Hip Hop and Religion: Gangsta Rap’s Christian Rhetoric

This article analyzes gangsta rap discourse through the lens of rhetorical studies to reveal central features of its Christian religious ethos. The religious rhetorical output of many gangsta rappers, both textual and visual, reveals a religious ethos containing a form of religious phronesis (practical wisdom). This ethos has three central telling characteristics: solidarity with Jesus formed through the common theme of suffering; a mistrust of organized religion; and the presence of a psycho-social battle between good and evil, analyzed here through the examples of DMX and Mase.