How Hip Hop Explains the World: Hip Hop as the New Theology of Liberation

howhiphopexplainstheworld — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 20:12:03 +0000

Hip hop. One of the 20^th century’s rising forms of artistic expression. Born as a method of self expression amidst the slums of New York City, it would eventually become one of the biggest, if not (at least in this writer’s opinion) the biggest, cultural movements of our modern generation. What first began as a physical representation of the self through the art of bboying, the culture soon spread through other mediums of artistic expression such as emceeing, DJing, and graffiti. However, there is more to hip hop than just these four elements. It is a lifestyle. An attitude. Most importantly, however, it is a way of perceiving the world from an alternative perspective. From the perspective of the oppressed. The hood rats. The marginalized. To borrow a phrase from the great Frantz Fanon: “the wretched of the earth.” Although all four elements are essential to the culture, and at the risk of enduring the critiques of all the bboys, graffiti artists, and DJ’s I know, one cannot help but deny that out of all of them; it is the musical genre which has proven to have the most significant impact on the world. It provided a simple way for people in the inner city to express themselves. All that was needed was a pair of lips, a heart willing to express the gamut of human emotions, and the courage to do so without the fear of letting others know about the reality being expressed internally by the individual. It also wouldn’t hurt to have a steady, pounding beat, but I digress.

However, for the longest time hip hop, similar to the people who gave birth to it, have all too often been misunderstood. They are often the target of immediate criticism largely on the behalf of outsiders who lack the understanding of the conditions many of these artists endure. What’s more, one of the greatest fallacies of these critics’ (or should I say haters’) uninformed assessment of this art form is that they are quick to view them in a negative light. They take lyrics at face value, without delving into the deeper meaning of the words being spoken. I find it funny how often it is these critiques, or for lack of a better term “bougie motherfuckers”, that are quick to degrade hip hop. While at the same time swooning over classic Western literature as the pinnacle of human and artistic expression. Yes, Shakespeare is good and all, but you could learn just as much about the human condition from a song written by Tupac, with the right direction of course, as you can from good old Billy Shakespeare. Not to mention the fact that they would also take just as much from these lyrics if they actually took the time to analyze their content with the same fervor of a university English class on “the classics.”

The problem lies in that since this art form essentially began as a type of third world literature in the United States, it is often discredited and quickly labeled as misogynist, violent, and obscene before it is labeled beautiful, empowering, or romantic. But do not all of these qualities comprise the wide spectrum of human emotions, and as such, are valid outlets of artistic expression? After all, what is art but one person’s attempt to describe the emotions he or she feels at one particular instance, on one particular day. To put it bluntly, emotions will run wild, and it’s not always going to be pretty and happy. Just like people. At the same time, it is this writer’s assertion that hip hop is the new Theology of Liberation, a movement born out of such great minds as Paulo Freire and Gustavo Gutierrez, and their observations and experience with the poor. A tradition that would be later continued through the stories and lyrics of such rappers as Tupac, the Notorious B.I.G., and Jay-Z. This art form would soon become the new pedagogy of the oppressed, a new way of providing a generation of supposed “street rats” and “riff raff” autonomy, and ultimately, liberation.

~ Christian Carranza