Does Hip Hop have a Place in the Church?

In the book “Religion in Hip Hop”, Anthony B. Pinn and Monica R. Miller states, “Now a global and transnational phenomenon — US-based hip hop culture has become a vital component of political, religious, educational, economic progress, relevance, and recognition.” Hip hop is becoming the most vital cultural forces to be known in the world. Many country artists and other artists are starting to focus more on having hip hop in their music such as Florida Georgia Line. Hip hop has made its way up to the top of music and has let listeners realize the culture of Hip hop and how rappers have been raised up in life. Anthony points out, “Over the past two decades, those who have taken up hip hop culture for its intellectual weight and contributions to the cultural life and self-understanding of the United States have come from a variety of methodological disciples” (Anthony Pinn). Hip hop has explored and changed the cultural out looks on today’s ideas. Even though Hip hop has become known for seeing the cultural side of the ideas in their songs, country music has become a native art form. In “Country Music

The author was categorical on various issues related to Hip-Hop music and other genres such as Jazz and Rap. The major assertion was that Hip-Hop has grown and attracted attention of many black Americans and media. Maybe, this was the only way that they could have expressed their discontent and tribulations they were facing especially from a political perspective. The author asserts that Hip-Hop was mainly an avenue to show resistance and the call for deliverance of black Americans.

Hip hop has been and still is a huge influence on pop culture. It sets the theme, tone and even style for the younger generation and the pop culture side helps you know which artists are in right now and which are not. Hip hop dates back to the 1970s created in the South Bronx but it only really became popular in the 1990s. According to the article Hip Hop and the Aesthetics of Criminalization by Andrea Queeley in it states that “hip hop was meant to express the Black and Latino experiences of urban poverty” but ended up hurting those races because it soon turned into perpetuating racist stereotypes and racial discourse. Personally I feel that at one point in time there were messages of positivity or takeaways in general about life and that

Christianity and Hip Hop are synonymous in both their functions and relationships to our daily lives. They both seek to teach lessons and criticize issues. However, Hip Hop does not represent Christian ideas due to their glorification of practices which defy Christian values.

Rather, it is also a way of life, a means by which to view the world and act in accordance with that vision. Yet, not even this vision and the accompanying praxis are singular; but instead there are various ways to be hip hop, numerous paths that are all to some degree recognisable across the globe for those who embrace this pattern of life. One must recognise both the demonic and the progressive within hip hop’s meaning-making efforts and must urge maintenance of an affirming stance regarding human interaction, which continues to privilege the development of healthy life options while maintaining some flexibility with respect to the framing of that process – not tying it too closely to any one religious orientation, one arrangement of religious aesthetics, one theological grammar and vocabulary.

1 Ronnie Ryan Effective Change 12/18/14 One of the worst things that can happen in popular culture is your passion becoming mainstream and sucked dry of its money, resources, and talent. Hip-Hop music is a prime example of an art form going global and changing the lives of billions. With those promising attributes corporations find it to be an easy cash grab because of its influence on society. Theirs many reasons for Hip-Hop being at the top of its game monetarily but what about the art form's moral standing? Hip-Hop has been around for over 20 years now and was looked down upon in its earlier days for its appeal to the street life and current situations in underprivileged areas around the world.

It’s the early 1970’s in New York City, block parties in The Bronx are filled with love and peace while DJ’s are playing soul and funk music. Eventually DJ’s began to isolate these percussion breaks in the songs and this is what unknowingly gave birth to hip hop. Fast forward 40 or so years and today you can see how this art form has progressed. I mean yes, we have Chief Keef and Riff Raff but hey nothing is perfect. Artists such as Kendrick Lamar, Vince Staples, Big K.R.I.T and many more have thoroughly established hip-hop to be sophisticated creativity,scathing self-critique while remaining diverse and inspiring. Hip-Hop has transformed itself into a professional form of expression from routes of not quite yet detailed and rookie beginnings.

Music has been around since the beginning of civilization. Music was used to tell myths, religious stories, and warrior tales. Since the beginning of civilization music has greatly progressed. Music still tells a story, we know just have many genres to satisfy the cultural and social tastes of our modern society. Hip Hop is a genre of music that has significantly grown the last couple of decades. It's increased popularity has brought it to the forefront of globalization. Technological advances has made it easy for Hip Hop to spread out globally. This occurrence of globalization is a key example that as our cultural borders are broken down by technology, our own cultural and social practices become fluid. Although there are many positive

I would only listen or show up when it fit in to my schedule. I would make decisions to benefit me and me alone, when it came to God working in my life. I had decided that I did not need organized religion to tell me how to live my daily life. By removing my faith from my thoughts and decisions it was easy to forget and ignore God. I was slow to respond or acknowledge the calling of the Divine Widow. However, when I judged that God needed to respond to my needs I expected an immediate answer. If I did not get a response or got an answer I did not like I would not go back to God and ask again, I just did what I judged was best for me. There were times when I gave in and graced God with my yes just like the judge out of concern that God will strike me down. It was 16 years before I came back to church, my faith and God when I walked through the doors here at Sts. Peter and Paul with my then girlfriend who is now my wife, Gloria. I must be honest though my intentions were not pure, the only reason I came back was to see if this church would be a good spot to get married. However, once the door closed behind me and I sat down in this quiet and Sacred Space, I felt I was home. It was a feeling I had not experienced since I was a kid, when I would be at church with my family. God calls us through others back to him, in my case it was through my

When I was 4 or 5 my faith was just about going to church and coloring in those worksheets and rising to get done so I could play games for Sunday school and eating food after service and it was just an every week thing. But as I grew up and started to realize the reason why I keep going every week to know what it's about and learning new things every time I go. I started to grasp we are going to learn new things and about the past, and the way things clicked such as Easter, Christmas,Good Friday, and other bible stories and why Jesus died just for us to live long happy lives. We learned about Luther, my first year of Conformation and what was all happening with him and reason he went to Rome and felt the way he did. We observed and learned about how he saw things in a different way in a different way and saw things in a new way. When he went and showed his faith and everyone disagreed, he

From the beats to the lyrics, the current generation of youth is engrossed in hip-hop culture, tending to idolize the artist behind the songs. Since the 1970s, hip-hop has influenced American culture tremendously. In the past, hip-hop held a central focus around inequality, empowerment and overcoming hardships. Today, hip-hop talks more about sex, money, a male dominant social standing, and drugs. Hip-hop, from then to now, has drifted to the darker side of the social spectrum. The majority of today’s youth were subconsciously thrust into a time when the darkness of hip-hop was nearing its climax. Young African American males

Church and God have been a part of my life for as long as I can remember, I often joke and say that I was born in the church. As church was a fundamental part of my parents lives and their culture, it so became mine as well. I would go to church every Sunday with my parents, who served in the choir and on the Deacon Board. As I grew older, I would participate in the church youth plays and attend Vacation Bible School every year. Growing up in such a powerful, faith-filled environment I was often memorized by the things going around specifically; seeing people praise the Lord, hearing people speaking in tongues, witnessing people shouting and telling their testimonies, and seeing people slain in the spirit, all these experiences were

I've been attending church for as long as I can remember. The earliest time I remember going to church was when I was in pre-school, and I attended the same church until high school. Sundays were routine, we attended church, went out to eat after with other members of the church, and then went home to watch either football or baseball (sports being my second religion). Skipping church was never an option, nor did I really want to miss it. I had good friends at church, and was genuinely interested in the bible and the stories we read.

As a child I remember going to church with my grandmother. She was a member of New Beginnings Missionary Baptist church in Miami, Florida. I remember Sunday being a special day for my family. My sisters and I dressed in our beautiful sunday dresses and my mother and grandmother always stressed the importance of our attendance to every sunday service. We had pictures of the last supper and portraits of Jesus all over the house. I remember hearing my grandmother pray every night. As a child, I believed in Jesus Christ, but I never fully comprehended the teachings in church because I was very young.

Growing up I always lived in a religious household. We always prayed before we ate, prayed before we went to bed, and always went to church on Sunday and Wednesday night. While I never questioned these actions and never tried to rebel against them, I still didn’t understand the importance of them either. I was merely walking in my parents footsteps, doing what my parents told me, singing along to the children’s songs in Sunday school, gave a tithing of my allowance every Sunday, but my life was void of the real meanings of my actions. This went on for years. Because I had not yet read through the Bible to understand why these actions had any meaning, they were just things I did all the time and I thought that was normal and that was what it meant to be a Christian.