The Hip-Hop Church
The Hip-Hop Church

Author: Efrem Smith

Publisher: InterVarsity Press

Published: 2012-04-08

Total Pages: 228

ISBN-13: 0830869727

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Hip-hop is here. The beats ring out in our cities. Hip-hop culture is all around us: in the clothes youth wear, in the music they listen to, in the ways they express themselves. It is the language they speak, the rhythm they move to. It is a culture familiar with the hard realities of our broken world; the generation raised with rap knows about the pain. They need to know about the hope. Enter the hip-hop church. Like the culture it rises from, the hip-hop church is relevant and bold. And it speaks to the heart. In this book, pastors Efrem Smith and Phil Jackson show the urgency of connecting hip-hop culture and church to reach a generation with the gospel of Jesus Christ. They give practical ideas from their urban churches and other hip-hop churches about how to engage and incorporate rap, break dancing, poetry and deejays to worship Jesus and preach his Word. Hip-hop culture is shaping the next generation. Ignoring it will not reduce its influence; it will only separate us from the youth moving to its rhythm. How will they hear Christ's message of truth and hope if we don't speak their language? And how can we speak their language if we don't understand and embrace their culture? Hear the beat. Join the beat. Become the beat that brings truth and hope to a hungry, hurting generation.

I Pastor Hip Hop
I Pastor Hip Hop

Author: Stacey Jones

Publisher:

Published: 2018-07-15

Total Pages: 252

ISBN-13: 9781723182259

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My dichotomy between Hip-Hop and the Church has appeared a conflict to many, but to me, it never has been. At the same time that I was falling in love with Hip-Hop, I was immersed and in love with the church. My introduction into Christianity is from the Black Pentecostal Tradition (Church of God in Christ). My life was quite busy as a young person; I played drums, sang lead in the junior choir, and attended Sunday school and Young People Willing Workers (YPWW). I had a strong love for both cultures, but I was told by the church that one could not mesh or intertwine Hip-Hop and the church, and so the lifelong conflict begins! Like many of our religious forefathers on western soil, we continue to shut out different forms of expression due to the fear of becoming "too worldly". Have we ever stopped to think that the issue is even deeper? Some of us want to control the move of God because it doesn't fit into our structure or programmed liturgy! However, during the early inception of Hip-Hop culture, people thought it was absurd and sacrilegious if Hip-Hop shared the stage and the microphone with the Church. Due to the church's rejection of Hip-Hop, the younger people from my generation started to develop a contempt towards people within the Christian Faith community. This contempt brought an even stronger divide, and it seemed as though this separation continued to perpetuate. Part of it has to do with the generational divide and the methodology.

Hip-Hop Redemption
Hip-Hop Redemption

Author: Ralph Basui Watkins

Publisher: Baker Academic

Published: 2011-10

Total Pages: 176

ISBN-13: 080103311X

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A sociologist and pop-culture expert offers a balanced engagement of hip-hop and rap music, showing God's presence in the music and the message.

Holy Hip Hop in the City of Angels
Holy Hip Hop in the City of Angels

Author: Christina Zanfagna

Publisher: Univ of California Press

Published: 2017-08-29

Total Pages: 218

ISBN-13: 0520296206

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A free ebook version of this title is available through Luminos, University of California Press’s Open Access publishing program for monographs. Visit www.luminosoa.org to learn more. In the 1990s, Los Angeles was home to numerous radical social and environmental eruptions. In the face of several major earthquakes and floods, riots and economic insecurity, police brutality and mass incarceration, some young black Angelenos turned to holy hip hop—a movement merging Christianity and hip hop culture—to “save” themselves and the city. Converting street corners to open-air churches and gangsta rap beats into anthems of praise, holy hip hoppers used gospel rap to navigate complicated social and spiritual realities and to transform the Southland’s fractured terrains into musical Zions. Armed with beats, rhymes, and bibles, they journeyed through black Lutheran congregations, prison ministries, African churches, reggae dancehalls, hip hop clubs, Nation of Islam meetings, and Black Lives Matter marches. Zanfagna’s fascinating ethnography provides a contemporary and unique view of black LA, offering a much-needed perspective on how music and religion intertwine in people's everyday experiences.

The Black Church and Hip Hop Culture
The Black Church and Hip Hop Culture

Author: Emmett G. Price

Publisher: Scarecrow Press

Published: 2011-11-10

Total Pages: 230

ISBN-13: 081088237X

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Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, the Black Church stood as the stronghold of the Black Community, fighting for equality and economic self-sufficiency and challenging its body to be self-determined and self-aware. Hip Hop Culture grew from disenfranchised urban youth who felt that they had no support system or resources. Impassioned with the same urgent desires for survival and hope that their parents and grandparents had carried, these youth forged their way from the bottom of America’s belly one rhyme at a time. For many young people, Hip Hop Culture is a supplement, or even an alternative, to the weekly dose of Sunday-morning faith. In this collection of provocative essays, leading thinkers, preachers, and scholars from around the country confront both the Black Church and the Hip Hop Generation to realize their shared responsibilities to one another and the greater society. Arranged into three sections, this volume addresses key issues in the debate between two of the most significant institutions of Black Culture. The first part, “From Civil Rights to Hip Hop,” explores the transition from one generation to another through the transmission—or lack thereof—of legacy and heritage. Part II, “Hip Hop Culture and the Black Church in Dialogue,” explores the numerous ways in which the conversation is already occurring—from sermons to theoretical examinations and spiritual ponderings. Part III, “Gospel Rap, Holy Hip Hop, and the Hip Hop Matrix,” clarifies the perspectives and insights of practitioners, scholars, and activists who explore various expressions of faith and the diversity of locations where these expressions take place. In The Black Church and Hip Hop Culture, pastors, ministers, theologians, educators, and laypersons wrestle with the duties of providing timely commentary, critical analysis, and in some cases practical strategies toward forgiveness, healing, restoration, and reconciliation. With inspiring reflections and empowering discourse, this collection demonstrates why and how the Black Church must re-engage in the lives of those who comprise the Hip Hop Generation.

Jesus and the Hip-hop Prophets
Jesus and the Hip-hop Prophets

Author: Alex Gee

Publisher: InterVarsity Press

Published: 2003-01-01

Total Pages: 124

ISBN-13: 9780830832347

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John Teter and Alex Gee invite you to explore the world of Lauryn Hill, Tupac Shakur and the "hip-hop prophets"--following their lyrical messages to ultimate fulfillment at the feet of the Prophet-King Jesus.

The Soul of Hip Hop
The Soul of Hip Hop

Author: Daniel White Hodge

Publisher: InterVarsity Press

Published: 2010-08-21

Total Pages:

ISBN-13: 0830861289

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What is Hip Hop? Hip hop speaks in a voice that is sometimes gruff, sometimes enraged, sometimes despairing, sometimes hopeful. Hip hop is the voice of forgotten streets laying claim to the high life of rims and timbs and threads and bling. Hip hop speaks in the muddled language of would-be prophets--mocking the architects of the status quo and stumbling in the dark toward a blurred vision of a world made right. What is hip hop? It's a cultural movement with a traceable theological center. Daniel White Hodge follows the tracks of hip-hop theology and offers a path from its center to the cross, where Jesus speaks truth.

Urban God Talk
Urban God Talk

Author: Andre E. Johnson

Publisher: Lexington Books

Published: 2013-08-28

Total Pages: 247

ISBN-13: 0739168304

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Urban God Talk: Constructing a Hip Hop Spirituality, edited by Andre Johnson, is a collection of essays that examine the religious and spiritual in hip hop. The contributors argue that the prevailing narrative that hip hop offers nothing in the way of religion and spirituality is false. From its beginning, hip hop has had a profound spirituality and advocates religious views—and while not orthodox or systemic, nevertheless, many in traditional orthodox religions would find the theological and spiritual underpinnings in hip hop comforting, empowering, and liberating. In addition, this volume demonstrates how scholars in different disciplines approach the study of hip hop, religion, and spirituality. Whether it is a close reading of a hip hop text, ethnography, a critical studies approach or even a mixed method approach, this study is a pedagogical tool for students and scholars in various disciplines to use and appropriate for their own research and understanding. Urban God Talk will inspire not only scholars to further their research, but will also encourage publishers to print more in this field. The contributors to this in-depth study show how this subject is an underrepresented area within hip hop studies, and that the field is broad enough for numerous monographs, edited works, and journal publications in the future.