The Soul of Hip Hop: Rims, Timbs and a Cultural Theology
Daniel White Hodge
IVP, 2010, 250 pp., $17, IVPress.com

“Hip Hop,” in the words of KRS-One, “is something that is being lived.” Hip Hop is larger than radio, larger than commercialized artists, larger than record-industry branding. It is a culture, a people, a movement, a growing community of people who live, breath, eat, love, hate and work just as anyone else does. Hip Hop cannot be understood easily or defined. It is complex and full of narratives that would blow many of the strongest anthropologists away; but as I always tell my students, we have to discuss the obvious to get to the obscure. I am suggesting we begin to deconstruct parts of Hip Hop as a larger phenomenon in order to understand the whole, in this case, its theology.

Seeking the Obscure
The obscure part of Hip Hop is its theology. What is it? Is Hip Hop evil, or is it misunderstood? Many Christians hear the phrase Hip Hop and envision loud music with rough sounding lyrics and deep bass and young men with low-riding pants, long white T-shirts and ominous facial expressions. Hip Hop is as much of an enigma to many church members as is Islam or the New Age movement. Yet theology, in its basic sense, is the study of God: how God interacts, intercedes, speaks, lives, thinks, wants and is. Hip Hop repeatedly shows God showing up in the most unusual and interesting places.

In many ways, Hip-Hop theology is a study of the Godhead (Father, Son and Holy Spirit) in the urban context, with a goal of better understanding God’s rich and complex love for everyone and the revelation of God through the liberation of the oppressed from the oppressor. Kanye West on his album The College Dropout, argues that God loves hustlers, pimps, killers, prostitutes and other people with whom society otherwise would not deal. Tupac questions if there is a heaven for real Niggaz (changing the letter “s” to “z” to indicate class rather than individual). Big Syke asks if the church can handle Hip Hoppers, while KRS-One has suggested that Hip Hoppers need to start their own church. Hip Hoppers unquestionably have strong opinions about God and the church.

Part of the reason Hip Hop is so mysterious to people outside its culture is that its roots and religious history have multiple and complex sources. Many pastors who are trained in classic, modernist or hermeneutical methods struggle to make sense of Hip Hop. A theology that engages real life in real time, that respects the person of Jesus but distrusts institutional religion often doesn’t efficiently or predictably systematize, which is to say it sometimes doesn’t reconcile easily with traditional, modernist approaches to culture.

The Muddy Middle: Theology of the Profane
Ethnomusicologist Christina Zanfagna recognizes that to accept Hip Hop presupposes that popular culture could be a sacred place, an area in which one may encounter God even in the most unholy of places. Hip-Hop theology not only embraces the sacred; it dines, sleeps, laughs, cries, loves, hates and lives with the profane. To truly understand Hip Hop requires a basic theological worldview of the profane. This is not a new concept. Theologians and church heroes assert that God meets us first in death and despair, the hell of life. Only those who enter the s*** (to borrow language from Martin Luther in his rebuttal against the Roman Papacy; Luther uses extremely strong language) can encounter the God of Jesus Christ.

Noah, who loved liquor, could not wait to get off the boat and get drunk, yet we revere him and honor his example at different points. David not only engaged in adultery, he sold out Uriah; but he still is cited in countless sermons and Bible studies as a man after God’s own heart. Paul continued to struggle with his flesh. Jonah actually wanted the people of Nineveh to perish. Many Christians gloss over presentations of the profane in the lives of biblical heroes, but Hip Hop says, “Man, we’re dealing with it all!” Tupac’s habit of calling out his own sin made pastors, political figures, cultural critiques, conservative zealots and even some rappers extremely uncomfortable. The million-dollar question surrounding the intersection of Hip Hop and religious culture is this: How can the profane exist in communion with God?

Hip Hop and the Church
When living in God’s will, the church (as does Hip-Hop culture) provides relationships, identity, structure and support in times of trouble. Hip-Hop culture was formed in community and has helped give meaning to several generations of young people. The church and Hip Hop share common ground in more ways than one. How can we build on that ground and dialogue rather than shake our heads and miss out on an opportunity to be where God is at work? It is imperative that we not only begin grappling with these issues, but begin moving out to reach this cultural movement. There are at least five theological areas that Hip Hop presents as a potential gospel message for this generation. The first is a theology of the profane, described above. Here are four other important lenses:

A Theology of Suffering
This theology actually embraces the concept of suffering and moves beyond the basic three theological responses to suffering: suffering for divine retribution, suffering because of God’s will and suffering as only a temporary reality. Hoppers use suffering as life experience and an actual process to draw closer to a God, who suffered as we do.

A Theology of Community
For Hip Hoppers, life is done in community. Whether those communities are a few people or one hundred, community is still occurring. For example, many of the concerts I have been to reflect Hip Hop’s deep desire to engage in community. More importantly, church happens in that community; and the presence of God is experienced.

A Theology of the Hip-Hop Jesuz
For many Hip Hoppers, Jesus is not the traditional form of a Savior most of us have been taught to believe in (i.e., the blonde-hair, blue-eyed, Caucasian embodiment of perfection). Jesus is the multi-racial Jesus. Jesus is the Jesus who can understand the pain and misery of the inner city. Jesus is the One who could relate to the poor, downtrodden, and folks who other people set aside. Thus, a theology of the Hip-Hop Jesuz is a contextualized version of Jesuz (hence the exchange of the letter “z” to His name).

A Theology of Social Action
Hip Hop is about taking action and responsibility for the community. This theology explores the deep social awareness that is not only prevalent throughout the Bible, but also through Hip Hop’ s connection to justice and Jesus. A theology of social action encourages personal responsibility: Sometimes we are the true culprits of social injustices. Hip Hoppers such as Tupac would challenge pastors and theologians to think more deeply about issues such as poverty, social justice and suffering and urge them to take action. Regardless of what you think of Hip Hop personally, it possesses many redeeming qualities that at the very least should elicit our curiosity. What can we learn from it? What can we bring to it? If we want to live out the gospel authentically, we cannot afford to fear things that are unfamiliar or nontraditional.

Action Points
Take some time to listen to Hip Hop artists such as Lupe Fiasco. What is his message? What are his points regarding social action? How does he see life from a Hip Hopper’s perspective?

Take a look at Jesus’ lineage at the beginning of Matthew. Study it. Try to draw some connections between some of the messy people in Jesus’ lineage and yourself, the church and Hip Hoppers.

After you’ve done some homework on Hip Hop, ask the students you work with to give you their top five rappers they listen to. Take them to lunch or let them lead a time of conversation about rap music. Take time to listen to what they’re saying and what the music is saying. Don’t respond to the bad language or even the overall message. Just listen.

Daniel White Hodge, Ph.D., studied Hip-Hop culture at Fuller Seminary as an FYI fellow with Dr. Jude Tiersma Watson. His new book, The Soul of Hip Hop: Rims, Timbs and a Cultural Theology, will be released this August through InterVarsity Press. Adapted with permission from InterVarsity Press.