Hip-Hop as Culture
by Efrem Smith
The 2004 Grammy Awards saw hip-hop group Outkast
win three awards, including album of the year. Outkast is
made up of rappers Big Boi (Antwan Patton) and André
"Ice Cold" 3000 (André Benjamin).
Hip-hop has taken over the music industry
in the same way the Williams sisters
have taken over tennis. Look at the
National Basketball Association as hiphop
players Shaquille O'Neal and Allen
Iverson and hip-hop culture in general are
being used to sell soda, candy, and clothes
to young people. To see hip-hop as simply
rap is to not understand the impact and
influence of a greater movement.
Rap music is just one element of hiphop;
in fact, rap is only one element of
Outkast's latest project, the two-disc
"Speakerboxxx/The Love Below." The
songs on these discs aren't just rap lyrics
against tracks of heavy bass; they also
include songs that sound more like the B-
52's, like "Hey Ya," in which André doesn't
rap but sings like some sort of '60s pop
star on American Bandstand. André borrows
from the sounds of big band, jazz,
'70s soul, and other styles—all the while
containing lyrics that deal with urban
culture. If you listen to the whole project,
it's really a venture into the history of
African-American music and culture, as
well as American culture as a whole.
True hip-hop heads understand that
hip-hop isn't just about music; it's a culture,
a way of life, a language, a fashion, a
set of values, and a unique perspective.
Hip-hop is an economy; it's the ability to
take the inner-city negative cash flow
system of hustling, pushing, pimping,
and banging, and turn it into a multi-million—or possibly even billion—dollar business.
Hip-hop encompasses groups like
Public Enemy using rap to address
racism, oppression, and poverty, and then
their leader "Chuck D" turning it into a
new political movement getting urban
young adults active in ways reminiscent
of the days of the civil rights movement.
Hip-Hop History
Hip-hop tells the stories of the multiethnic
urban youth and the communities they live
in, though the lives of inner-city African-
Americans take center stage. Hip-hop is
about inner-city and lower-class life. It's
about trying to live out the American dream
from the bottom up. It's about trying to
make something out of nothing. Hip-hop is
about the youth culture of New York City
taking over the world. Hip-hop is about
dance, art, expression, pain, love, racism,
sexism, broken families, hard times, overcoming
adversity, and the
search for God. Anyone who
looks at hip-hop and just sees
rap music doesn't truly understand
the history and the current
influence hip-hop has on
the whole youth culture.
I was born in 1969, so I am a part of the
hip-hop generation. Bakari Kitwana, in the
book The Hip-Hop Generation writes: "I
have established the birth years 1965-1984
as the age group for the hip-hop generation.
However, those at the end of the civil
rights/black power generation were
essentially the ones who gave birth to the
hip-hop movement that came to define
the hip-hop generation, even though they
are not technically hip-hop generationers.
Those folks, who were right at the cusp,
were too young to be defined by civil
rights/black power and too old to be
deemed hip-hop generationers."
I watched hip-hop evolve from underground
house parties in the basements of
my friends' houses to the first Run DMC
video on cable television to today's rap
millionaires like Sean "Puffy" Combs,
Master P, Suge Knight, and Russell
Simmons. These rich African-American
men are more than just rappers; as a
matter of fact Russell Simmons doesn't
even rap. Russell Simmons has been
behind the scenes of hip-hop—developing
it from rap artists and groups like L.L.
Cool J. and Kurtis Blow to films like
Krush Groove and Tougher Than
Leather to clothing lines like Phat Farm.
Russell Simmons, a true pioneer of the
culture, opened the door so that others in
the movement like Sean Combs could
start his own Bad Boy record label and
develop his own clothing line, Sean John.
These innovators are the architects of
culture, starting from the streets of the
city and now influencing suburban and
even small rural towns. They took the
hustle of the street and turned it into a
Wall Street economy. As a youth worker,
it doesn't matter if you're in a church or
parachurch, city or suburb; it doesn't
matter if your kids are Latino, Asian, or
Irish—hip-hop is influencing your situation.
The kids you work with may not
love hip-hop, but they're being influenced
by it. If your kids are wearing
oversized jeans with the tops of their
boxers showing, oversized athletic jerseys,
tennis shoes like Air Force Ones, or
long chains around their necks, this is
hip-hop. White girls on a youth group
bus braiding their hair in the style of an
Ethiopian queen, that's hip-hop. There
are things around you that daily scream
at you, "long live hip-hop!" It's important
if you want to understand the culture
teens live in today, to understand hiphop
and understand it as culture, not just
a music form.
The Hip-Hop Influence
In the book Hip-hop America, Nelson
George writes this about the culture of
hip-hop and its influence:
"Now we know that rap music, and
hip-hop style as a whole, has utterly broken
through from its ghetto roots to
assert a lasting influence on American
clothing, magazine publishing, television,
language, sexuality, and social policy as
well as its obvious presence in records and
movies…advertisers, magazines, MTV,
fashion companies, beer and soft drink
manufacturers, and multimedia conglomerates
like Time-Warner have embraced
hip-hop as a way to reach not just black
young people, but all young people."
A rap artist who goes by the name KRSONE
(Knowledge Reigns Supreme Over
Nearly Everyone) helps us understand hiphop
as culture by presenting the elements
and history of hip-hop in his book,
Ruminations. To him, hip-hop connects to
philosophy, religion, government, and corporate
America. He presents hip-hop as a
commentary from the 'hood with urban
artists serving as inner-city journalist who
use their rap, dance, and graffiti to report
what's going on in the city and in the world
at large. Sometimes the reporting comes
across with the soft melody of Marvin Gaye
asking, "What's Going On" from the
Motown era. Sometimes the reporting is
done with the pride of James Brown's "Say
It Loud, I'm Black and I'm Proud." And
there are other times when the reporting is
done with the anger of the Isley Brothers',
"Fight The Power." I mention these R&B
artists because hip-hop is influenced in
many ways by this genre of soul music.
Nelson George even refers to hip-hop as
"Post-Soul" culture. To a certain degree, I
see this as the urban take on postmodernism,
which is more commonly used in
white cultural circles to describe what's
going on in the world around us. KRSONE
describes hip-hop as culture this way:
"True hip-hop is a term that describes
the independent collective consciousness
of a specific group of inner-city people.
Ever growing, it is commonly expressed
through such elements as: Breakin'
(dance), Emceein' (rap), Graffiti (aerosol
art), Deejayin', Beatboxin', Street Fashion,
Street Knowledge, and Street
Entrepreneurialism. Discovered by Kool
DJ Herc in the Bronx, New York around
1972, and established as a community of
peace, love, unity, and having fun by
Afrika Bambaataa through Zulu Nation
in 1974, hip-hop is an independent and
unique community, an empowering
behavior, and an international culture."
The American Heritage College
Dictionary has given
hip-hop the following
definition: "The popular
culture of big city
and especially innercity
youth, characterized
by graffiti art,
break dancing, and
rap music—of or relating
to this culture."
Hip-hop moves beyond music into
other forms: D.J., the M.C., dance, visual
art, fashion, language, and big business.
It's also culture because it encompasses the
culture of African-Americans, Latinos,
and Urban America. When I was in middle
school and high school, hip-hop was
more than just music for me—it was finally
feeling like my voice was in the mainstream
of American culture. It really felt
like the voice of urban youth culture,
especially those of color, were finally in
the mainstream.
Take into consideration that hip-hop
evolved after formalized and legalized
integration. Hip-hop evolved after a
movement for civil rights, which had
young people on the front lines. Not that
hip-hop was the first to use the arts to
speak to political, social, and spiritual
issues, but it did so representing the
underclass of urban America.
Hip-Hop as Ministry
I believe hip-hop culture can be used as a
vehicle for ministry to young people.
There are aspects of hip-hop culture, such
as gangsta rap, about which it's debatable
whether they can be redeemed for godly
purposes; but there are many ways in
which hip-hop culture calls us to revisit
how we present the truth of the gospel to
young people today. That fact that hiphop
encompasses dance, beats, and
rhythm should help us rethink how we
approach praise and worship. Rap and
graffiti can assist us in exploring new
ways of presenting the gospel creatively
through spoken word, poetry, painting,
and aerosol art. The fact that hip-hop as
culture deals with the lives of underclass
people groups should lead us to discussions
on the approaches Jesus used in dealing
with the poor, the hurting, and the
outcasts of his day.
Even the controversial sides of hip-hop
can force us to get real with young people
on issues such as sex, violence, poverty,
racism, and sexism. Hip-hop can be used to
explore other cultures and ethnic groups
and to get in better touch with your own.
When one sees hip-hop as culture and not
just rap music, new doors are opened for
how we become learners, observers, and
missionaries to those in the culture and
those influenced by it. It allows us in contemporary
culture to be as Paul was when
he addressed the altars built to unknown
gods and used them as vehicles to present
the true God who can be known intimately
through Christ Jesus.
In my church in Minneapolis, hip-hop is
being used to create a new culture of the
emerging Christ-centered, multiethnic,
and urban community. Within our worship
experience we use spoken word,
dance, rap, and visual art to present biblical
truth. We've used hip-hop culture
through fashion to create a "dressed-down"
environment where people don't feel less
important in our church if they don't come
wearing their "Sunday best." We've used
hip-hop culture as a vehicle to tell not only
God's story, but to share our own.
Efrem Smith is the senior
pastor of The Sanctuary
Covenant Church in
Minneapolis, Minnesota as
well as an Itinerant Speaker
with Kingdom Building
Ministries. He also is the
author of the book Raising
Up Young Heroes, and an
advisory board member for
Youthworker.
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