Discursive Construction of African-American Identities and Spirituality: A Comparison of Muslim Hip Hop and 1960s Jazz Avant-Garde

Abstract

This article analyzes the discourse of social change and African-American spirituality and how these have become intertwined with music as discursive vehicles for identity construction. We first focus on Muslimhiphop.com, a website which features several African-American Muslim artists. Second, we relate the above to the jazz avant-garde of the early 1960s. Islamic hip hop can be considered an alternative to mainstream hip hop and a medium for negotiating a Muslim identity and embracing social change. Similarly, free jazz expression once supported African-American society in establishing its status, beliefs, and rights.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

^[1] For auditory introductions to the music, listen to Free Jazz by Ornette Coleman (1961) and The New Wave in Jazz by John Coltrane et al. (1965).

^[2] In Rantakallio's Making Music, Making Muslims, the author treated the website as a case study of how Muslims represent and construct social and religious identities within global hip hop and the Muslim community in an online context. Some samples of its hip-hop-related sections appear in this study.

^[3] Since many Muslims in the United States are either immigrants or their descendants, Muslims are an ethnically diverse group with several intersecting identities. Most American-born Muslims are African-American, a number of whom are converts. This trend is related to the history of slavery and, to some extent, represents a rejection of the perceived “whiteness” of Christianity (Ba–Yunus and Kone 22–24, 34–37, 39, 42, 53, 55–59).

^[4] Regarding the art of jazz, a similarly influential era emerged as early as the 1940s, when African-American jazz musicians laid the foundations of bebop (see DeVeaux, The Birth of Bebop).

^[5]Fairclough's definitions of discourse encompasses the text as well as the actual social occurrence and process(es) of producing that text (3–4). We see that music also figures among discourses, so in this sense a passage of music can be considered a “text.” Our discourse analysis of MHH entailed exploring what kind of patterns of meaning construction and organization are present in the language appearing on the website. For a more detailed description, see Rantakallio.

^[6] The Qur'an is ambiguous about the permissibility of music in that it does not explicitly forbid it. In some hadiths (collections of the sayings and actions of the Prophet Muhammad), the prophet permits music, whereas others, like the Qur'an, are vague on this matter. Theologians who oppose music claim that it is a distraction from the pious life due to its ability to incite pleasure and excitement. Nevertheless, the Sufi mystics are an example of a group that have continued their musical tradition and for whom music, despite the controversy surrounding it, has remained a central tenet of their religiousness over centuries. Nevertheless, some religious authorities have considered this view heretical (Shiloah 4–5, 12–16, 31–34, 40–43; Shehadi 95–102). Although many lay Muslims do not consider music making or listening halal, some clearly do, and Muslim hip hop is evidence of this.

^[7] According to Krims, excessive showcasing of wealth is a US-specific feature (155). We argue that the hip-hop scene outside the USA is distinct and focuses less on money and sex. For more on non-North American hip hop, see Mitchell'sGlobal Noise.

^[8] Shapiro is Jewish by background and later converted to Islam.

^[9] Perhaps the most prominent examples are Public Enemy';s seminal albums Fear of a Black Planet (1990) and It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back (1988), as well as Boogie Down Productions'By All Means Necessary (1988). The title of their album alludes to Malcolm X's famous “by any means necessary” rhetoric.

^[10] For information about these artists, see Gioia'sThe History of Jazz.

^[11] However, one must question whether the themes in the artist profiles and written interviews are what the artists themselves wish to present, whether they are Mike Shapiro's selective views of what Muslim artists should focus on, or whether he has simply compiled some of the common concerns of the artists, and especially whether this division between “good” and “bad” Muslim hip hop is widely shared. Shapiro has the power to select the artists featured on his website and to administer its content, and evokes many of the same themes in the radio interviews that appear in the artist profiles and interviews.

^[12] For album information and reviews, see Woideck (233–36).

^[13] For information on these artists, see Gioia. For auditory references, listen to Sun Ra'sThe Heliocentric Worlds of Sun Ra, Volume One (1965), Albert Ayler Trio's Spiritual Unity (1965), and Sanders'sKarma (1969).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Ari Poutiainen

Ari Poutiainen works as an associate professor of music education at the University of Helsinki. He is the author of Stringprovisation: A Fingering Strategy for Jazz Violin Improvisation. His other academic contributions include publications on music education, improvisation, and creativity. Poutiainen is also an active contemporary jazz composer and violinist. He leads various ensembles and projects and performs regularly in Europe. He appears on approximately 50 albums.

Inka Rantakallio

Inka Rantakallio has an MA in the study of religions and is now a doctoral candidate in musicology at the University of Turku. Her dissertation research focuses on the discursive construction of spirituality in Finnish hip-hop music. She is an active member of the Nordic Hip-Hop Studies Network and was one of the main organizers of the international Critical Hip-Hop Studies Symposium in the fall of 2014, a pioneering event widely acknowledged in academia and media.