Noise and Spirit: The Religious and Spiritual Sensibilities of Rap Music

Published by New York University Press 2003

Noise and Spirit

The Religious and Spiritual Sensibilities of Rap Music

Edited by: Anthony B. Pinn

https://doi.org/10.18574/nyu/9780814768594.001.0001

Overview
Contents

About this book

Rap music is often seen as a Black secular response to pressing issues of our time. Yet, like spirituals, the blues, and gospel music, rap has deep connections to African American religious traditions.
Noise and Spirit explores the diverse religious dimensions of rap stemming from Islam (including the Nation of Islam and Five Percent Nation), Rastafarianism, and Humanism, as well as Christianity. The volume examines rap’s dialogue with religious traditions, from the ways in which Islamic rap music is used as a method of religious and political instruction to the uses of both the blues and Black women’s rap for considering the distinction between God and the Devil.
The first section explores rap’s association with more easily recognizable religious traditions and communities such as Christianity and Islam. The next presents discussions of rap and important spiritual considerations, including on the topic of death. The final unit wrestles with ways to theologize about the relationship between the sacred and the profane in rap.

Author / Editor information

Pinn Anthony B. :

Anthony B. Pinn is Agnes Cullen Arnold Professor of Humanities and Professor of Religious Studies at Rice University, where he also serves as the executive director of the Society for the Study of Black Religion. His books include Varieties of African-American Religious Experience, Why Lord?: Suffering and Evil in Black Theology, and By These Hands: A Documentary History of African-American Humanism (NYU Press, 2001).

Reviews

Both a scholarly book and a pleasurable read.

Noise and Spirit is a thought provoking collection of empirical works that ultimately offer even the most reluctant of scholars a great vantage point from which to build on a continuing examination into, and further discussion of, the fragile and often contentious alliance between rap and religion. This is clearly a definitive work worth reading.

Cheryl L. Keyes,author of Rap Music and Street Consciousness:
In moving beyond the common misconception that rap is simply a secular expression, this volume offers a refreshing discussion about the tensions that exist between the sacred and profane. It foregrounds the spiritual and religious dimensions of rap music and the genre's interpolation and critique of Buddhist, Islamic, Christian, Rastafarian, and Humanist thought in an unprecedented way.

Craig Werner,author of Higher Ground: Aretha, Stevie, Curtis and America's Quest for Redemption:
Cutting through the din of confusion and controversy surrounding hip-hop, Noise and Spirit illuminates the spiritual struggles a the root of the music and the culture. The essays collected here brim with the energy of discovery and engagement, and leave no doubt that Tupac, KRS-One, and Queen Latifah are carrying on the tradition of Al Green, Mahalia Jackson, and the 'black unknown bards' who forged a redemptive vision in the fires of a furnace that continues to burn.

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
Acknowledgments Publicly Available Download PDF	ix
Introduction Making a World with a Beat: Musical Expression’s Relationship to Religious Identity and Experience Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
PART 1 Rap and Religious Traditions
1 African American Christian Rap: Facing “Truth” and Resisting It Garth Kasimu Baker-Fletcher Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	29
2 A Jihad of Words The Evolution of African American Islam and Contemporary Hip-Hop Juan M. Floyd-Thomas Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	49
3 Rap, Reggae, and Religion Noel Leo Erskine Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	71
4 “Handlin’My Business” Exploring Rap’s Humanist Sensibilities Anthony B. Pinn Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	85
PART II
5 Bringing Noise, Conjuring Spirit Rap as Spiritual Practice Mark Lewis Taylor Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	107
6 Rap as Wrap and Rapture North American Popular Culture and the Denial of Death James W. Perkinson Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	131
7 The Spirit Is Willing and So Is the Flesh The Queen in Hip-Hop Culture Leola A. Johnson Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	154
PART III Rap and the Art of “Theologizing”
8 The Rub Markets, Morals, and the “Theologizing” of Popular Music William C. Banfield Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	173
9 Rap, Religion, and New Realities The Emergence of a Religious Discourse in Rap Music Ralph C. Watkins Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	184
Selected Bibliography Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	193
About the Contributors Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	201
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	203

Language: English
Publisher: New York University Press
Audience: Professional and scholarly;

eBook

Published: November 1, 2003
ISBN: 9780814768594