Urban Shalom: God's Vision for the Hip-Hop Culture

There has been a lot of debate as to whether Hip-Hop culture is a legitimate sub-culture and therefore a people group. I will not attempt here to retrace the arguments within these intense dialogues, this is after all just a blog and one of my dear friends and veteran bloggers reminds me of my blogging weakness…”you need to be better disciplined in the art of brevity”. So in the spirit of that wisdom I will simply say that I am a real person from the Hip-Hop culture. We are a real people group and in need of Shalom as much as any other people group. We have our history, forms of expression, politics, traditions, ect. I highly recommend a book by my good friend Tommy Kyllonen, pastor of Crossover Church in Tampa, FL entitled, ‘Unorthodox: Church, hip-hop, culture’ for a great intro to the origins of hip-hop as a movement and as a culture. One more suggestion would be William Branch’s (a.k.a. Ambassador) articles on the Church’s mission to the Hip-Hop culture especially his responses to Craig G. Lewis.

Shalom is God’s vision for humanity and the world he has created as reveled in the Hebrew Torah, Wisdom Literature and Prophets. It is his plan to bring this world “back to rights” from the perverted thing it has become since evil’s appearance into it. Shalom is the world as it was created to be, should be now and indeed will be; a world of justice, right relationships and delight (see Nicholas Wolterstorff’s essay, ‘Teaching for Shalom’ in Educating for Shalom). Indeed the ushering in of this beautiful world is the primary vocation of everyone who would call themselves a follower of God in Jesus.

The Urban culture is no exception to the desperate need for Shalom, nor has God exempted us. Rather he has called many of us to himself and has charged us to live out his vision on the streets of our city. The Hip-Hop culture like the first created culture began as a beautiful thing. It sprang out of the need to deal with poverty and the rampant gang problem in the Bronx. Peaceful rallies gave birth to a new sound from a DJ’s turn tables. Peace, love, unity and respect were the cries of this new vision for the community. And it results were evident. Young people desired college and continuing education for the purpose of peace. They were studying music to be better DJs and MCs and professors and business owners and doctors, ect; A very different looking generation than the one full of gang bangers just a few years older.

Some say that Hip-Hop has evolved into a very different thing since its humble beginnings in late 70s Bronx NY. I would argue that what they see in the mainstream, the millions of dollars a year globally influential industry, is something different entirely. Yes it has its connections to Hip-Hop, like I have connections to my Father, but my Father and I are distinct people and responsible for our own persons. So this modern day Rap industry founded on completely different philosophies and principles as Hip-Hop is a distinct movement. Also I believe it is important to point out that the people of the Urban culture are not being helped by the success of the rap industry, but rather this industry profits from that which enslaves urbanites. Hip-Hop has its foundations in a desire to see the urban culture overcome what binds them.

So what does this have to do with Shalom? The Church has a missional vocation. The people of God have the same ministry Christ left them when he ascended. We have his Spirit and word to empower and equip us for that task left to us, to go into all the world and build Shalom. The Hip-Hop culture is still dealing with the same problems of the 70s and 80s and 90s and more. There is profit in the positive and non-violent messages of Hip-Hop. Education, very much promoted by the early movement is a very important tool in the battle against racial prejudice, poverty and violence. History has taught however that these good things are not enough. And though she still communicates these cries for her people, Hip-Hop’s voice has been made a whisper in our day. Hip-Hop, like all other cultures, needs and has always needed the good and benevolent rule of Jesus over her. It is the Gospel and all it entails that can deliver the Hip-Hop culture from all her oppressions. This should be evident on a mass cultural level with the Gospel’s influence of the civil rights movement, a movement very close to the Hip-Hop culture.

So what is God’s vision for the Urban culture? His vision is the same for us as it is for all of humanity, that our cities be full of love and respect, of justice and beauty. When the Hip-Hop culture comes into Shalom, and I believe it will, all will see the original vision of the Hip-Hop movement fulfilled and much more:

• 
  Behold, I will create
  new heavens and a new earth.
  The former things will not be remembered,
  nor will they come to mind.
  But be glad and rejoice forever
  in what I will create,
  for I will create Jerusalem to be a delight
  and its people a joy.
  I will rejoice over Jerusalem
  and take delight in my people;
  the sound of weeping and of crying
  will be heard in it no more.
  Never again will there be in it
  an infant who lives but a few days,
  or an old man who does not live out his
  years; he who dies at a hundred
  will be thought a mere youth;
  he who fails to reach a hundred will be considered
  accursed.
  They will build houses and dwell in them;
  they will plant vineyards and eat their
  fruit.
  No longer will they build houses and others
  live in them, or plant and others eat.
  For as the days of a tree,
  so will be the days of my people;
  my chosen ones will long enjoy
  the works of their hands.
  They will not toil in vain
  or bear children doomed to misfortune;
  for they will be a people blessed by the
  LORD, they and their descendants with them.
  Before they call I will answer;
  while they are still speaking I will hear.
  The wolf and the lamb will feed together,
  and the lion will eat straw like the ox,
  but dust will be the serpent's food.
  They will neither harm nor destroy
  on all my holy mountain,"
  says the LORD.