Spirituality in Hip Hop Pt. 1: Sunday Service
“Like art, religion has been an attempt to find meaning and value in life, despite the suffering that flesh is heir to.”
The above quote is from Karen Armstrong’s book, “A History of God: The 4,000-Year Quest of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.” I’m nearly certain she wasn’t thinking about hip hop as she researched her authoritative history of monotheism, but rap is where my analogy begins.
An enigmatic figure born of squalor defies the odds to become a champion of the downtrodden. A betrayal begets a violent and premature demise. In death, the words and actions of our protagonist grow to mythic proportions. New Testament or hip hop parable?
“Never forget in the story of Jesus the hero was killed by the state”
A Book of Psalms born of the streets may not work for some of you. After all, rap’s littered with lyrics touting unsavory isms: materialism, sexism, hedonism, nihilism. In 1993, political activist C. Delores Tucker called hip hop “pornographic filth.”
The reality is that for all of the beauty in this world there’s equal measure grotesque. Countless emcees have used hip hop’s pulpit to transcend the ugly. In many ways, their lyrics are a reflection of society; sacred and profane.
Michael Eric Dyson’s, the multi-hyphenate, academic, and hip hop fan, made the following observation in his book, “Jay-Z: Made In America.”
“A useful analogy can be made between rapping and preaching. Rappers can be conceived as evangelists who promote the idea that something can come from nothing and that negative circumstances might produce positive outcomes. Theology and sociology nicely combine.”
Like a good preacher, Pulitzer prize-winning rapper Kendrick Lamar camouflages the pious in plain sight. On “How Much a Dollar Cost?” off his 2015 “To Pimp a Butterfly” album, Lamar describes an exchange with a South African panhandler. The homeless man’s begging is unrelenting. Growing increasingly frustrated Lamar envisions violence towards the pauper as they exchange glares. Instead, he scolds the man.
“So I'ma tell you like I told the last bum
Crumbs and pennies, I need all of mines...”
It’s revealed in the allegorical final verse that the beggar isn’t who he seems.
“He looked at me and said, "Know the truth, it'll set you free
You're lookin' at the Messiah, the son of Jehovah, the higher power
The choir that spoke the word, the Holy Spirit
The nerve of Nazareth and I'll tell you just how much a dollar cost
The price of having a spot in Heaven, embrace your loss—I am God."
Lamar’s sermon is on the pitfalls of greed and selfishness. A lesson for those who worship at the altar of materialism.
This isn’t the only parable on “To Pimp a Butterfly.” Lamar chats it up with Lucy, short for Lucifer, on “For Sale?” On the track, the fallen angel boasts of the material possessions that she can provide the young rapper.
Season 5 of the Dissect podcast goes complete rap nerd and breaks down the themes of sin and redemption in Kendrick Lamar’s “DAMN” album.*
Faustian-like bargains, where one sacrifices their soul to satisfy worldly desires, isn’t uncommon in hip hop. Snoop Dogg rhymes of such a deal on “Murder was the Case,” as does DMX on “Damien,” and Immortal Technique in his chilling “Dance with the Devil.”
Whether Dante Alighieri’s “Divine Comedy,” TS Eliot’s “Ash Wednesday,” the “Epic of Gilgamesh,” or the works of Rumi, poetry has been used for religious expression for centuries.
I would argue that poetry is the language of the divine and what is rap if not poetry over an 808 beat?
*Kendrick Lamar’s early works are chock-full of Christian metaphors, but on his most recent album, “Damn,” (2017) he begins to incorporate the teachings of the Hebrew Israelites into his rhymes. Let’s see what he’s talking about in his long-awaited follow-up album expected to drop this year.