***This piece will be featured in a local, independent rag. FYI.***
Prophecy & Hip
Hop
By: Rev. Emily Joye McGaughy
February 17, 2011
Disclaimer
I want to talk about the intersection of prophecy and Hip
Hop but first need to get some technical stuff out of the way. I am a trained
theologian, which means I’ve been resourced to see, name and support the
movement of God in the world. It is from this training and resourced-lens that I
see Hip Hop as the primary prophetic movement of/in our time. I do not claim to
be an expert on Hip Hop but I do see
divinity there and that’s what I am hoping to convey in this piece of social
commentary.
Prophecy: Tradition and Problems
The Judeo-Christian tradition is a diverse religious
movement with many historical, literary, cultural and institutional
expressions. One of those expressions is prophecy.
Judeo-Christian prophecy has historical and geographic roots
in the Ancient Near East which was the context for early Israelite prophets
such as Amos, Ezekiel, Isaiah and Jesus of Nazareth. The aforementioned
prophets were speaking to persons, crowds, institutions and the empires of
their day. Their prophetic works are located in the books of the Hebrew Bible
and New Testament. Many of us know these prophets and their words/works. But
many of us—religious and non-religious alike--do not know the contexts from
which these prophetic works come, nor how those contexts parallel the world we
are living in today. Therefore our ability to call upon the past while making
meaning in the present is severely truncated.There are corrupt clergy and a
whole host of brainwashed flock out there using prophetic texts in ways that not
only dishonor the prophetic tradition but also dishonor God. Talib Kweli once
said “life without knowledge is death in disguise.” Kweli’s words put on blast
those who out of ignorance lift prophetic texts for ends of death. Corruption
and power-hoarding are at the center of this ignorance. And it is my opinion
that if people really knew their Bible and really knew the living God, they’d
be paying as much attention to if not more attention to Hip Hop than scripture. Let me explain…
Prophecy: Movement and Spirit
There are two things about prophecy that are important to
know: 1) prophecy is about movement & 2) prophecy is of a certain spirit.
Movement
Prophecy is a cultural dialectic—a conversation that relies
upon movement. It relies upon movement between subjects: speaking and
listening, challenging and receptivity, love and change through action.
Prophecy relies upon movement between persons and groups: individuals
participate in a culture/community where people exchange various expressions of
truth like art, philosophy and ritual. Prophecy relies upon movement between communities
and institutions: communities create political and social entities that are
supposed to serve them and those entities, in turn, recreate communities. And
finally, prophecy relies upon movement between communities and power
structures: persons and groups speak truth about the structural conditions of
power impacting them and those structures reform accordingly (sometimes
willingly but most the time, structural reform happens begrudgingly).
Spirit
Prophetic texts and persons embody a particular spirit, a
spirit that will not be contained or domesticated. The prophetic spirit is of and
comes from the Living God. The Living God is liberation. Liberation, period. Prophetic persons, prophetic texts, and
prophetic movements--if they are truly prophetic in nature, and not just on
some silly “spiritual” psychobabble—are always speaking about power because
power is the thing that either enables or blocks liberation. Prophets speak in
truth about power: this is their nature, their duty and function no matter the
cost. The prophet speaks truth to power and speaks to the masses about
power. Prophets are almost always speaking about power within the realms of
politics and religion. You don’t invite them home to meet mom. They do not make
casual conversation and they don’t remain on the surface…ever. The spirit they
embody doesn’t allow them to do anything but pursue truth in the hope of
liberation. If you’re on board with that, they are the best company to keep and
the best truth to come home to. If you’re not on board with the hope of
liberation: get the hell out of the way.
Intersections and Directions
When Christianity sold its soul to the devil by becoming the
official religion of the Roman Empire in the 4th
c. CE, it lost its ability to be a/part/of prophetic movement. A prophet cannot
be sucking on a corrupt power source and critiquing it with the same mouth.
Such crossed loyalty and hypocrisy stifles movement and kills the spirit.
Again, without movement and spirit, prophecy cannot exist. So when Christianity
sold out, the religion of God made known in Jesus became the arm of empire,
colonialism and war instead of the embodied heart of truth, love and justice.
What does it mean for a tradition that gave birth to a movement to not be able
to contain that movement any longer?
Well, the Living God does not die. So the movement just
takes up life somewhere else.
There have been many “somewhere else’s” since the 4th
century but I’m not here to do a history lesson. I’m here as a theologian
trying to locate prophecy today.
Hip-Hop is the
embodiment of prophecy in our times. Hip Hop has been the movement of
truth-telling in the hope of liberation from its conception in the black
community, from its birth in the South Bronx among
those who were exchanging, creating, and resisting vis-à-vis and sometimes
within the power structures impacting them. Even when the corrupt power of
white-supremacist capitalism tried to stifle the spirit of the Hip Hop movement
by turning it into a commodity, Hip Hop went underground and continued speaking
truth (to power and about power) in the hope of liberation. The resurrective,
resilient Spirit of Hip Hop is nothing short of divinity. Underground Hip Hop
is, by all means, the prophetic movement that is alive and well in our culture
today.
If you don’t believe me, check out any of these contemporary
texts and try not to make (historically accurate) parallels with the biblical
prophetic tradition:
Hanifah Walida’s “Do You Mind” http://www.youtube.com/watch?
Head Roc’s “Christopher Columbus” http://www.youtube.com/watch?
Blue Scholars “Burnt Offering” http://www.youtube.com/watch?
Brother Ali “Uncle Sam Goddamn” http://www.youtube.com/watch?
Conclusion and Implications
A person who is trying to trying to take seriously 1)
justice in the world and 2) truth-full spirituality will find a home in Hip Hop.
Hip Hop is where the Spirit of the Living God is moving in the hope of
liberation today. Prophets not only
speak truth to power and speak to the
masses about power, but in their
speaking they embody the power of the Living God, the power of liberation. Let
those with ears, hear Hip Hop.
