Dance To My Ministry (eBook)

Carl Petter Opsahl, Ph.D., is Street Pastor at City Mission of Oslo and Professional musician.

Title Page 4
Copyright 5
Table of Contents 6
PART ONE 12
Body 12
1. Microphone Check. Introduction 14
1.1 Situating my project 15
1.1.1 Mapping the field 15
1.1.1.1 Hip-hop and theology 15
1.1.1.2 Finding religion in hip-hop 17
1.1.1.3 Ethnographic studies 18
1.1.1.4 Hip-hop and religion studies 19
1.1.2 Engaging with the field 19
1.1.2.1 Christian theology and hip-hop 19
1.1.2.2 Studies in hip-hop and religion 22
1.1.2.3 Religion, hip-hop and structures of power 24
1.1.2.4 How I look and listen 25
1.1.3 The structure of my book 28
1.1.3.1 Some words on terminology and language 30
2. Peace, Unity, Love, and Having Fun. Exploring spirituality in a hip-hop context. 32
2.1 Spirituality and hybridity 33
2.1.1 Understanding Spirituality 33
2.1.1.1 Mapping spirituality 34
2.1.1.2 Spirituality and Liberation Theology 37
2.1.2 Hybrid spirituality and contexts of struggle 39
2.1.2.1 Race and gender 42
2.1.2.2 Hybridity and subversive spirituality 45
2.2 Hip-Hop Esthetics 46
2.2.1 Community 46
2.2.1.1 The borders of hip-hop culture 47
2.2.2 The power of the letter: writing 49
2.2.2.1 Elements of writing 51
2.2.3 Wheels of Steel: DJing 55
2.2.3.1 DJing and producing 56
2.2.3.2 Manipulating time with hands 58
2.2.4 Physical Graffiti: Breaking 60
2.2.5 The Art of Rhyming: MCing 62
2.2.5.1 The poetics of rap 63
2.3 The Fifth Element: Knowledge 66
2.3.1 Afrika Bambaataa and the Universal Zulu Nation 66
2.3.1.1 The Beliefs of the Universal Zulu Nation 68
2.3.2 KRS One and the Temple of Hip Hop 73
2.3.2.1 The Hip Hop Declaration of Peace 73
2.3.2.2 The Gospel of Hip Hop 75
3. Black God. Nation of Islam and Nation of Gods and Earths 79
3.1 Mainstream Islam in the USA and popular culture 79
3.2 The Nation of Islam 81
3.2.1 Black nationalism 82
3.2.2 Moorish Science Temple of America 83
3.2.3 The formation of the Nation of Islam 84
3.2.3.1 Elijah Muhammad, the Messenger 85
3.2.3.2 Malcolm X 86
3.2.3.3 A turn towards mainstream Islam: Warith Deen Mohammed 88
3.2.3.4 Renewal. Louis Farrakhan 89
3.2.4 Theology of the Nation of Islam 91
3.2.4.1 Christianity, Islam and scripture 92
3.2.4.2 Creation. The Original Man 93
3.2.4.3 Eschatology 96
3.2.4.4 The Saviour 98
3.3 The Nation of Gods and Earths 100
3.3.1 The formation of the Nation of Gods and Earths 100
3.3.2 The Supreme Mathematics and Supreme Alphabet 102
3.3.2.1 Christianity, scripture and Islam 105
PART TWO 108
4. Walls of Memory. Graffiti as shared memory 110
4.1 Looking at Walls 112
4.1.1 Art Crimes 114
4.2 Culture on the wall 117
4.2.1 Walls celebrating ethnic culture 117
4.2.1.1 The People's Wall 118
4.2.1.2 Zapatismo Chiapas 120
4.2.1.3 Hijos de Borikén 124
4.2.2 Walls celebrating hip-hop culture 125
4.2.2.1 Females Hip Hop 125
4.2.2.2 Babes in Boyland 126
4.2.2.3 Harlem World 127
4.2.2.4 City scene with rappers 129
4.3 Walls of grief 131
4.3.1 Memorial graffiti and spontaneous memorials 131
4.3.1.1 Memorial graffiti in New York 134
4.3.1.2 Princess Ruby – In memory of a baby 135
4.3.1.3 Memorials for Willy and Carela 135
4.3.1.4 Two memorials by TRACY 168 137
4.3.2 Music celebrities – and a pope 139
4.3.2.1 Jam Master Jay and Big Pun 139
4.3.2.2 Tito Puente – and 9/11 140
4.3.2.3 and a pope 143
4.3.3 9/11 memorials 144
4.3.3.1 New York New York 145
4.3.3.2 Liberty in Tears 145
4.3.3.3 An allegory of love 146
Chapter Summary 147
5. Black Jesuz. Rap and Christianity 149
5.1 The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill 150
5.1.1 Autobiography, love and hip-hop 151
5.1.2 A scholar on the subject called theology 157
5.2 2Pac and Thug Theology 162
5.2.1 Life and death of 2Pac 162
5.2.2 Thug life 164
5.2.3 Thug philosophy 166
5.2.4 Towards a Thug Theology 170
5.2.4.1 Visions of Heaven 170
5.2.4.2 Black Jesuz 173
5.3 “Pump the Volume For Christ:” Christian Rap 178
5.3.1 Free At Last: dc Talk 179
5.3.1.1 Decent Christian Talk 179
5.3.1.2 Love, sex and marriage 181
5.3.1.3 Time and the World 182
5.3.2 Grits and the Art of Translation 183
5.3.2.1 Hip-hop is a God inspired art form 184
5.3.2.2 It Takes Love – marriage and broken relationships 185
5.3.2.3 Spiritual Struggle 187
5.3.2.4 The End 188
5.3.3 The Continued Mission of MC Ge Gee 189
5.3.3.1 A continued mission 190
5.3.3.2 Praise, love and trust 191
5.3.4 Femcee representative of Christ: Elle R.O.C 193
5.3.4.1 Breathing holy hip-hop every day 193
5.3.4.2 Faith, love and relations 194
5.3.4.3 Transformation through Christ 195
5.3.5 Hip-hop Church 196
5.3.5.1 HipHopEMass and the Hip Hop Prayer Book 197
Chapter Summary 199
6. Allah U Akbar. Rap and Islam 201
6.1 Walking with Farrakhan 202
6.1.1 Fear of a Black Planet: Public Enemy 202
6.1.1.1 Welcome to the Terrordome: Facing racism 203
6.1.1.2 She Watch Channel Zero: Sexist stereotypes 206
6.1.1.3 Message to a Blackman: Public Enemy and the Nation of Islam 208
6.2 Five Percenter Rap 212
6.2.1 In God We Trust: Brand Nubian 213
6.2.1.1 Concerto In X Minor: White racism and black nationalism 213
6.2.1.2 Always is a Queen: Gender roles and sexism 214
6.2.1.3 Ain't No Mystery. Five Percenter teachings 216
6.2.2 Enter the Wu-Tang: Wu-Tang Clan 220
6.2.2.1 Wu-Revolution 222
6.3 Women rappers and Islam 226
6.3.1 Welcome to the Pow Wow: Queen Yonasda 227
6.3.1.1 God, love and music 227
6.3.2 Baduizm: Erykah Badu 231
6.3.2.1 Food for thought 231
6.3.2.2 A New Amerykah 234
6.3.2.3 Hip-hop as healing 236
6.4 Rap and mainstream Islam 239
6.4.1 The Ecstatic Mos Def 242
6.4.1.1 Black on Both Sides – different meanings of black 243
6.4.1.2 Hip-hop, spirituality and Islam 246
Chapter summary 250
PART THREE 252
7. Remix 254
7.1 Mapping hip-hop spirituality 255
7.1.1 Types of hip-hop spirituality 255
7.1.2 Hip-hop spirituality as spirituality of liberation 257
7.2 Hybrid strategies for spiritual resistance 259
7.2.1 Doctrinal strategies of resistance 260
7.2.1.1 Survival in this world 260
7.2.1.2 Survival from this world 262
7.2.2 Cultural strategies of resistance 263
7.2.3 Experiential strategies of resistance 266
7.3 Bring the Noise. Subversive esthetic practices and spirituality 269
7.3.1 Subversion, noise, repetition and break 269
7.3.1.1 Subversive uses of technology 270
7.3.1.2 Noise 271
7.3.1.3 Repetition 273
7.3.1.4 The break 275
7.4 …and having fun. Outro 276
Acknowledgements 279
Sources 280
CD's 280
Literature 281
Websites 296
Video 297
Colorplates 298
List of illustrations 298
Index 318