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The Soul of Hip Hop: Rims, Timbs and a Cultural Theology
What is Hip Hop? Hip hop speaks in a voice that is sometimes gruff, sometimes enraged, sometimes despairing, sometimes hopeful. Hip hop is the voice of forgotten streets laying claim to the high life of rims and timbs and threads and bling. Hip hop speaks in the muddled language of would-be prophets--mocking the architects of the status quo and stumbling in the dark toward a blurred vision of a world made right. What is hip hop? It's a cultural movement with a traceable theological center. Daniel White Hodge follows the tracks of hip-hop theology and offers a path from its center to the cross, where Jesus speaks truth.
250 pages, Paperback
First published June 7, 2010
9 people are currently reading
71 people want to read
About the author
Daniel White Hodge
10 books5 followersDaniel White Hodge (PhD, School of Intercultural Studies, Fuller Theological Seminary) is associate professor of intercultural communications at North Park University in Chicago, where he also chairs the department of communication arts and is research lead for the Catalyst 606__ program. He also serves as editor in chief of the Journal of Hip Hop Studies. He is the author of Heaven Has a Ghetto, The Soul of Hip Hop, and Hip Hop's Hostile Gospel: A Post Soul Theological Exploration.
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
July 1, 2015
I was aware of this book for a long time as the author was an adjunct professor briefly at my university when I was there. I really wanted to read this book as a the intersection of hip hop and Christianity allured me. I am a Christian and I, since junior high, have been a hip hop head. I tried finding this book literally for years, until I realized I could get it on Kindle. I bought it right away and started reading. Honestly, I was disappointed. It got better as it went along and some of the content on inner city missions was good. But as 2 stars on Goodreads says "it was okay," I'll just say it was okay.
Early in the book Hodge writes that this topic was his master's thesis which he evolved into his doctoral dissertation. That was very telling to me. I wanted to read a book with original ideas and compelling writing, but this, from a literary perspective, falls short. He would start down one train of thought and then share long quote after block quote then another quote and it was tiring to read. The best parts of this book was when he was sharing from his own experience, I wish he would have done more of that. It would have been more enjoyable to read. All the stuff was really heady and obviously, he's very intelligent and well-read, but you write with an audience in mind. For a dissertation where people will critique your sources and argument, this is great, but for a book, this is not really that well-written. Dissertations read like "hey look at what I know" in an often choppy manner, whereas books read like "let's take this journey together and see what we learn" and it flows. The Soul of Hip Hop reads like the latter.
Content-wise, I was bummed at how much this book dated itself. He also relied so heavily on 2Pac that I feel like I didn't learn much about other influencers, places and the like. 2Pac was huge, of course, but there are equally big artists in the 80's (Run-DMC, Public Enemy, etc.) that could have gotten more attention, as well as other 90's guys (Nas, Biggie, Snoop, Eminem) and up through the 2000s to current. You could make a case that 2Pac is the most important, but he wrote on him to the neglect of others. It was also a bummer that what he calls "Holy Hip Hop" (a kind of corny label that I wasn't previously familiar with) was relegated to an outlier in a book that is supposed to be about the intersection of God and Hip Hop. Now, I'm plenty aware that Christian rap is traditionally corny, disingenuous, and just plain not good. But you might as well talk about it if you're going to talk about the church's role in the hip hop community. Not to mention, there has recently been a quality and respected sound of Christian rap that has found adherents that aren't even believers (Humble Beast and Reach Records to name a couple). Again that gets back to how this book dates itself.
Ultimately, the biggest problem is after finishing this book, I can't really give you a good definition of what the "soul of hip hop" is and I think that was supposed to be the purpose of the book. I think Hodge is probably a super smart and passionate guy and has a lot of good stuff to say, but this book just misses the mark for me. I hate to send it through the ringer as I don't normally do that, but it should have gone through a few more editors and a few more revisions between what was his dissertation and what is this book currently. I'd love for someone to re-visit this type of content but with a more fresh vision of where God really shows up in the hip hop community and write about it with authenticity, comprehensiveness and flow.
Early in the book Hodge writes that this topic was his master's thesis which he evolved into his doctoral dissertation. That was very telling to me. I wanted to read a book with original ideas and compelling writing, but this, from a literary perspective, falls short. He would start down one train of thought and then share long quote after block quote then another quote and it was tiring to read. The best parts of this book was when he was sharing from his own experience, I wish he would have done more of that. It would have been more enjoyable to read. All the stuff was really heady and obviously, he's very intelligent and well-read, but you write with an audience in mind. For a dissertation where people will critique your sources and argument, this is great, but for a book, this is not really that well-written. Dissertations read like "hey look at what I know" in an often choppy manner, whereas books read like "let's take this journey together and see what we learn" and it flows. The Soul of Hip Hop reads like the latter.
Content-wise, I was bummed at how much this book dated itself. He also relied so heavily on 2Pac that I feel like I didn't learn much about other influencers, places and the like. 2Pac was huge, of course, but there are equally big artists in the 80's (Run-DMC, Public Enemy, etc.) that could have gotten more attention, as well as other 90's guys (Nas, Biggie, Snoop, Eminem) and up through the 2000s to current. You could make a case that 2Pac is the most important, but he wrote on him to the neglect of others. It was also a bummer that what he calls "Holy Hip Hop" (a kind of corny label that I wasn't previously familiar with) was relegated to an outlier in a book that is supposed to be about the intersection of God and Hip Hop. Now, I'm plenty aware that Christian rap is traditionally corny, disingenuous, and just plain not good. But you might as well talk about it if you're going to talk about the church's role in the hip hop community. Not to mention, there has recently been a quality and respected sound of Christian rap that has found adherents that aren't even believers (Humble Beast and Reach Records to name a couple). Again that gets back to how this book dates itself.
Ultimately, the biggest problem is after finishing this book, I can't really give you a good definition of what the "soul of hip hop" is and I think that was supposed to be the purpose of the book. I think Hodge is probably a super smart and passionate guy and has a lot of good stuff to say, but this book just misses the mark for me. I hate to send it through the ringer as I don't normally do that, but it should have gone through a few more editors and a few more revisions between what was his dissertation and what is this book currently. I'd love for someone to re-visit this type of content but with a more fresh vision of where God really shows up in the hip hop community and write about it with authenticity, comprehensiveness and flow.
November 5, 2024
As far as required-for-class books go, this was one of my favorites I’ve had to read. I knew almost nothing about hip-hop going into this class/book, and I feel like I understand so so much more about the core values of hip-hop culture after this book. This book was easy to read and connect to, even if it was definitely academic in nature. I appreciated how the author (my professor!) started each chapter with a personal story, as it ensured I was engaged each time. I respected this professor a lot before I read this book, which certainly contributed to me enjoying the content within the book. I agree with most of his takes about Christianity, and I love his ideas about making Christianity more applicable to those traditionally rejected by Christian ideals.
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September 17, 2012I disagree with Hodge - he takes what unfortunately amounts to a classic liberal position (drawing heavily on Cone's work in black liberation theology). At the same time, it is well thought out and deep, and is worth interacting with. I appreciate especially his use of musical analysis as well as quoting a number of cultural critics, as well as his personal buy-in. His discussions on social justice and the incarnation are interesting - I'd like to compare some of his writings to Bonhoeffer sometime.
August 8, 2015
This was a wonderful book for Jesus Followers who love the Hip Hop/Rap genre. Most of the time this genre is met by the Christian community with disdain or judgment. The author does a good job of explaining the heart behind this genre, and what our response should be to it as followers of Christ. I did not agree with some of his assertions on theology as it applies to this genre, but it gave me a better understanding, and greater appreciation for Hip Hop/Rap music especially as it applies to myself as a Christian.
September 30, 2014
Loved this book. Found it relevant with so really great ideas/advice for urban ministry.
February 22, 2015
Does a lot to align the hip hop movement with Christianity. What is quite relevant is that the church should and must do more to reach out to the hip hop generation through means of compassion as oppose to judgement. The church must also be committed to strategically addressing social injustice that exist in our community beyond class issues.
January 29, 2017
This is a very helpful introduction to the theology of hip hop. Hodge uses examples from the lyrics and lives of rappers and hip hoppers as well as examples from church leaders to explore how the sacred, secular and profane interact. I found his book helpful for me as someone interacting with people who really value hip hop.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews