Critical Approaches to Hip-Hop and Religion Unit
The 2026 Presidential Theme for the American Academy of Religion (AAR) is “Future/s.” As hopeful and forward-looking as this theme may sound, it carries a markedly different resonance within hip-hop culture and the Black and Brown communities that give it life.
For many within these communities, envisioning a future is neither abstract nor assured. It is a fragile, contingent, and often interrupted exercise. The following statistics—offered illustratively rather than exhaustively—underscore this reality:
- Black males ages 15–19 are approximately 28 times more likely to die by firearm homicide than their White peers (roughly 92 per 100,000 compared to 3.25 per 100,000).
- Black women are 2.5–3.5 times more likely to die from pregnancy- or childbirth-related causes than White women, a disparity that persists across socioeconomic classes.
- Hispanic/Latino firearm homicide rates are approximately twice as high as those of non-Hispanic White Americans.
- One study reports Hispanic gun homicide rates increasing from approximately 3.8 to 5.5 per 100,000 between 2019 and 2021, compared to lower rates among White Americans.
- The Violence Policy Center identifies homicide as a leading cause of death for Latino men ages 15–24, with Latinos experiencing higher homicide victimization rates than Whites.
To imagine a future when the present itself is not guaranteed generates a distinct theological, conceptual, experiential, and existential space. In hip-hop culture, visions of the future may be provisional, fragmented, resistant, deferred, or radically reimagined—and they may not presume longevity at all.
The Critical Approaches to Hip-Hop and Religion Unit invites papers that engage these tensions and possibilities. Topics may include (but are not limited to):
- Afrofuturism, Afropessimism, and their intersections within the hip-hop cypher and broader hip-hop kulture (including engagements with OutKast’s ATLiens [1996], which marks its 30th anniversary in 2026).
- Theological and religious imagination when the future is uncertain, foreclosed, or unevenly distributed within hip-hop communities.
- Embodiment through dance, graffiti, and visual art as practices of trauma processing, resistance, and future-making.
- Violence and futurity, including violence as a claimed right of oppressed communities and as a force that simultaneously constrains, secures, or negates possible futures.
Anniversaries in 2026
2026 marks several significant anniversaries in hip-hop history. Papers engaging these works—critically, theologically, historically, or culturally—are especially encouraged. This list is selective, not exhaustive.
40th Anniversaries (1986): Run-D.M.C., Raising Hell; Beastie Boys, Licensed to Ill; Boogie Down Productions, Criminal Minded; Eric B. & Rakim, Paid in Full; Ultramagnetic MCs, Critical Beatdown
30th Anniversaries (1996): 2Pac, All Eyez on Me; Fugees, The Score; Geto Boys, The Resurrection; JAY-Z, Reasonable Doubt; OutKast, ATLiens; A Tribe Called Quest, Beats, Rhymes and Life; De La Soul, Stakes Is High; Ghostface Killah, Ironman; Murder of Tupac Shakur (September 7, 1996) - Potential pannel/roundtable
20th Anniversaries (2006): JAY-Z, Kingdom Come; Lupe Fiasco, Food & Liquor; Clipse, Hell Hath No Fury; The Roots, Game Theory; Ghostface Killah, Fishscale; T.I., King; Rick Ross, Port of Miami; E-40, My Ghetto Report Card; UGK, Ridin’ Dirty
10th Anniversaries (2016): Kanye West, The Life of Pablo; Chance the Rapper, Coloring Book; Kendrick Lamar, untitled unmastered.; A Tribe Called Quest, We Got It from Here… Thank You 4 Your Service; Drake, Views; YG, Still Brazy
The Critical Approaches to Hip-Hop and Religion Unit welcomes submissions from emerging scholars and graduate students and seeks to reserve space for early-career academics to present their work in an open, collegial, and hospitable setting.
The Unit also welcomes co-sponsorships with other AAR units and invites proposals for joint sessions.
This Unit’s purpose is to provide a space for interdisciplinary, sustained, scholarly reflection and intellectual advancements at the intersections of religion and hip-hop culture. We believe the Unit will assist religious and theological studies to take more seriously hip-hop culture, while expanding the conversation of hip-hop culture beyond a thin analysis of rap music. To these ends, this Unit is marked by an effort to offer critical reflection on the multiplicity of the cultural practices of hip-hop culture. We also see something of value in advancing the field of religious studies through attention to how hip-hop might inform these various disciplines and methods. Understood in this way, scholarly attention to hip-hop will not transform it into a passive object of the scholar’s gaze; rather, through our attention to hip-hop, it also speaks back to the work of the AAR, offering tools by which to advance theory and method in the field.
| Chair | Dates | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Daniel White Hodge | dan@whitehodge.com | - | View |
| Justin Smith, Azusa Pacific University | jmsmith@apu.edu | - | View |