f AmeriKKKa’s most wanted: Hip Hop culture and Hip Hop theology as challenges to oppression

This article deals with Hip Hop and its cultural intricacies. Hip Hop transcends the mediated tropes of sexualized PoC bodies only yammering for money, fame, fortune and to ‘be the best’. Hip Hop is much more than tattoos, arpeggiated high hats and snares, gold chains, fancy grills and baggy pants. No, Hip Hop is a culture; a lifestyle; something that we in the academic community must take into strong consideration and begin to not just analyse it for tenure processes, but begin to ask, what does and can Hip Hop offer pedagogically and how might it inform our own scholarly work? Hip Hop is larger than the radio, commercialized artists and record industry branding. It is a culture, a people, a movement, a growing community of people that live, breathe, eat, love, hate and work just as anyone else does. Hip Hop cannot be easily understood or defined. This article gives an overview of both the academic pursuit of Hip Hop Studies and the subfield of Hip Hop and Religion.