Introduction - Enigma Embodied: The Curious Complexity of Kanye West

“There’s no way Hip Hop and religion work. No way!” “I just can’t see anything coming out of religion and Hip Hop. It’s like the two don’t even go together.” “Rap music is of the devil. To say there is any God in it is blasphemous!” These were direct quotes I received when I began my journey into the field of Religion and Hip Hop. I was met with firm opposition and the very notion of combining Hip Hop and religion left many angered, bewildered, confused, but definitely not speechless. It was a trifling time and the very thought of me pursuing a PhD that focused purely on the theological aspects of Tupac Amaru Shakur gave off blasphemous overtones to even the strongest “progressives” of that period. Well, times have changed. The study of Hip Hop in academic settings has grown exponentially

Yeezus Is Jesuz: Examining the Socio-Hermeneutical Transmediated Images of Jesus Employed by Kanye West

Kanye is enigmatic in many ways. His continuous reference to deity while still embracing a person like 452 makes him worth the study and effort to explore his contribution and effect in the Hip Hop cultural continuum. This article investigates, Kanye West from a theological and spiritual standpoint to provide insights from his theological aesthetics. While the ever-growing field of Hip Hop studies begins to explore religion in Hip Hop, the present work seeks to address this and develop new theologies/theories that fit both a Hip Hop and Black theology context. While the formal discipline of theology in the United States focuses on Christianity, and a good scope of this project takes a Judeo-Christian approach, it is noted that Black theology is much larger and complex than Judeo Christianity—such is the case with Kanye West as well. This project seeks to add to the study of Black theology grounded in a Hip Hop context. Using a duo methodological approach—qualitative media analysis and Jon Michael Spencer’s theomusicology—this article explores the symbolism and transmediation of Jesus in Kanye West’s music and concerts between 2011 and 2013. This research explores West’s transmediated images of Jesus through a socio-hermeneutical process—a qualitative analysis of language (verbal & non-verbal), imagery, and the tropes it produces for a Black theological discourse. Finally, this article will argue that West’s imagery of Jesus expands the imagination and worldview on the concept of Jesus and provides a Hip Hop socio-hermeneutic for Black theology

Beyond Western Approaches to Missions: Postindustrial Missions & The Missiology within Hip Hop Culture

https://place.asburyseminary.edu/firstfruitspapers/1025/thumbnail.jp

The Pedagogy of Hip Hop in Teaching Missiology: Exploring A Project Based Learning Environment using Elements of Hip Hop Culture as The Curriculum

https://place.asburyseminary.edu/firstfruitspapers/1033/thumbnail.jp

“Hi Auntie”: A Paradox of Hip Hop Socio-Political Resistance in Killmonger

This is one of a series of film reviews of Black Panther (2018), directed by Ryan Coogler

No Church in the Wild

https://place.asburyseminary.edu/firstfruitspapers/1153/thumbnail.jp

If I Ruled the World: Putting Hip Hop on the Atlas

“If I Ruled the World: Putting Hip Hop on the Atlas” contends for a third wave of Global Hip Hop Studies that builds on the work of the first two waves, identifies Hip Hop as an African diasporic phenomenon, and aligns with Hip Hop where there are no boundaries between Hip Hop inside and outside of the United States. Joanna Daguirane Da Sylva adds to the cipha with her examination of Didier Awadi. Da Sylva\u27s excellent work reveals the ways in which Hip Hoppa Didier Awadi elevates Pan-Africanism and uses Hip Hop as a tool to decolonize the minds of African peoples. The interview by Tasha Iglesias and myself of members of Generation Hip Hop and the Universal Hip Hop Museum provides a primary source and highlights two Hip Hop organizations with chapters around the world. Mich Yonah Nyawalo’s Negotiating French Muslim Identities through Hip Hop details Hip Hop artists Médine and Diam’s, who are both French and Muslim, and whose self-identification can be understood as political strategies in response to the French Republic’s marginalization of Muslims. In “Configurations of Space and Identity in Hip Hop: Performing ’Global South’,” Igor Johannsen adds to this special issue an examination of the spatiality of the Global South and how Hip Hoppas in the Global South oppose global hegemony. The final essay, “‘I Got the Mics On, My People Speak’: On the Rise of Aboriginal Australian Hip Hop,” by Benjamin Kelly and Rhyan Clapham, provides a thorough analysis of Aboriginal Hip Hop and situates it within postcolonialism. Overall, the collection of these essays points to the multiple identities, political economies, cultures, and scholarly fields and disciplines that Hip Hop interacts with around the world

The Hip in Hip Hop: Toward a Discipline of Hip Hop Studies

Editorial