Hip Hop as Religion; Personas and Fictionsuits

Barbelith Underground > Temple > Wu-Tang: The Manual:

"Hip-hop is basically a religious movement, an initiatory mystery cult, which has disguised itself, disguised itself so much it has forgotten what it is.

About the fiction suits/self mythologizing, the art of MCing is to a large extent about creating a persona and being possessed by it. Watch MCs eyes when they freestyle, they are on another plane, another level; the eyes remind me of a video I once saw of a haitian ritual.

You rap about fucking lots of girls and before you know it you are. Listening to Ready to Die you realize Biggie asked for it. I read an interview by Johhny Juice (Public Enemy's secret DJ) and he said back in the day, Chuck D used to be very different from Charles Ridenhour (whatever his passport name really is anyway), but in time they fused into a single person. Chuck D was smart about it, I have met him briefly and he is a very humble but very powerful person, very respectful too. He was 27 when he first released an album, most rappers have quit by that age. Most rappers create an irresponsible persona and it comes back and destroys them.

The way MCs pick new names is interesting, it has some roots in the nation of islam (Malcolm X, Clarence 13X, Muhammed Ali etc) and it brings to mind the name one has in an occult order, it is initiatory. Also the name being an authority (Lord Finesse, Grand Wizard Theodore, Professor Griff, Blastmaster KRS1, Big Daddy Kane, etc) can be traced to calypso, reggae and jazz (Lord Kitchener, Prince Buster, King Tubby, Duke Ellington, Count Basie etc) and I understand it as being a detournement of colonialist perceptions of status."