Creating Sacred Spaces: The Power of Rap Music on the Religioius Consciousness

Abstract

Rap music is the sound and soul of the Hip Hop culture—a powerful social, musical, and political phenomenon of the late twentieth century. Born among the youth in the poor districts of New York, the genre has extensive roots: Puerto Rican, Latino, and Jamaican sounds, African tribal drumming, spoken poetry of the 1930s Harlem renaissance, blues music, spirituals, slam poetry, and oratory of the Civil Rights Movement. Developing right along-side this musical genre was the Five Percent Nation, a relatively unknown off-shoot of the Nation of Islam, that embraced the hip hop culture from its inception. God Hop, as some call the rap associated with the Five Percenters, became a natural conduit for the Nationʼs belief system. This paper will employ contemporary spatial theory to reveal how this unique symbiosis aided the construction of three categories of sacred space for the Five Percenters and how rap continues to serve as the glue that unites the group and also captures the imagination of new generations. More than just the public face of this new religious movement, rap provides physical gathering space, establishes ideological sacred space by articulating and contextuatizing sacred history, and continues to cast a vision for creation of a new, idealized just world order. Extensive new research traces the genre from its inception among marginalized, inner-city youth to the powerful prestigious rap artists of today, including Jay Z, Busta Rhymes, and the Wu Tang Clan. Both the Nation and Hip Hop have gone global, with Buddhist, Jewish, and Muslim rap artists also creating new cultural spaces while spreading a powerful, positive counter-culture message for social change—proving the adage: never underestimate the power of music on the religious consciousness. ATINER CONFERENCE PAPER SERIES No: ART2018-2571