Muslims on the Mic

ED: Throughout much of the 20th century, the story of Islam in America has been a story of two main constituencies. On the one hand, they’re the immigrants and their children, who we heard about in the last story. But there are also the African American Muslims, identified with groups like the Nation of Islam and, before that, the Moorish Science Temple. Our next story concerns the sometimes tense relationship between the two communities and the ways in which hip-hop culture open up a space for them to coexist. BackStory producer Kelly Jones is going to take it from here.

MUSIC – AFRIKAA BAMBAATAA AND JAMES BROWN, “UNITY, PART 1”

KELLY: This is Afrikaa Bambaataa, one of the founding DJs of hip-hop culture, with funk legend James Brown in 1984.

MUSIC – AFRIKAA BAMBAATAA AND JAMES BROWN, “UNITY, PART 1”

Like lots of his peers, Bambaataa was raised on funk. He also grew up hearing household debates about Afrocentrism, black politics, and the Nation of Islam. Bambaataa would blend those sonic and political influences and create the Universal Zulu Nation a movement designed to combat street violence by diverting gangs’ time and energy into socially conscious hip-hop.

MUSIC – AFRIKAA BAMBAATAA AND JAMES BROWN, “UNITY, PART 1”

The Universal Zulu Nation wasn’t explicitly Muslim. But its desire to create a positive Afrocentric culture was inspired by the black Muslim organizations that Bambaataa had been hearing about at home.

SU’AD ABDUL KHABEER: So hip-hop is emerging, but at that very same time in these very same communities, you have vibrant and active African American Muslim communities. So hip-hop was born in that energy.

KELLY: This is Su’ad Abdul Khabeer, an anthropologist who studies the intersections of Islam and hip-hop. She says that these Islamic influences only grew stronger over the next few years, and points out that by 1988, Public Enemy was explicitly referencing Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan on tracks like “Don’t Believe The Hype.”

MUSIC – PUBLIC ENEMY, “DON’T BELIEVE THE HYPE”

KELLY: In the ’90s, arguably hip-hop’s golden age, references to Islam as a positive force in the black community were everywhere.

SU’AD ABDUL KHABEER: From Wu Tang Clan, to Ice Cube, to Eric B and Rakim, Lakim Shabazz, Poor Righteous Teachers, A Tribe Called Quest, Mos Def, Talib Kweli– I mean, and some of these people are Muslim. Some of them aren’t. But all of them have references to Islamic tradition in their music. All of them have references to this kind of black Muslim ethic around community empowerment and self-determination and alleviating suffering.

KELLY: Take Busta Rhymes, the Fugees, A Tribe Called Quest. They all came together in 1996 for “Rumble in the Jungle.” It’s a song that combines ideas from the Five-Percent Nation, a Nation of Islam offshoot steeped in numerology.

MUSIC – BUSTA RHYMES, A TRIBE CALLED QUEST, THE FUGEES, “RUMBLE IN THE JUNGLE”

KELLY: With references to former Nation of Islam member Malcolm X–

MUSIC – AFRIKAA BAMBAATAA AND JAMES BROWN, “UNITY, PART 1”

And references to Muhammad, the Prophet and the boxer.

MUSIC – BUSTA RHYMES, A TRIBE CALLED QUEST, THE FUGEES, “RUMBLE IN THE JUNGLE”

KELLY: Or take Sunni artist Yasim Bey, formally known as Mos Def. His 1999 song “Umi Says” used the Arabic words for mother and father to encourage self-respect.

MUSIC – MOS DEF, “UMI SAYS”

KELLY: Now as the hip-hop generation has come of age, so have second and third generations of immigrant Muslims. One pretty easy way to fit in is to define yourself by what you’re not. For Arab and South Asian immigrants to America, Su’ad says, that means defining yourself as not black.

SU’AD ABDUL KHABEER: This, of course, for Muslim immigrants, is a challenge, right? Because when you first come to the country, you find there are Muslims who are here. And the Muslims that are here are the very people that you’ve been implicitly taught you should stay away from, right? And it becomes a source of tension, right?

In American Muslim communities, you have people who are sort of like, you know, no. Like hell no, right? They’re like, we’re not doing this hip-hop stuff. This is not Islam, right?

KELLY: On the other hand, there are many American Muslims, most of them young, who aren’t black but who do embrace hip-hop culture. Hip-hop speaks to them because it references familiar beliefs about the world.

SU’AD ABDUL KHABEER: So Lauryn Hill, on her first solo album, “The Miseducation,” she has a song called “That Thing,” right? And she’s like, saying you’re a Muslim, a Christian sleeping with a djinn.

MUSIC – LAURYN HILL, “THAT THING”

SU’AD ABDUL KHABEER: So djinn is an Arabic term that’s for– I don’t know what you would call them in English. Like little devils, I suppose? I’m not really sure what you’d call them. Now if you’re like 13 or 14, or 15, 16, 17, whatever, you’re young, you’re American Muslim, and this is playing on the radio– because when Miseducation came out, Lauryn Hill, this was on the radio. This was like Top 40, right? Well that, really has a profound effect on who you see yourself to be. Because if it’s on the radio, it’s cool. And so if someone is talking about what you know, what your mother’s talking about at home, on the radio, then that’s cool, and you’re cool, too.

KELLY: But Su’ad says it’s not just about passive listening. She’s noticed that a lot of young Muslims in Chicago, many of whom are not black, are also energized by hip-hop culture to get actively involved.

SU’AD ABDUL KHABEER: So they weren’t just sort of consuming the music passively, sort of in their bedrooms, writing down lyrics and buying new sneakers. They were also sort of like doing marches, or trying to organize young people on the South Side of Chicago, to sort of alleviate or to sort of deal with the realities of what black life is, too.

KELLY: And it’s the relationship between Islam and hip-hop that gives Muslim communities in Chicago common ground– common ground that extends beyond race or ethnicity.

SU’AD ABDUL KHABEER: It really challenges this idea that the only way you can really be sort of, quote, unquote, “authentically Muslim,” is if you’re sort of doing things the way people do elsewhere. So whatever they do someplace else, that’s Islam. You should do it that way. And if you don’t do it like that, it’s not authentic.

And what Islam and hip-hop– their relationship, it really challenges that. Because it says, well, no, because we’re Muslim. We’ve been doing this for a while. We have the same kind of moral priorities. We’re interested in the same social things. And we’re doing it as Muslims, and we’re doing is not based on practices elsewhere. We’re based on a tradition that’s been established and developed here in the United States. Like, I don’t think there’s another site that does that like hip-hop does for Muslims in the United States.

MUSIC – BROTHER ALI, “GOOD LORD”

BRIAN: That story was produced by Kelly Jones with help from Su’ad Abdul Khabeer, an anthropologist at Purdue University.

MUSIC – BROTHER ALI, “GOOD LORD”

PETER: And that’s going to do it for today. We’ll be waiting for you online. Leave us a comment to let us know what you thought of today’s show at backstoryradio.org.

And while you’re there, take a moment to weigh in on our future shows. Our November topics include reconciliation, executive power, and popular images of Native Americans. We’re also on Facebook, Tumblr, and Twitter, at BackStoryRadio. Whatever you do, don’t be a stranger.

ED: Today’s episode of BackStory was produced by Tony Field, Nina Earnest, Andrew Parsons, Kelly Jones, and Robert Armengol. Our digital producer is Emily Gadek, and Jamal Millner is our engineer. We had help from [INAUDIBLE] and Emily Charnock. Special thanks this week to David Sukenot and Timothy Marr.

BRIAN: BackStory’s executive producer is Andrew Wyndham. Major support for BackStory is provided by an anonymous donor, the University of Virginia, the National Endowment for the Humanities, The Joseph and Robert Cornell Memorial Foundation, and The Arthur Vining Davis Foundations. Additional funding is provided by Weinstein Properties. By the Tomato Fund– cultivating fresh ideas in the arts, the humanities, and the environment. And by History Channel– history made every day.

ANNOUNCER: Brian Balogh is Professor of History at the University of Virginia. Peter Onuf is Professor of History Emeritus at UVA and senior research fellow at Monticello. Ed Ayers is President and Professor of History at the University of Richmond. BackStory was created by Andrew Wyndham for the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities.

MUSIC – BROTHER ALI, “GOOD LORD”