Weekly Words

Why I Love Hip-Hop

At first glance, the words “hip-hop” and “preacher” seem diametrically opposed. Often when I tell people of my academic interest in hip-hop and theology, they assume that it must naturally be because I want to join in the merciless castigation and persecution of hip-hop culture. They begin to go on as if hip-hop culture and its artists are completely incompatible with Christian pulpiteers and that preachers would do well to wipe hip-hop culture off the face of the earth. As a child of the hip-hop generation, they are in fact surprised to hear that I have deep and abiding sympathies with and love for hip-hop culture and its artists. Though I too believe hip-hop is deeply flawed, I also find some sustaining virtues that continue to incite my affection.

First, I love hip-hop because of its complexity. Consider the example of Tupac Amaru Shakur, one of the greatest hip-hop artists of all time. Throughout his music Tupac straddled the fence between sexism and feminism, thug life and revolutionary life. The same Tupac who wrote Dear Mama, Brenda’s Got a Baby, and Keep ya Head Up, songs that show a progressive and sympathetic view toward women as the victims of patriarchy and misogyny, also wrote songs that objectify women, boast of ruthless sexual exploits, and call women b___’s and hoes. Like Tupac, many hip-hop artists declare conflicting doctrines, exemplify moral ambiguity, and propose competing contentions. However, don’t we all exist in some type of complexity? If somehow I could allow a microscope to magnify all that we do and think many contradictions would be exposed. All of us exist in a world where we are both good and bad, virtue and vice, outstanding and offensive. In its complexity and in its own way, hip hop exposes part of what it means to be human.

Hip hop is also courageous. In a time where so many preachers are pimping people while being pimped by structural powers and government forces, it is refreshing to hear artists who will look at society and call it like they see it. When there are so many preachers who will ignore social inequalities and structural injustice to only talk about God’s favor, material abundance, and financial increase, we need some social prophets who can help open our eyes to the grim realities and perverse atrocities of life in impoverished and politically deserted places. In Biblical times, it indeed was the prophet/preacher who would call to task the government and elites for oppressing the poor. Yet after Katrina, it took Kanye West (a rapper) to critically carp that George Bush’s hesitant reactions to dying flood victims suggested that he did not care about black people.

Finally, I believe hip-hop has connections with Christ. Jesus was socially courageous defying social/religious/political convention and living a life of love no matter what the cost. And I believe Jesus was able to love because he too recognized and sympathized with the complexity of humans. To be sure, I see a distinct and discernible difference between Jesus and a lot of hip-hop. However, just like hip-hop, Jesus was unfairly judged due to being from a place from which people felt nothing “good” could come. Additionally, Jesus would have loved hip-hop artists, just as he loved the people in his day that society deemed “Outkasts”. To love hip-hop is to join Jesus in the indiscriminate, non-judgmental love that he displayed in his life and in his ministry. So, yep, flaws and all, I love hip hop! But, you know what? Flaws and all God loves me.

Humbly in Christ’s Love,
Pastor B.A. Jackson