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Rap and Spirituality
By
Marvin X
Rap poetry and spoken word originated
in Africa at the dawn of civilization, in the Nile
Valley and the classical West African cultures. The
poets were the priests, the magicians, the shamans, the
scholars, the prophets and warriors. These poets were
found in Moorish Spain, Arabia, Iraq and Persia,
geographical areas infused with African culture and
civilization.
In America, the African poetic mind
emerged during the 19th century, but more prominently
during the Black renaissance of the 1920s with Claude
McKay, Langston Hughes, Sterling Brown, Countee Cullen,
and during the 50s with the poets Bob Kaufman, LeRoi
Jones, Ted Joans, Margarete Walker, Gwen Brooks and
others.
Conscious rap is the direct
descendant of the 1960s Black Arts Movement: Sonia
Sanchez, Amiri Baraka, Askia Touré, Last Poets, Haki
Madhubuti, Nikki Giovanni, Marvin X, and others.
The Black Arts poetry was short lived
and conscious rap as well. Both were anathema to the US
sham democracy and were replaced by academic muddle and
street pussy and dick rap and pseudo gangsta rap. From a
cursory viewing of current rap videos, one would think
blacks are the world's greatest lovers, pimps and
gangsta, and black women are sexual freaks, whores and
gangsta bitches.
For revolutionary rap, one must check
out the Palestinians and Muslim fundamentalist poets.
They have the energy and message the blacks originated
but were forced to abandon by record company pimps and
low mentality black rappers. The BET music awards opened
with Waylans joking about deaf, dumb and blind
rappers—but it is no joke.
In the name of freedom of speech, we
shall not condemn any lyrics for we are absolutely
against censorship and abhor black bourgeoisie culture
police who espouse the moral high ground while they
wallow in conspicuous consumption and crass materialism
that is as morally decadent as that of the rappers and
hip hoppers they decry.
But for sure, the negative images in
rap videos and abrasive lyrics (and I am known to use
motherfucker, bitch and ho, on occasion) are a
desecration of our culture, actually an insult to our
ancestors who were paraded butt naked at slave marts
from New York's African village (Wall Street, still a
slave mart) to New Orleans and throughout the South,
throughout the Americas for that matter: Cuba, Jamaica,
Trinidad, Mexico, Brazil, Venezuela, Columbia, and
elsewhere.
Of course language is a weapon in the
cultural revolution, it can assault the enemy and free
the slave from linguistic bondage. The oppressor and his
lackeys cannot determine the language of the oppressed,
that is our human right, part of our struggle for self
determination. Ultimately, we determine and define the
terms of our existence.
We determine what is profane and
obscene. But what is more profane and obscene than
poverty, ignorance and disease? Don't use language as a
scapegoat for the continued exploitation and blood
sucking of the poor.
But the rap videos are the modern
coon shows, minstrel shows and battle royals of the
antebellum South. What progress have we made from the
slave mart moans to rapping about it's hard out here for
a pimp? Think of all the brothers who were lynched for
looking at a white woman. Snoop Dog can pimp white women
on TV because she is the last weapon in the white man's
arsenal against the black nation, as Elijah taught.
While you fought for freedom,
suddenly the white woman jumped out of the box like jack
to claim minority status and win rights and privilege
rightfully deserved by black men and women. Keep pimpin,
hustle and flow with your trailer house trash white
girl, but you will never be anything until you embrace
your black woman and stand with her, no matter how sick
she is or how sick you are—go to the doctor together.
Don't disgrace your mother with alien women. Remember
Samson and Delilah.
Unconscious rap derives from the
animal plane and must advance to the divine or spiritual
plane if it is to be beneficial to our people. I must
admit that I appreciate Christian rap in spite of lyrics
based on juvenile mythology glorifying the after life
and suggesting Jesus is God. If Jesus is God who was God
before Jesus was born?
At least Christian rap is better than
raps on the pussy and dick theme, glorifying crass
materialism that reveals poverty consciousness—people
who have money don't flash. How can anyone in their
right mind glorify diamonds and gold that Africans died
to procure for De Beers and others, Africans who had
their arms and hands cut off in wars for filthy diamond
merchants in Europe, Israel and New York?
Yes, better to rap about Jesus and
pie in the sky than sista got a big ole butt. In the
words of ancestor Paul Robeson, rappers must become
artistic freedom fighters or give up the game, for
rather than pimps, they are whores for the record
industry, the filthy capitalist bloodsuckers of the
poor.
Muslim rappers know their duty is to
teach the uncivilized. They know they shall suffer a
severe chastisement if they fail to perform their duty.
As descendants of Nile Valley poets,
the poets of classical West African civilization, the
poets of Arabia, of Persia, of Moorish Spain, whose
poems and science brought Europe out of the Dark Ages
into the Renaissance, and the poets who inspired our
people with the sorrow songs and songs of inspiration to
endure and transcend the terror of slavery and pseudo
Reconstruction, segregation and civil rites opportunism,
we must continue our radical tradition or be cursed by
our ancestors and God Almighty.
posted 3 July 2004 *
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update 30 July 2008 |
