The Gospel of Hip-Hop According to KRS-One

By Wizdom Selah | Last updated: Feb 5, 2011 - 12:39:17 PM

(FinalCall.com) - Each day we strive to make time for what is important to us. For some that may be eating right, working out, family, religious disciplines and/or a career. It is easy to

Wizdom Selah

lose focus or get side tracked from those things, let alone your spiritual purpose. Throughout the years of human existence we have had many spiritual teachers try and lead us in the direction that we should go. Since its inception, the Hip-Hop Generation has always been the forward thinkers but when we grow up, what will we do? Now, an 830 page manual has been created to help. It is authored by not only an incredible MC, but a spiritual Teacha to many, KRS-One.

The Gospel of Hip Hop seeks to develop the spiritual purpose inside the hip-hoppa and prove Hip Hop’s divinity. Some have asked why we need a book. Evolving from many different religious perspectives within one,

KRS One
Image: powerhousebooks.com

from Christianity, Islam, Baptists, to Buddhists, it collectively shaped the mindset of everyone who listened. This was especially the case for many youth in the inner cities all across the globe. Now, at this critical time of awakening, people, places, events, and understandings begin to line up to formatively move consciousness to a forward thinking level to aid in the future dynamics of what is going to occur.

This book is no different. It is our heritage and culture. And we are down by law! This Gospel is also important for the preservation of the culture’s history. Those of us that have grown up in this culture long enough to see where it started and where it is currently; know that the need is great. I along with many others can say that Hip Hop saved my life and with a conscious effort to continue its movement in the right direction we can continue to greatly aid humanity by knowing who we are and where we are going. Since the beginning, from the suburbs to the inner cities, in every location of The World, we vibed to a sound that wasn’t jazz or bebop, it wasn’t rock or rhythm and blues. It wasn’t pop or country … It was EVERYTHING. All those things combined. The acronym Holy Integrated People Having Omni-present Power, which KRS-One so affectionately coined us, applies perfectly. The Beat would make us dance. The lyrics sang our urban life with its song and it was a direct reflection of our unique experience. It was born to give a voice to our struggle. After slavery, after the Civil Rights movement, and after the Black Panthers the struggle continued but our leaders were gone.

Somehow there was a disconnect and we didn’t have a collective movement to be involved in, to continue these ideals, advise of the history, speak our language and unite us. It was through Kool Herc offering jams for free where he was trying to keep the children of his community out of trouble that started this concept that we all now know. He played Black Power songs, mixed with party anthems that soon became this thing called Hip Hop and the identity of the people in attendance.

Through the music it represented the continued struggle against oppression and for freedom, justice, and equality while safely having fun. After Harriet Tubman, Nat Turner, Marcus Garvey, Malcolm X, Martin Luther King Jr, who will we look to? Attending many Hip Hop Summits, The Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan recognized the importance of the culture early on. Our voice was loud but we were left to our own development. Creating ourselves with patches of consciousness pieced together with creative expression, it developing into the forward moving and forward thinking nation that we have now.

Hip Hop, is being utilized in everything from McDonald’s and Chevy commercials to curriculum taught at many educational institutions throughout the country. Even though a lot of people still think of Hip Hop as just a kind of music, not aware of its status-less, religion-less worldwide political, educational and economic power, within a nation of race-less culture.

We now have President Obama. A leader who listens to hip-hop music, and one of his favorite artists of the genre is Jay-Z. Who would have ever thought in their lifetime that would be the case? This book prolifi cally goes into detail about the elements that caused this art form to exist, its divinity, and its responsibility. This proves that there is more to Hip-hop than just song and dance and is sure to uplift the spirit of whoever reads it. In this book KRS hopes to show how Hip Hop is GOD’s response to our suffering. If we know that we live with the manifestations of our own beliefs, than it is time for Hip- Hop to grow up and be responsible and this book can show you how.

(Wizdom Selah is a community activist, mother, writer, rebel and lover of all things the creator made. She can be reached via email at [email protected] and on Twitter @wizdomselah.)

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