Bishop Lamont and Hermeneutics of Play

Hip Hop, Religion, and the Study of American Religious History

Authors

  • L. Benjamin Rolsky Drew University

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.1558/bsor.v40i3.003

Keywords:

Hip-hop, rap, American religious history, theory of religion

Abstract

This paper investigates the subject of hip-hop within the study of religion and the study of American religion and culture. In particular, the paper focuses on the corpus of California hip-hop artist Bishop Lamont in developing a "hermeneutics of play" through a combinative "lived religion" approach as a way of reading and reflecting on the larger religious significance of hip-hop in late 20th century America. As both a reading practice and a subject of study for both historians and religious studies scholars, hip-hop comes into view in this paper as an essential component in narrating an American religious history of the last three decades. Hip-hop and its study also reveals its own understandings of religion, America, and American religion as articulated through post-industrial and a variety of religious vocabularies that have been largely ignored by scholars of religion. In essence, this paper argues that by exploring the rhetorical, religious, and existential complexity found within hip-hop cultures, a more complex post-1965 American religious landscape emerges for both the historian and theorist of religion.

Author Biography

  • L. Benjamin Rolsky, Drew University

    Rolsky is a first-year PhD student in the historical studies area within the Graduate Division of Religion at Drew University.

References

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Bishop Lamont. 2009. “Hallelujah featuring Xzibit.” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jPB82NY24i4.

———. 2005. Interview. http://www.dubcnn.com/interviews/bishoplamont05/.

Hall, David, ed. 1997. Lived Religion in America: Toward a History of Practice. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

Miller, Monica. 2009. “The Promiscuous Gospel: The Religious Complexity and Theological Multiplicity of Rap Music.” Culture and Religion: An Interdisciplinary Journal 10: 39-61.

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Orsi, Robert. 1997. “Everyday Miracles: The Study of Lived Religion.” Lived Religion in America: Toward a History of Practice, edited by David Hall, 3-21. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

Pinn, Anthony and Monica Miller. 2009. “Introduction.” Culture and Religion: An Interdisciplinary Journal. 10: 1-9.

Sorett, Josef. 2009. ”‘Believe Me, This Pimp Game is Very Religious’: Toward a Religious History of Hip Hop.” Culture and Religion: An Interdisciplinary Journal. 10: 11-22.

———. “Hip Hop Religion and Spiritual Sampling in a ‘Post-Racial’ Age.” Religion Dispatches. http://www.religiondispatches.org/books/2281/print.

Quinn, Eithne. 2005. Nuthin’ but a “G” Thang: The Culture and Commerce of Gangsta Rap. New York: Columbia University Press.

Published

2011-09-22

Issue

Section

Articles

How to Cite

Rolsky, L. (2011). Bishop Lamont and Hermeneutics of Play: Hip Hop, Religion, and the Study of American Religious History. Bulletin for the Study of Religion, 40(3), 9-15. https://doi.org/10.1558/bsor.v40i3.003