The Hip Hop Culture in America: The Historical Origins, Its Present Impact in Broader U.S., the Christian Influence

Open Access

Abstract

Over nearly forty years, Hip Hop has developed as a cultural and artistic phenomenon affecting youth culture around the world. For many youth, and some adults, "Hip Hop reflects the social economic, political, and cultural realities, and conditions of their lives, speaking to them in a language and manner they understand" (Alridge and Stewart 190). As a result of both its longevity and its cogent message for many youth worldwide, Hip Hop cannot be dismissed as merely a passing fad or as a youth movement that will soon run its course. Hip Hop will continue for another three or four decades, and will continue to mold and shape the mind-set, behavior, and social status of the culture. In this thesis, I intend to demonstrate that the Hip Hop Culture that surrounds the music phenomenon can and should be reached for the gospel by using the mission and vision technique of Crossover Community Church, by understanding the need to stop the ethnocentrisms by the church upon the hip hop community that will allow bridges of fellowship to be built, and therefore become indigenous to the Hip-Hop Culture while implementing Donald Larson's, "the learner, trader, storyteller model."