Beyond Christian Hip Hop

Erika Gault is Assistant Professor in the Africana Studies Program in the College of Humanities at the University of Arizona, USA. On the topic of hip hop, religion, and/or digital ethnography she has delivered and published a number of papers regionally, nationally, and internationally. She is the recipient of a 2018-2019 Louisville Institute's First Book Grant for Minority Scholars for her current project regarding the digital-religious cultures of Black young adults. Erika centers her ethnographic work around social media and hip hop. She is an ordained elder at Elim Christian Fellowship and an award-winning slam poet. Travis Harris is Assistant Professor in the department of African American Studies at Virginia Commonwealth University, USA. Harris is also the Editor in Chief of the Journal of Hip Hop Studies, the leading journal on publishing Hip Hop scholarship. Harris is also involved in the Black freedom struggle as the Director of Political Education for the International Black Freedom Alliance. Harris is an ordained minister and is driven to ensure that those "from the bottom" are not forgotten, in academia or the freedom struggle.

List of Figures; Acknowledgements; Introduction Erika Gault and Travis Harris; 1 A History of Christians and Hip Hop-Travis Harris; Section I: Identifying Hip Hop; 2 Blendzville Global: A Conversation with Andrea "M$. Blendz" Castleberry-Travis Harris; 3 If My Faith Had a YouTube: Digitizing Christianity and Hip Hop, an Interview with Beleaf Melanin-Erika Gault; Section II: Irreconcilable Christianity; 4 Black White Supremacists: An Interrogation into ‘Christian Hip Hop’s Relationship with the White Man’s Religion- Daniel White Hodge and Travis Harris; 5 From ‘Gospel’ to Global: A Talk with Anthony "DJ AA1K" Amos Travis Harris;6 "The Prince of Peace Ain't Down with Police Brutality": Gospel Gangstaz Confronting White Supremacy Post-LA Uprising of 1992 -Matthew Linder;7 Skipp Coon: Race, Religion, and Black Radical History in Hip Hop-Phillip Luke Sinitiere;Section III: Boundaries; 8 The Ruptures and Reconfigurations of Identity through Christian Hip Hop in Southern Africa-Ibrahim Abraham and Tuomas Järvenpää; 9 Latinx Innovators in the Emergence of Los Angeles Hip Hop: Expanding the Intersections of Christianity and Hip Hop-Jonathan Calvillo;10 ‘We Gon’ Be Alright’: Kendrick Lamar and the Theology of Affirmation-Darrius D. Hills; 11 The Gospel According to ‘Ye; Kanye West, the Life of Pablo, and Authentic-ChristianityTimothy Welbeck; 12 ‘How You Gon’ See ‘Em If You Live in the Fog’: Theodicy in the lyrics of DMX-Trudy Mercadal; Contributors; Appendix; Index