Re-inventing Islam with Unique Modern Tones: Muslim Hip Hop Artists as Verbal Mujahidin

Abstract

This article explores the complex relationship between Hip Hop Culture and the Islamic Faith, which have both been constructed by dominating discourses as “threats to American civilization.” Like the Muslim umma, the Global Hip Hop Nation functions as a worldwide network of “believers” who have created “nationhood” through cultural, ideological, and imaginary means. I view Hip Hop artists as “verbal mujahidin,” with their speech activities serving as alternative media sources narrating the experiences of a “nation.”

Keywords:

• black american muslim movements
• discourse
• hip-hop culture
• islam
• power
• verbal mujahidin

Notes

Full interview appears in James Spady, H. Samy Alim, & Samir Meghelli. Forthcoming. Tha Global Cipha: Hip Hop Culture and Conciousness. Philadelphia: Black History Museum Press.

H. Samy Alim. Exploring the transglobal Hip Hop Umma. In miriam cooke and Bruce Lawrence (eds.), Muslim Networks: From Hajj to Hip Hop. (Chapel Hill, NC: UNC Press, 2005).

Michael Eric Dyson. Performance, protest and prophesy in the culture of Hip Hop. Black Sacred Music: A Journal of Theomusicology 5(1), (Spring, 1991), see p. 22.

Jeff Chang. Can't Stop Won't Stop: A History of the Hip Hop Generation (New York: St. Martin's Press, 2005).

Public Enemy. “Fight the Power.” Fear of a Black Planet (Def Jam, 1990).

Harry Allen. Righteous indignation: Rappers talk about the strength of Hip Hop and Islam. The Source 48 (March/April, 1991): pp. 48–53.

Akbar S. Ahmed and Donnan Hastings, eds. 1994. Islam, Globalization and Postmodernity (London: Routledge, 1994).

Anita M. Weiss. Challenges for Muslim women in a postmodern world. In Akbar S. Ahmed and Hastings Donnan, eds., Islam, Globalization and Postmodernity (London and New York: Routledge, 1994), pp. 127–140.

James G. Spady and Joseph Eure. Nation Conscious Rap: The Hip Hop Vision. (New York/Philadelphia: PC International Press/Black History Museum, 1991). This book is the first part in the Umum Hip Hop Trilogy. The other two parts are: James G. Spady, Stefan Dupres, and Charles Lee. Twisted Tales in the Hip Hop Streets of Philly (Philadelphia: Black History Museum Press, 1995) and James G. Spady, H. Samy Alim, and Charles Lee (Art Director). 1999. Street Conscious Rap (Philadelphia: Black History Museum Press, 1999).

Bernard Zekri. Rap et Islam (Documentary film, 1992).

James Spady. 1994. Living in America where the brother got to get esoterica: The Philly Hip Hop Language and philosophy of Schooly D. Fourth Dimension 4(1): pp. 26–27.

J. Spady, H. S. Alim, & S. Meghelli. Forthcoming. Tha Global Cipha: Hip Hop Culture and Conciousness (Philadelphia: Black History Museum Press).

David Toop. 1991. Prince Akeem: Coming down like Babylon. The Face (UK), (October 1991).

Charlie Ahearn. The Five Percent Solution. Spin 6(11) (February, 1991): pp. 54–57, 76.

Tricia Rose. 1994. Black Noise: Rap Music and Black Culture in Contemporary America (Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press).

Andre J. M Prevos. Postcolonial popular music in France. In Tony Mitchell, ed., Global Noise: Rap and Hip Hop Outside the USA (Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press, 2001). See also: Samir Meghelli. Returning to The Source, En Diaspora: Historicizing the emergence of the Hip Hop Cultural Movement in France. Proud Flesh (3) (2004).

David Toop. Rap Attack: From African Jive to New York Hip Hop (London: Pluto Press, 1984 [1994, 1999).

James G Spady. 2004. The Hip Hop Nation as a site of African-American cultural and historical memory. Dumvoices Revue, pp. 154–166.

Havelock Nelson and Michael Gonzales. Bring the Noise: A Guide to Rap Music and Hip Hop Culture (New York: Harmony Books, 1991). See also: William Eric Perkins. Nation of Islam ideology in the Rap of Public Enemy. Black Sacred Music: A Journal of Theomusiology 5(1): pp. 41–50 and Ronald Jamal Stephens. 1991. The three waves of contemporary rap music. The emergency of black and emergence of rap. Black Sacred Music: A Journal of Theomusiology 5(1) (1991): pp. 25–40.

Felicia M. Miyakawa. 2005. Five Percent Rap: God Hop's Music, Message, and Black Muslim Mission (Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 2005). See also: Kathleen O'Connor. Forthcoming. Alternative to “Religion” in an African American Islamic Community: The Five Percent Nation of Gods and Earths.

Anthony B. Pinn, ed. 2003. The Religious and Spiritual Sensibilities of Rap Music (New York: New York University Press, 2003). See especially Juan Floyd-Thomas' chapter, “A jihad of words: The evolution of African American Islam and contemporary Hip Hop,” pp. 49–72.

In Spady, and Eure, p. 74.

Personal interview with author, October 2000.

H. Samy Alim. Hip Hop Nation Language. In Edward Finegan and John Rickford, (eds.), Language in the USA: Perspectives for the 21st Century (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004). See also: H. Samy Alim. 2004b. You Know My Steez: An Ethnographic and Sociolinguistic Study of a Black American Speech Community (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2004) and H. Samy Alim, Roc the Mic Right: The Language of Hip Hop Culture (New York & London: Routledge, 2006).

Personal interview with author, November 2000.

Ted Swedenburg. 2002. Hip Hop music in the transglobal Islamic underground. In H. Samy Alim, ed., Black Culture's Global Impact. Special issue of The Black Arts Quarterly 6(3) (Stanford, CA: Stanford University, Committee on Black Performing Arts, 2002), see p. 16.

Personal interview with author, December 2001.

Personal interview with author, November 2001.

Personal interview with author, March 2002.

Personal interview with author, July 2002.

In Spady and Eure, p. 91.

In the archives of <www.daveyd.com>

Full interview to appear in Spady. Alim, & Meghelli.

Ted, Swedenburg. 2001. Islamic Hip Hop versus Islamophobia. In Tony Mitchell, ed., Global Noise: Rap and Hip Hop Outside the USA (Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press, 2001).