hausa say uwarka (‘your mother’), which is really short ka ci uwarka (unprintable). In the Creole-speaking Caribbean, manman ou and koukoun manman ou mean roughly the same thing.

Tensions are dissipated through words that fly fast and sting but also provoke laughter and inspire admiration for cleverness and skill in using language creativity. It tests our ability to remain cool under pressure. And verbal dueling provides young brothers and sisters a training ground for adulthood in a society where firepower and sheer numbers dictate that we do battle with whites verbally rather than physically. (Sexton, 1995, pp. 31-36)

This book enters the hip-hop scene and provides its reader with understanding to appreciate and critique rap music. Here you will find provocative essays, insightful interviews, and many rap lyrics.

QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION AND DISCUSSION

  1. What was added to your understanding of rap from this brief article?
  2. What questions do you want to raise or see discussed?
  3. What does rap tell us about urban realities and hip hop culture?
  4. How might rap be prophetic, survivalist, and exhibitionist?
  5. Why, do you think, is rap popular among many rich, white, junior high girls?
  6. In what order would you place the elements of rap that make it popular across so many kinds of young people today?
  7. How does rap need to be critiqued?

IMPLICATIONS

When young black males were rendered silent in our society, they found a voice. When their plight was ignored, rap helped them get attention. As underemployed, they found a way to make white society pay them for complaining. If the suburbs were a way of getting away from the problems of the city, rap found its way to suburbia. Though we may ignore rap, our children will not.

Dean Borgman cCYS

Born-again rap

Born-again rap: A new medium for the message. (1991, April 9). The Wall Street Journal.

OVERVIEW

Rap music today is clearly one of the most powerful vessels communicating to kids today. This style of music is no longer reserved for inner city kids; it is even more popular among suburban youth. When the subject of music emerges, rap quickly becomes one of the most popular topics.

Secular rap music, especially gangsta rap, is not highly endorsed by adults and church leaders. The messages conveyed are questionable. Josh, an eighth grader in the youth group of this article review’s author, completely understands what rap groups say in their songs. On several occasions when the topic of music has emerged with the youth group, Josh has said, "I don’t want to talk about music, because I know I will feel guilty afterwards."

Young people know what they are listening to. They know that the words may not be the best for them to hear. But the fact is that they listen to rap music. They love the beat, the rhythm, and the videos they see on MTV. Herein lies the crucial opportunity for rap music from a Christian perspective. Many Christian groups right now, such as DC Talk and PID, are attempting to access this style of music and reach youth. In their lyrics, they "preach against everything from premarital sex and abortion to ‘humanism’ and racism. And they aren’t shy when it comes to laying on the fire-and-brimstone routine."

Christian rap artists have the potential to reach youth today. They use a style of music that kids understand, and they deal with issues that are important. "They borrow the ‘hip-hop rhythms and slanging styles’ from famous mainstream rappers so that kids will be willing to listen." But are kids listening to the music and buying the albums? Probably not. First of all, these artists are not able to enter into the mainstream. Their albums are not readily available to the listening and purchasing public. "Their albums aren’t sold outside Christian bookstores and their music rarely strays from religious airwaves." This is clearly evident when looking through the selections of music of most youth. Christian rap artists are not on their lists or their shelves.

The majority of Americans who regularly buy albums make their purchases based on hearing a song on the radio or having a friend recommend a group. With limited airplay on few Christian radio stations and the lack of public awareness of such groups, Christian rap artists will never reach the group of people who need to hear their lyrics the most.

The target audience is being missed. Something must be changed in order to allow kids the opportunity to listen to the music. Somehow, secular radio stations must be encouraged to play these groups on the air. This probably means that Christian rap artists need secular labels to sign with. There is no easy answer, but rap music has lots of potential to reach kids. In order to reach youth throughout the country with the hope of God, rap music can become a tool and means to do so.

QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION AND DISCUSSION

  1. Do you think that music changes kids’ lives? Why or why not?
  2. How can Christian rap music become mainstream?
  3. What are other ways, in addition to music, that kids can be reached—in their world?

IMPLICATIONS

  • Rap music is achieving great popularity with a wide variety of kids.
  • Christian rap artists should be applauded for their attempts to tap into this group of malleable listeners.
  • Youth workers interacting with kids who listen to secular rap music can share Christian rap music, upon the kids’ invitation, with their kids. Openly encourage and consider their responses to Christian rap. Discuss similarities and differences between the two perspectives of rap.

Jeff Maljian and Kathryn Q. Powers cCYS

RAP MUSIC OVERVIEW

RAP MUSIC OVERVIEW


(Download this overview as a PDF)

July 14th of the LincolnCenter’s Festival 2005 may provide clues as to the origins as well as the future of hip-hop and rap music in particular. The theme that night was Africa: America, a hip-hop concert celebrating the link between America and Africa, and one of the headliners was Senagalese trio Daara J (which means School of Life). Lead MC of the group, Faada Freddy explains their idea of hip-hop and the title of their album, Boomerang:

 

Hip-hop was born in Africa and went around the world to come back to Africa, like a boomerang that has been thrown from the motherland and is back home.

 

The roots of rap music apparently lie in dramatic exchanges and rhyming of Africans from ages past. The Griots (pronounced gree- ohs) were a West African hereditary group of wandering poets/musicians, brilliant repositories of genealogies, clan histories and oral traditions throughout the countries of Mali, Gambia Guinea, and Senegal. (Daara J came about as three accountant students in Dakar of Senegal discovered their musical chemistry.) The Griots of old are said to have entertained with clever words, rhyming schemes, and even raunchy humorous competitions similar to the dozens (degrading opponents and family members). The ancient rhythmic songs of the Griots are called tasso.

 

Besides demonstrating hip-hop’s historic roots, Daara J may illustrate the global evolution of rap music and provide a clue as to its future. Here is what the Vancouver Folk Festival has to say about the group.

 

(Daara J) decries the stagnancy of globalism, the perils of a traditional society and the threatened environment, and toys with the musical formulae of hip-hop, reggae, R&B,and Cuban music by respecting the rules of each genre while escaping their boundaries.

 

As Western hip-hop turns more and more to shallow representations of materialistic value pimped to Western consumers by what Daara J calls “Babylone,: giving hip-hop a bad rep,… Daara J, with impassioned lyrics of philosophical and socially conscious overtones, keep the ethos of Senagalese hip-hop. “It’s hospitality, spirituality, smiling in spite of disease, corruption, war… is something the whole world needs,” they say.

 

Besides its origins in African tasso, the roots of rap must be traced through African American history to traditions such as the body music of slaves. There may also, and rather sadly, be a bit of minstrelsy in its performance. But most immediately and importantly, rap music is a part of an historic folk art-form which emerged in the predominantly African American South Bronx of the 1970s—rap is a part of hip-hop culture. Just as rap is just one aspect of hip-hop, rap itself has more than one component: deejaying or turntabling and scratching and MC or rhyming.

 

DJ Kool Herc, an 18-year-old Jamaican immigrant, is considered the first major DJ. Grand Wizard Theodore, Afrika Bombaataa and Grand Master Flash further pioneered rap’s sound. Needle dropping and scratching is attributed to Grand Master Flash. Names like Kurtis Blow, the Cold Crush Brothers, including Grandmaster Caz, should be added to the list of pioneers.

 

Sugarhill Gang’s “Rappers Delight” (1979) and Grand Master Flash & the Furious Five’s “The Message” (1982, with a powerful social study of the ghetto) brought rap into the mainstream. Run-D.M.C., three middle-class African Americans who fused rap with hard rock in the mid-1980s extended rap’s acceptability and popularity. LL Cool J was rap’s early romantic superstar. The Beastie Boys, a white trio, further popularized the genre. Then, it was Public Enemy who infused rap with a strident radical black political consciousness. De La Soul is one of the several underappreciated rap groups of its classic period (1979-1993).

 

Queen Latifah and Salt-n-Peppa were early female stars in a male-dominated, often misogynist industry. Lil Kim and Foxy Brown came along on the raunchy side. Eryka Badu and Lauryn Hill provided a positive counter-point.

 

By the late 1990s the Wu-Tang Clan (from Staten Island, NY), Sean (Puff Daddy) Combs, the Fugees, Jay-Z, Nass, were big names in the NorthEast. Common was putting Chicago on the map. But the East Coast’s main competition came from L.A. and the West Coast. Beginning with N.W.A.’s “Straight Out of Compton,” (Niggaz With Attitude, 1989), Ice Cube, Eazy E and Dr. Dre made the West Coast famous for rap.

 

The 1990s saw the rivalry not only of East’s Sean “P. Diddy” Combs’ Bad Boy Records and West’s Surge Knight’s Death Row Records (Tha Row Records) but of its stars: Notorious BIG aka Biggie Smalls and Tupac Shakur respectively. Tupcac was shot and killed in 1996; Biggie in 1997. Their lives and deaths reflected their lyrics.

 

Many thought rap was a fad that would quickly fade away; instead it took over the world.  Most Americans took little notice as to how rap music spread to Paris, London, Eastern Europe, South Africa, Latin America and the Pacific Rim. Globality, the convergence of globalization and local culture and issues, is evident in rap from around the world. (See Patrick Neate (2003) Where We’re At: Notes From the Frontline of a Hip-Hop Planet describing the rap scenes of New York, Tokyo, Johannesburg, Cape Town, and Rio de Janiero.) According to Neate, hip-hop culture “is a world-wide cultural network with a flexible ethos that is global and local: glocal.” And some global hip-hop can be critical of U.S. rap. Blaze (28) from Cape Town, but living in Jo’burg for the past ten years says:

 

You can’t trust American hip-hop anymore. They know that seventy percent of the consumers are white suburbans so they’re just trying to make music that will intrigue them…. American hip-hop is clowned instead of being artistically developed. It’s all watered down…. I think American hip-hop’s played out. That’s why it’s our time toshine. Hip-hophas to be shaped in an African way. I want to see hip-hop cultures all over Africa improve situations for their people. (p.128-129)

 

Neate explains the the origin of kwaito.

 

Boom Shaka’s ’93 debut, It’s About Time, was a massive hit and kwaito was born. Within a couple of years, it was the sound of South Africa and had spawned several further superstars (Arthur, Bongo, Mafin, TKZee and the list goes on. The origins of the word “kwaito” are disputed: some claim it’s derived from the Afrikaans word kwai, meaning excellent, while others say the name was taken from the notorious township gangsters the Amakwaito.

 

Miriam Makeba, legendary Mama Makebas of South African music, explains:

 

Let’s begin with the basic ingredients: South African disco music, hip-hop, rhythm & blues, reggae and a megadose of American and British house music. Mix it all up, add loads of local spice and attitude and you’ve got Kwaito. Mostly, but not always, the lyrics are chanted or rapped—not sung—over a slowed-down bass heavy, electronically programmed beat. (She cites DJ Oscar “Warona” Mdlongwa as an original mixer in the late 1980s.)

 

As discussed under hip-hop, rap music has come into the church: Christian or “Holy” Rap. As with so much popular music, the use of current popular music can create generational and stylistic “wars” in congregations. Christian rap is worthy of its own study; it is improving in creativity and musical quality. Christian rap has not taken on geopolitical and social issues as much as it might, nor like much Christian music generally does it deal adequately with the deep pain and moral ambiguities of life. Others may criticize it for its lack of historical and theological perspective.

 

So what is the future of rap? It will, with hip-hop, continue to change and evolve. Like all art, it will reflect and shape reality. With all pop culture it will be consumerized, exploited, globalized and localized. It will continue to produce both positive and negative social functions.

 

In my opinion, Adam Sexton, Nelson George, Spike Lee and a few others are to be commended for taking on the rap industry for its gratuitous exploitation of violence, sex, women and “thugology.” (See our Overview of Hip-Hop.) Their work needs to be continued by thoughtful music and social critics from both secular and faith perspectives. Rap should stand as a means for transcending the oppression and disadvantages of social marginalization. It should not glory in negative responses, but offer hope to a rising generation (see Bakari Kitwana).

 

QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION AND DISCUSSION

 

1.     What is your opinion of rap, its music, values and messages?

 

2.     What do you know (and should you know) of rap music in other parts of the world?

 

3.     Was the article above adequate as an introduction to this vast and complex musical phenomenon? With what did you disagree, what was embarrassingly overlooked, what would you add or suggest to make it more effective?

 

4.     How would you praise or explain the positive contributions of rap music?

 

5.     How do you critique the negative aspects and impact of rap music?

 

6.     Do you think there is a place for rap in worship?  If not, why; and if so, how?

 

IMPLICATIONS

 

1.     Rap music, its fusions and transformations is huge all over the world; it cannot be ignored. It’s impact on youth is very important.

 

2.     To the extent that rap music can help young people lift themselves from depressing circumstances, express feelings that might lead to trouble, and aspire to a healthier life style—and where it is just good fun—it is to be applauded and encouraged.

 

3.     Where rap music glories in dysfunctional attitudes and behaviors, where it contributes to a culture of complaint that hinders growth and productivity, where it denigrates true womanhood, manhood, family and healthy community, it should be criticized.


 Dean Borgman  cCYS

Say no to hip-hop’s excesses

Jackson, Derrick, “Say no to hip-hop’s excesses,” The Boston Globe, 12Nov05, A11.

 

OVERVIEW

 

Can hip-hop regain its original integrity and avoid the mass media’s demand for over-the-edge obscenity and crass mediocrity? African-American journalist, Derrick Jackson, weighs in.

 

White CEOs do not chair meetings in gold chains, railing about “honkies, bitches and hoes. They love black men who wear gold chains and scream about “n……, bitches and hoes.”…

 

Reebok sneaker company which posted $3.8 billion in sales last year and is in the process of being sold to Adidas-Salomon for $3.8 billion, announced that it will… produce interviews with the likes of 50 Cent, Jay-Z, and Tony Yayo. Reebok will make them for Def on Demand, a black-run serviced backed by Russell Simmons.

 

Reebok’s director of advertising, Marc Fireman, said that the company “is excited to partner with an entertainment channel so in tune with youth and hip-hop culture. Def on Demand’s customizable entertainment is a great fit for Reebok’s own spirit of individuality and authenticity.”

 

Reebok had little to say about Rosa Parks and other heroes. So what is the black authenticity and individuality Reebok is here extolling? The writer of this article gives samples:

 

From 50 Cent:

 

There’s a problem, I’m a solve it, a n….. movin’ around with a big a.. revolver…. You f… with me, you see, I’ll react like an animal, I tear you apart. If the masterpiece was murder, I’d major in art.

 

Jay-Z, part owner of the New Jersey Nets basketball team explains and defends: “This is educated thug music, n……”

 

Tony Yayo raps:

 

I’m in that brand new Range: when I pull up, kid, I turn your brains into red concrete stains. That’s the beauty of gruesome violence.

 

Journalist Jackson is not to be intimidated as he cuts to, what he sees as, the heart of the problem:

 

It is tragic enough that black rappers and hip-hop moguls prostitute themselves to the Fortune 500 with the very stereotypes about violence, stupidity, and sexual drive that white society used to justify slavery, colonization, segregation, and lynching…. (Yet) Jay-Z makes millions saying, “I take and rape villages.”

 

African-Americans can no longer afford to coddle these people. The black czars of gutter hip-hop are the new house slaves. And Reebok’s promotion of this material, along with Comcast and other media giants, is just as reprehensible.

 

Of course, we know the defenses raised to defend raw hip-hop: This is realistic art; nobody takes it seriously; it’s the beat not the lyrics. But Jackson reminds us.

 

At the close of 2004, all top-10 rap singles ranked by Billboard used the “n” word in their uncensored versions

 

At Reebok’s annual investor conference division officials echoed Fireman, saying, “These kids hang on every word” of Jay-Z because his influence on youth culture is tremendous and what he represented two and a half years ago he still represents today, but even more so, because he’s evolved.”

 

And how does Reebok describe 50 Cent?

 

This guy is truly a marketing machine and will have a lot of momentum. We’re going to really capture and provide that momentum and be with 50…. 50 Cent is very large and his influence is incredible and he’s really captured a major movement and people are following him and going with him.

 

QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION AND DISCUSSION

 

1.  First of all, do blacks and whites have a right to raise criticisms against hip-hop?  Why or why not?

2.  How do you agree or disagree with Derrick Jackson’s article?

3.  Do you like hip-hop and rap music? Liking it or not, are you concerned about its lyrics and images? What do you have to say to the creators of hip-hop?

4.  What influence do you think hip-hop has: on street kids, decent, hard working or studying youth in inner cities, on young white kids (girls and boys) in the suburbs, and on alienated white and other youth?

5.  Beyond personal opinion, what social response to this popular phenomenon would you suggest?

 

IMPLICATIONS

 

1.     Derrick Jackson is not the first to raise serious criticism about rap music. Other African-American journalists have challenged rappers from the time of Ice-T. Adam Sexton (Rap on Rap: Straight-up Talk on Hip-Hop Culture, 1995) collected essays that dared to challenge rap’s excesses. Bakari Kitwana (The Rap on Gangsta Rap: Gangsta Rap and Visions of Black Violence, 1994 and The Hip-Hop Generation: Young Blacks and the Crisis in African American Culture, 2002) lauds the power and the social/political potential of hip-hop while critiquing its negative extremes and commercialism. Finally, too little attention has been given Spike Lee’s Bamboozled, 2000. Its satire attacks white business exploitation of blacks and the willingness of black entertainers to be this generation’s minstrel players, exploiting their own social weaknesses.

2.     Without exaggerating the influences of media or reverting to simplistic and over-generalized arguments, all of us have a responsibility for the healthy growth of young people: hearing the cries of the voiceless and marginalized, bringing justice to all parts of our societies, and promoting all that encourages them to full maturity and dignity as adults and parents.

 

Dean Borgman   cCYS


Hip-hop lyrics seem to be getting raunchier

 

Jones, Vanessa E., “Hip-hop lyrics and videos seem to be getting raunchier by the rhyme. But many critics, tired of the artist’s getting rich at the expense of black women, want the record industry to… STEP OFF.”  The Boston Globe, 22 March 2005, pp. D1, D5 (from Atlanta).

 

 

OVERVIEW

 

This writer’s introductory paragraphs are too good merely to summarize:

 

Watch hip-hop videos today and you’ll probably be blown away by the amount of skin on display. Breasts bursting out of bikini tops. Bottoms “covered” by thongs.

 

Maybe it’s caused by the success of crunk, the hard-core hip-hop sound from the South that’s dominating the charts. Or could it be the effect of hip-hop’s enduring obsession with pimp and stripper culture? Whatever the reason, the objectification of black women—both visually and lyrically—is all the rage.

 

You hear it in the Ying Yang Twins’ controversial hit “Wait,” a song so raunchy that only three lines of its uncensored version can be reproduced in this newspaper (or website):  “Switch the positions and ready to get down to business/ So you can see what you’ve been missin’/ You might had some but you never had none like this.” You see it in the latest videos released by 50 Cent in support of his best-selling sophomore CD, “the Massacre.”

 

But, as anyone following hip-hop knows, there is a rising opposition to this easy way to sell and sensationalize.

 

One example comes from a letter to the Editor of Vibe (March, 2005):

 

How can our black men, a lot of whom are influenced by magazines such as yours, learn to respect and honor their sisters? How can a young lady learn to respect and honor herself when all the messages thrown at her by the media tell her that she must become an inanimate sexual object in order to get any recognition? (from Djenaba Kelly)

 

In the spring of 2004 students from Atlanta’s SpellmanCollege organized a protest to a campus fund raiser by Nelly. It was in particular response to his video in which he swipes his credit card through a black woman’s bottom. Nelly was forced to cancel his planned campus appearance.

 

In January, 2005, Essence magazine began a year’s “Take Back the Music” campaign. Now editor, Diane Weathers says it may “go on (longer) until we see change.” Essence has begun a letter writing movement to programming directors at BET, MTV, and Fuse. In February, 2005, they held a panel at Spellman, including reps from BET and TVT Records to protest Atlanta-based crunk acts of Ying Yang and Lil Jon.

 

The University of Chicago plans a scholarly event, “bringing in more than a thousand to a three-day conference, in April, 2005, to discuss “feminism’s place in hip-hop.”

 

Vanessa Jones clarifies:

 

 

 These are not indecency campaigns. It’s not civil rights activist C. DeLores Tucker railing against impropriety of rap lyrics. Michaela Angela Davis, an editor of Essence prefers to think of the magazine’s efforts as an intervention by loving family members.

 

Davis goes on to explain that white stars like Britany Spears may be seen in the same compromising attire and actions, but they have other images as well. What Davis and others are complaining about is that black women don’t have the flexibility of such choices; they’re finding themselves locked into a stereotype.

 

Cathy Cohen, director of the University of Chicago’s Center for the Study of Race, Politics and Culture, rejects a typical response of hip-hop artists and producers, that it’s all the responsibility of parents and that our society is sexist across the board.

 

While there is sexism out there in society, we have to be especially concerned with the media images of black women because, in fact, that’s how most people understand and interact with black communities. We live in a segregated society. People generally don’t interact. They may work with someone of a different race, but they don’t socialize or go to church with people of a different race. So the way you get introduced to other racial groups is often through the media.”

 

Anyone who has looked into this subject, studied American stereotypes, seen a video such as “Ethnic Notions,” knows that there have been, since the beginning of our history the stereotypes of the safe, overweight loving black momma and the sexually hungry prostitute.

 

It’s important to note that hip-hop made a dramatic transition into gratuitous violence and sexual images around 1992 and 1993. That’s when the industry started to pitch its sales especially toward young white boys.

 

Vanessa Jones has charted the way hip-hop artists and producers have flirted with soft porn.

 

50-Cent, “The Massacre”  Bare bottoms in “Disco Inferno” and women as decoration in “Candy Shop.”  (Sells 1.1 million copies in four days in Mar. ’05)

 

Kayne West, “The College Dropout,” A prostitute in tight dress seeks religious redemption in “Jesus Walks.” One tastefully dressed woman in “All Fall Down.” (sells 2.6 million copies in a year)

 

Lil John & the East Side Boyz, “Crunk Juice,” In “Lovers and Friends,” lyrics, “A man never ever dreamed to be? Up in here kissin’, fuggin’, squeezin’ touchin’? Up in the bathtub, rub-a-dubbin” (sales: 2 million copies in three and half months)

 

Ludacris, “The Red Light District,” Austin Powers spook, “Number One Spot,” emphasis on skin; attention to over-weight chicks (sales: 1.4 million in a couple of months)

 

Mos Def, “The New Danger,” Gritty images of people in the hood in “Ghetto Rock,” and attempt to humanize strippers (making money to raise their kids) in “Sex, Love, & Money.” (sales: 377,000 copies in couple of months)

 

In a panel discussion on this subject, vice president of A&R and TVT Records, Bryan Leach, said: “There are a lot of artists who think this is just a song. I know Lil John and Ying Yang Twins, a lot of these artists, personally, and they don’t walk around every day thinking, ‘I hate women.’”

 

To which MC Lyte, a respected female rapper herself responded: “So, they’re just selling us out, they’re just putting on an act to sell a record,” to which women and a few men in the audience responded with applause. Lyte went deeper:

 

There’s some law: They say after 500,000 CDs, you’re selling to a whole different realm. Now you are selling records to young white boys. I think the corporations understand their time to come in and take control of it. Once the control was taken away, then came all the nonsense.

 

Davis added: “We know that men love skin and cars and gadgets, and that’s what these videos have.”  Record company and artists respond:  “If it’s wrong for you or your kids, then, turn the channel and talk about it.”

 

Kevin Powell, a writer for Vibe magazine retorts: “All these words are easy for middle-class men to say. A lot of people who are affected by this are in the ‘hood…. A lot opf people don’t got parents who are going to tell them right from wrong. Some parents are working three jobs.”

 

Tricia Rose, who has studied black women’s sexuality and written Longing to Tell, challenges a deeper discussion. She says it goes much deeper than producing nicer images of black women.

 

Our language for talking about all this is not only antagonistic, it’s not terribly sophisticated. It just becomes, “Say nice things.” “Have pretty images of us, it’s nicer,” rather than talking more substantially about the power of human relationships. What do white men and other races and cultures get out of this representation? Why is the power of black masculinity wrapped up in the physical and sexual control of women? That’s what we need to talk about.

 

QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION AND DISCUSSION

 

1.  What is your relationship to hip-hop music and culture?  How do you respond to this article? What feelings come out?  What opinions do you have?

2.   Specifically, what most impressed you here?  With what do you take issue? What points need to be more widely heard or disputed?

3.   Where do you want to take this discussion: with friends? With children and young people? With parents?

 

IMPLICATIONS

 

1.   Hip-hop is huge; it has defied the prophecy that it would soon pass or fade.

2.   The images of hip-hop are pervasive and powerful. They affect children, young adults, and all of us.

3.   The processing and effect of hip-hop goes on in all of us, but differently if we love it, like it, tolerate it, or hate it. It’s bound to have a different on the very young and older listeners. It affects African Americans differently than it affects whites and other ethnicities. All these factors need attention and analysis.

4.   Underlying issues of media influence, there are always issues of consumerism. How we deal with our consumerist identities and tendencies must enter any discussion of media and hip-hop—as is pointed out in this article.

 

Dean Borgman  c. CYS


Volunteer Opportunities: Christian Hip Hop

Title Organization Name City, State/Country
Christian School Teachers Global Expedition Leadership Academy
Flushing, NY
United States
Christian Consultant Coastland Consultants
Manchester, NH
United States
volunteer in Uganda Blessings Of Joy, Inc.
Tulsa, OK
United States
EVANGELISM,PREACHING,COMPUTER AND TECHNOLGY,CHILDREN AND YOUTH,CHURCH PLANTING, COMMUNITY DEVELOPMEN RISE UP AFRICA FRONTIERS (RUAF)
KAMPALA
Uganda
Free Apprenticeships Pais USA
Various
Teacher and Trainer IMPACT Community Trust
Madhira
India
Guest care/Christian discipleship Volunteer Ashburnham Place
Battle
United Kingdom
missionary ICESS MINISTRIES
africa
Togo
Custom Mission Trip for Your Group In Motion Ministries
Greeley, CO
United States
Mission trips to Africa Africa Mission Alliance
Portland, OR
United States
Title Organization Name
Creative Lead Club Alexa
Prayer & Intercession for Missionaries Grace Assembly
Music Academy Support Grace Assembly
Dance and Drama Academy Support Grace Assembly
Newsletter Designer / Editer Inland Valley Hope Partners
Graphic Design Intern Servant Partners
"Serenade to Educate" - A Charity Gospel Concert Smile Liberia International, Inc.
Editor, Writer, Photographer www.insidethepew.net
Support Staff for contributing & compiling articles for family magazine friendlyleaves4u
Illustrator/Cartoonist 411 Ministries
Postal Code

Audio: Christian Hip Hop