Spirituality, Blues, and Violence:Rap Hermeneutical Approach for Community Organizers in Memphis

Abstract

Each day on average, 30 Black Americans are killed by guns. Almost every other day, a Black person is shot and killed by the police. These trends are worse in larger metropolitan cities like Chicago or Memphis, where Black Americans make up 68% of homicide victims . Many believe that Rap music and it’s glorification of excessive material wealth, violence, and crime is one of the main contributors of gun violence, especially among Black youth and young adults. In 2020, Memphis had one the highest murder rates in the United States, where there was a total of 289 homicides. This means that 44.4 of every 100,000 people were murdered in Memphis, well above the national average which is 6.5 murders per 100,000. Several Memphis rap artists have also fell victim to gun violence like Mendenhall Mendenhall 2X, Lottacash Desto, and Snootie Wild. In 2021, national recording artist Adolph Robert Thornton Jr “Young Dolph” was shot and killed in broad daylight while ordering cookies at local Black owned cookie store in South Memphis. This thesis seeks to uncover how a hermeneutical approach to rap music can be used as a tool for community organizers to understand ways to address community violence and the incarceration of Black youth and young adults through critically exploring the lived experiences embedded in the music. This can help organizers in Memphis identify issues that participants of community violence face in hopes to create solutions rooted in spiritual care, trauma recovery, and increased mental health support.