Big Daddy
Fight or die fighting, no surrender.
Data shows that references to Islam in hip-hop lyrics, once pervasive, are at an all-time low—while rappers are talking about Christianity more than ever.
What’s behind the change in hip-hop’s religious preference? A change in the people making the music, for starters. The late ’80s and early ’90s were rife with Muslim rappers and others who identified with the Nation of Islam and the Five Percent Nation, two groups that are rooted in Islamic teachings though their members may not consider themselves Muslim. Even rappers outside those groups were using Islamic language that infiltrated mainstream hip-hop. In apaper outlining the relationship between hip-hop and Islam, University of Arkansas anthropologist Ted Swedenburg writes that many Five Percent Nation terms “such as ‘droppin’ science,’ ‘sup G?’ and ‘let me break it down for ya’ have achieved such common currency within the hip-hop community that they have lost their original resonance, at least for fans who know nothing of Islam in rap.”
The best known rappers affiliated with the Nation of Islam, the Five Percent Nation and more traditional Islam include Brand Nubian, Nas, Rakim, Gang Starr, Mobb Deep, Poor Righteous Teachers and several members of the Wu-Tang Clan. Many are still recording and performing in their 40s, but they don’t hold much relevance to hip-hop’s young fan base. Islamic and Islamic-sympathizing rappers are older, less prolific and, in the case of Ice Cube, too busy making bad family movies to preach the gospel of Muhammad or Farrakhan. In their place is a generation of rappers who grew up during a time when the influence of the Nation of Islam and Five Percent Nation was on the wane. They also grew up in a time when hip-hop wasn’t confined to the inner cities where those groups were strongest, meaning religious views in hip-hop have begun to better reflect those of America at large.
It is of no surprise to me that the level of consciousness in rap has coincidentally declined along with the mentioning of Islam and the decline in Muslim/Islamic rappers.
..And I say that not because "Allah" made them conscious.
I don't know that, and I don't really care.
It's the knowledge of self, and the empowerment, and the sense of direction, and the fearlessness, that being under the influence of an NOI "way of living/thinking" gave those rappers, that is what's missing.
