Out of the Ivory Tower

I heart Michael Eric Dyson.
Pastors, seminarians, and just plain ministry minded individuals could definitely learn something from this man.

ON CONFRONTING CULTURE

At a recent town-hall discussion sponsored by the television network BET, newly appointed Georgetown University Professor Michael Eric Dyson found himself sitting next to the chart-topping rappers Nelly and T.I.
Squaring off over sexism in rap, Dyson objected to Nelly’s explicit, late-night-viewing-only video for his song “Tip Drill.” The video features a man swiping a credit card through a girl’s behind. Dyson charged that, whether he realized it or not, Nelly had commercialized the trafficking of black women’s bodies in a way that had recalled slavery’s auction block.
With a cocked eye, T.I. asked Dyson, “Is it really that serious?”
Dyson retorted, “Of course it is.”
“Wait a minute,” Nelly said. “What was you doing watching my video?”
Dyson, 48, said, “I’m a cultural critic. That’s my job!” (link: author takes on hip hop culture from the inside)

Isn’t that what we should be doing?
He’s not just watching to simply critique but he’s taking it out from the ivory tower to the avenues of our culture in the media.

In an interview with The San Francisco Chronicle, Dyson elaborated on his views. “Our job is to get involved in that stuff, to speak about it with as much lucidity and cogency as we can muster and to get into the thick of the fight,” he said. “To speak in a way that more than 10 people can understand you is not to forfeit the rigor of one’s intellectual vocation, but it is the attempt to make it plainer.”

“I was treated like a king at Penn, but the political gravity of the situation this country is in made Washington, D.C., an irresistible stop for me to go to right now,” he says. “Some people are pastors where they stay 25 or 30 years at a particular church. Some people are evangelists, going out and reviving the troops in the field. I’m an evangelist.“

damn straight.

Read also:
Hip Hop Scholarship
The Michael Eric Dyson site

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Hip Hop Scholarship

Here’s a recent article about bringing Hip Hop studies major into the mix at UC Berkley.

Hip-hop is the primary language students bring with them to school. To ignore the language and the existence of hip-hop culture altogether is a failure to provide equal education under the law.-Kofi-Charu Nat Turner, education Ph.D. candidate.

The beauty of the idea is the chance to create new paradigms or new ways of thinking especially in academia which tends to be stodgy, crusty and snooty. All the moreso within Seminary studies and Asian American ministry. The range of topics and studies for this wave of fresh scholarship in hip hop are practically endless because hip hop touches upon our economical, politcal, and sociological realities on a global-historical scale.

Have we spent time exploring this influence in Asian American culture and ministry at all? Maybe, just maybe at the youth level. I assure you it’s there. I know I can’t excape its influence in my own life. Aren’t we all just trying to keep it real? . . . yo?
So why we frontin?
Hip hop is the new language of the church. F–orget emergent and postwhateva. You can’t say that the lifestyles and lyrical madness that is Jigga, Kanye, and Eminem ain’t on many of our minds or at least on our iPods in the church right up there with David Crowder.
ya heard?

I love that Jeff Johnson (BET producer) at the Q Boutique (fermiproject.com/q/), said these things [captured by djchuang of course but can be fully read through a subscription to fermi words]

Hip hop is relevant to this discussion for one reason.. because it has been able to transcend ethnic and cultural communities.. in a way that Black, Latino, and Asians can come together, without shedding our culture… what brings us together is b/c we love Jay-Z..
so many times I’ve seen urban ministry is just suburban ministry with black face..
“I am us.” that’s what hip hop does..

“In the same way academia examines other social forces, it should pay attention to something that is economically, politically and socially shaping how many view the world and engage with it”

Get real.
Hear the remix.

the Q event

i’m completely sad about missing out on the Q event in atlanta, georgia. it’s quite a unique undertaking from the minds behind catalyst. i would be there but alas it is my wedding anniversary.

djchuang is liveblogging the event and is doing an incredible job catching the voices for change.

with hip hop being under fire lately (imus, al sharpton, nytimes, wsj, oprah, russell simmons) i appreciate jeff johnson (BET producer) and his take on hip hop as an authentic voice and vital creative force

tired of talking about Imus? Imus wasn’t really the issue.. small piece of the issue of race.. in America, people are racist.. we speak of multicultural churches, because we just love Jesus.. [as if] Jesus wouldn’t see our color, our ethnicity..

we become like those people who excuse race and ethnicity.. they’re racist but they love Michael Jordan.. b/c he’s just a great basketball player.. they’re racist, but they love Condi Rice..

desensitized to racist messages, whether they’re really racist or not.. Russell [Simmons] doesn’t care about the language being used, he cares about being paid.. there are those in this room that know absolutely nothing about hip-hop..

“G-unit” scrawled on a wall in Liberia(?).. people know this around the world even in places that don’t have BET or MTV.. in China, I’ve seen B-boys and B-girls (that is, breakdancers) better than those in New York.. hip hop has infiltrated cultures that have had nothing to do with the forming of the art form..

hooking up 2 turntables.. was the beginning of hip hop.. change the feel and atmosphere in a room.. those who were disenfranchised.. thus, they had no voice.. hip hop became that voice.. the voice of music..

instead of fighting with chains.. battle thru breakdancing.. slow evolution of this culture…

worst thing that happened to hip hop is someone figured out that they could make money with this.. people would buy it.. this destroyed hip hop.. no longer is it a voice of the disenfranchised.. now it is about selling urban American imagery to the rest of the world..

juxtapose this with the first post-soul generation.. no one went to church.. 40 yr grandmothers go kickin’ it with granddaughter to the club.. complete disconnected from church, but connected to the club… the church should be on the front of dealing with racism, and punks out.. we need to speak prophetically.. when does that conversation take place?

hip hop is relevant to this discussion for 1 reason.. because it has been able to transcent ethnic and cultural communities.. in a way that Black, Latino, and Asians can come together, without shedding our culture… what brings up together is b/c we love Jay-Z..

so many times I’ve seen urban ministry is just suburban ministry with black face..

“I am us.” that’s what hip hop does..

love crush::.

love crush::. the dimensions of love are like the oceans deep and wide…yet people tend to stay in shallow waters for fear. gandhi often chided xians that they don’t take seriously enough Jesus’ call to love. i agree.

paul miller (biblical seminary alum, director of seejesus.net) explores the complexity of love and invites readers to observe again the love of Jesus in his book, love walked among us…

“what is more difficult to learn than love? how do you love someone when you get no love in return — only withdrawal or ingratitude? how do you love when you have your own problems? when do you take care of yourself? how do you love with both compassion and honesty? when you are compassionate, people misuse you, but when you are honest, people get angry. what is love?”

love is a dangerous thing…like the ocean. i love surfing even tho i’ve barely done any real crushing. waves only get so menacing out here but that will soon change once we get wavepools in jerzey or ny… but when you’re that far out in the water in let’s say…hawaii, it’s really just you and God. you do your best to get home, pray like mad, trust in him, look for those waves, enjoy the ride.
. . .

hip hop love ::. so mase made an official announcement of his return to hip hop on hot97 last week and drops a new single, welcome back – will he still be the bad boy gone clean?

i’m not a big kanye west fan but…jesus walks is driving.