This website was created in order to present the Elon University Religious Studies Senior Seminar paper titled: “Teaching, Representing, and Resisting: Functions of Five-Percent Nation Beliefs in Five-Percenter Rap Music.”
Each section after the Introduction, Background and Thesis sections represents one of the respective functions of Five-Percenter beliefs in rap music. Example audio samples of rap music are included in each section – please turn on your speakers or use headphones in order to best experience the presentation.
Abstract
The Nation of Gods and Earths, commonly referred to as the Five-Percent Nation, is an offshoot of the Nation of Islam that formed in 1964. Although the Five-Percenters are a relatively obscure religious group, they have had an enormous impact on Black culture and Black music through their members’ contributions to rap in the 1980s and 1990s. Artists such as Public Enemy, Poor Righteous Teachers, Brand Nubian and many others are all members of the Five-Percent Nation who specifically and intentionally represent Five-Percenter beliefs and culture in their music. This original analysis identifies and describes the 3 most prominent ways Five-Percent rappers use Five-Percenter beliefs their music, which are: 1. “teaching” the Black Community about Five-Percenter practices 2. “representing” themselves as Five-Percenters 3. “resisting” racism using Five-Percenter beliefs. This analysis is significant because rap music reflects one of the primary means of disseminating Five-Percenter beliefs, and thus the specific form that these beliefs take in rap music helps us to better understand the Five-Percent Nation as a whole. This analysis is also important because looking at conditions that Five-Percent rappers are responding to and considering their solutions and/or commentary in their proper context are important steps to take in understanding to larger oppression that existed in the late 1980s and early 1990s in the Black community, and continues to exist today.
