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Is Gangsta Rap Gnostic?
I just thought of a good test case for my tentative three part criteria of what makes a myth gnostic. As a reminder, the three things I came up with were:
- The observation of limitation
- The intuitive knowledge of potential beyond limitation
- The experience of transcending limitation into potential
I mentioned in that original post that this is essentially the plot line to a lot of stories in pop culture. Gangsta rap is just one of many. I chose it because there are a lot of aspects of it which would challenge my preconceived notions of gnosticism.
Rather than try to talk about gangsta rap in general, I though I’d choose a particular song’s lyrics to work from. I’m picking “Juicy” by Notorious BIG because, well, that song fucking rules. But more importantly, it has everything I’m looking for.
The opening verse of the song pretty well satisfied criteria number one, the observation of limitation:
Yeah, this album is dedicated to all the teachers that told me I’d never amount to nothin’, to all the people that lived above the buildings that I was hustlin’ in front of that called the police on me when I was just tryin’ to make some money to feed my daughters,
Right after that, he talks about the intuitive knowledge of something better:
It was all a dream
I used to read Word Up magazine
Salt’n'Pepa and Heavy D up in the limousine
Hangin’ pictures on my wall
And later on in the chorus:
You know very well who you are
Don’t let em hold you down, reach for the stars
From there, most of the rest of the song talks about his experience of transformation from limitation into potential:
I made the change from a common thief
To up close and personal with Robin Leach
If we’re using these three items as our criteria, then I’d have to say this song passes the “gnostic test”. In general, gangsta rap tends to satisfy our criteria using a story-system based around: (1) being kept down by “the man”, hassled by cops, etc; (2) knowing that there’s a better life to be had; (3) mastering the situation through money, material success. Some might try to make the argument that gnosticism - as a spiritual pursuit - wouldn’t suggest that gnosis is equal to money. But I’d make the counter-argument that money is incidental here, it’s just a symbol for transcending the negative circumstances, and activating one’s potential. In other words, if your cultural story-system was turn of the millenium Greece, you’re going to appropriate symbols like Sophia and the demiurge and archons. Similarly, if you’re a gnostic living in South Central LA, you’re going to use the cultural symbols you’re familiar with: police, “bitches”, money, jail, etc. But maybe I’m just reaching here, what do you think? Was Biggie Smalls a gnostic?
- Prev: Aristotle on Nature
- Next: We Can Kill You
July 29th, 2005 at 3:12 am
I think anyone who positions himself against the authorities will always come across as a gnostic if what you’re looking for are gnostic ideas emanating from a certain subset of society. But then again, the authorities can also bankroll any number of false front movements as necessary — there is nothing to stop this. As long as the “movements” can be babysat and stay contained within their anticipated paradigms, any kind of organic gnosticism is DOA. Hence, anything using conglomerates money to further an anticonglomeration cause, a “cause” such as gnosticism is a hoax. IMHO.
July 29th, 2005 at 3:18 am
But what if part of the secret of gnosticism is that the archons want you to surpass them, but they can’t tell you that? Philip K. Dick had this idea that that’s what the demiurge (the teaching artifact, he called it) was designed to do, but it couldnt command you to disobey it, because it’s semantically impossible to say “I command you to disobey me!” In that sense, the authorities would basically be “bankrolling” gnostic movements.
Or, if you don’t like that explanation, what if the authorities set up a fake gnostic counter-initiation to trap people in who would likely achieve gnosis. Meanwhile, this same system would also accidentally trigger genuine gnosis in others in ways that were wholly unexpected. That seems like playing with fire from the perspective of the authorities…
July 29th, 2005 at 3:19 am
Absolutely, Tim. The “You know very well who you are” line is smack bang in spiritual land, even if money becomes the means.
July 29th, 2005 at 3:50 am
What you say Tim, is precisely why I remain ultimately optimistic. But I, like you, have no idea.
Is this faith????
July 29th, 2005 at 4:22 am
imo… its bigger than that..
“gangsta rap” & gnosticism seem to me to be attempts to define (or perhaps understand?) a bigger story that transcends both…
imo..
one
human?
July 29th, 2005 at 4:28 am
btw, i enjoy both….
i just see them more like different facets of the same gem..
one
human?
July 29th, 2005 at 4:37 am
i wish i had thought of it earlier (when i posted twice a couple minutes ago…
but thinking about it… “Damn right i love the life i live, cause i went from negative to positve and its all good” sounds like some alchemy…
interesting..
July 29th, 2005 at 9:27 am
Is Biggie Gangsta Rap - - ? Well anyway - umm - you guys are nerdin me out - - and don’t roll your eyes at me either -
July 29th, 2005 at 10:14 am
gnostic……………….yes it is. by whatever means possible. the game players and control brokers are here to break our balls. i personally like mine intact. when i was young and frustrated, with tears in my eyes from the frustration of adult games i looked to negative solutions to the suburban wasteland. it must go from negative to positive if it`s to become something of value, otherwise you get shot. mirror neurons, i believe.
July 29th, 2005 at 10:19 am
there is a book called power vs. force by dr, david r. hawkins that talks about the numerical value of the levels of conciousness in a usefull way. he suggests that anger is a way of rising from desperation. the anger has to transcend to higher forms of being to be useful but that anger is the waking up mechanism to the next state. if that is gnostic then pencil me in.
July 29th, 2005 at 12:09 pm
no, gangsta rap is not gnostic. based on your criteria, if gangsta rap is gnostic, then donald trump & members of the mafia are gnostic, too.
certain gangsta rappers might have insights that parallel gnosticism, but i still think it’s far too materialistic to really be gnostic per se. i think you’re giving too much credit to the symbolic aspect– sometimes a 40 is just a 40, knowwhatimsayin’?
July 29th, 2005 at 12:29 pm
i think what tim is driving at is that it is a process away from the anger and frustration into positivism and attainment which has the potential to lead to some enlightenment. trump may get there and maybe those involved in the mafia may too. they weren`t likely to where they came from. life is a pathway. there is no eventual destination. i believe materialism can be a gateway to things like caring for your family and being involved in the community. mc. hammer went that way.
July 29th, 2005 at 12:37 pm
Exactly what Mr. Puma said. Now I’d consider Raul Midon a Gnostic. This guy’s so inspiring as a live performer, it just blows my mind.
July 29th, 2005 at 12:39 pm
sure, absolutely, but that doesn’t make it gnostic.
July 29th, 2005 at 12:48 pm
yeah, i realise that now. what is gnosticism then if it`s not a way for people in conflict to find a way out?
July 29th, 2005 at 12:50 pm
heh, i’m working on a long post about the subject right now– should be up in just a bit.
July 29th, 2005 at 1:05 pm
My Gnosis is straight outta muthafuckin Compton, yo!
The Archons don’t understand nothin but bitches and money and muthafuckin bullets. We gotta redeem that shit with our understanding of that oppressive shit they be pullin, yaknowhwhatI’msayin?
July 29th, 2005 at 1:21 pm
Alright, then what does make it gnostic? I think everything we do is symbolic. Money isn’t anything besides a codified symbolic system of value… Also, how can I judge whether or not Donald Trump of a mafia don are gnostic or not? Maybe they are, for all I know. If god shows up in the trash stratum (as Philip K Dick claims), then doesn’t he show up in the crime stratum, as well?
July 29th, 2005 at 1:25 pm
I like what you’re saying, Human - but what is that bigger story? How do we talk about it, how do we understand it? Is there a religious/moral system that exists that can help us understand it and give us a mytho-symbolic ground to draw from?
July 29th, 2005 at 1:33 pm
most of these theories tend to be exclusive. you are looking for inclusion,tim. me too. the man in the dress at the church door on sunday didn`t inspire me to be included. the choirboys looked kinda strange in the frilly collars too.
July 29th, 2005 at 1:33 pm
okee dokee, here’s my thoughts:
http://www.snant.com/fp/archives/what-is-this-thing-called-gnosticism/
July 29th, 2005 at 4:11 pm
If any rapper or rap group is gnostic, it’s Wu-Tang Clan. But then again, I don’t claim to have a firm grasp on Gnosticism to begin with.
Biggie was just a middle-class kid who dropped out of school to sling crack, became famous for rapping, and died young. If it hadn’t been from an assassin’s bullet, it probably would’ve been from diabetes.
And what about ‘Pac? Didn’t he claim that B.I.G. stole his rhyme style? Is ‘Pac gnostic as well?
btw: whatever happened to your inquiry into Jay-Z’s Masonic ties?
July 29th, 2005 at 4:14 pm
Well, I sort of just chose him arbitrarily, because that song seemed like a good example, so… Yeah I forgot about that Jay-Z mason angle. I’ll have to get back on it.
July 29th, 2005 at 4:36 pm
o.k. so compassion comes into it as a grounding element. still if what i read in the lyrics of that rapper wasn`t a compassionate understanding of his own plight then i don`t know what it was.
by the way, we all have an intuitive understanding of something better. some choose to resent the packaging and that stops thier spiritual growth. i think anger attached to resentment is just about as dangerous a cocktail as can be mixed.
if the gnosic tautologists want it all to not be gnosis then o.k., i still have to thank you tim, for showing me something i`ve never seen before. an emotion that i share with someone who wrote gangsta lyrics and a shared drive to rise above.
July 29th, 2005 at 4:48 pm
Actually, you could make a good argument for compassion in that song too:
Also:
Maybe it’s not universal compassion, but there are plenty of overtly spiritual people who don’t seem to share that trait either. In any event, I’m not that worried whether or not people agree that it’s gnostic - cause as Alistair says above, it’s a shared experience, it’s a shared process that people go through with an intensely spiritual aspect to it.
July 29th, 2005 at 5:05 pm
yup.
July 29th, 2005 at 5:10 pm
those are good questions. i suppose it would seem to me that the facets (microcosm) can each be studied to understand the gem (macrocosm) which i guess could be called “Gnosis” or “Enlightenment” or shit, i guess if its gangster, “Bling”?
im not sure if there is a “unified theory” besides love..
well, Wu Tang is a huge group with many differnet styles… and see this is where im not sure i agree with the labeling angle.. because there is tons of rap music that is beyond whether or not its speaking metaphorically about esoteric things… i mean, i straight up consider many rappers to be prophets & teachers of the esoteric arts…
if you listen to Wu Tang affiliated groups like Sunz of Man, or the Gravediggaz… especially cats like Killah Priest and Rza… there is no question that they are talking about some serious esoteric shit… they are also 5 Percenters and Godbodies..
and there are lots and lots and lots of rappers who talk about all kinds of stuff, i have plenty of albums that listen much like this blog reads…
i think you are being a bit harsh on B.I.G…. dude was definitely not “Middle Class” ive been on his block… 2Pac didnt think Biggie stole his rhyme style… dont believe the hype surrounding all that shit.. they were both assasinated because they became too powerful & were learning too much… they both had the capability to organize the youth in ways unacceptable to the establishment, so they were taken down. and im sure it was through occult networks (whether FBI or Masonic, whatever), that they were executed..
Great song to choose. Look into the Nuwabians bro.. Junior Mafia’s link with Malachi York’s son seem to make a bit more sense to me now…
thing is though, if you really start to get into Hiphop deep, its a vast diverse area of thought…. “Gangsta Rap” is just one angle… like i said, there are tons of rappers who there is no question of what they are speaking about….. and if anyones interested, id be more than happy to list out a few people yall may enjoy…
one
human?
July 29th, 2005 at 5:15 pm
any act that lends itself towards a nature of transformation and knowledge stands to be gnostic.
for a moment - forget the semantical overtures that has attempted to reduce gnosisism into a type of parlor game, played out by bored ‘intellects’.
during the seventies, bands such as led zeppelin, genesis, emerson lake and palmer, lynard skynard, the band, the rolling stones, deep purple, black sabbath, kiss, were without any doubt gnostic acts of intent. these band involved individuals who contributed in an act of immense faith that accomplished not only monetary feats of wealth but created a strong musical legacy that continues to inspire many musicians today.
hip-hop, trip-hop, west coast/east coast, gangsta, underground, psychedelick, mainstream, even sell-out, rap all come from a strong gnostic intent. individuals are gathered, united, and contracted into an arrangement where their intent has led to transformation of limitations into knowledge regardless of dualistic ‘good and bad’ points of reference.
the innate message within the barbed points of rap remains the same message that punk musick espoused: d.i.y. create your own terms, and endure the path chosen by the wisdom you may seek. this has been the engine of mankind for aeons. the terms of expression have obviously varied, but at the same time, the logos, the word, the secret of secrets has always remained steadfast and eager to be accessed by any and all who may choose this path.
the mystical has always been found within the intent. biggie and tu pac, stripped from the legends and the construed lore, possessed the same fires as did miles davis and john coltrane, or muhammad ali and bruce lee. the spark and the fire remains not trapped in the evils of the flesh, but accessible to all and any who choose to endure this endeavor. the names that have chosen such a path, are endless and many well known.
July 29th, 2005 at 6:28 pm
sez you.
so does that mean conversion to fundamentalist christianity is gnostic? it arguably lends itself towards a nature of transformation and knowledge. so does murder. there’s no need to hijack the term ‘gnostic;’ why not just let things be as they are?
like what?
i doubt it. i frickin’ hate kiss. and the rolling stones for that matter.
look, *individual people* are gnostics *within a particular tradition.* not everything ‘occult’ or every ‘act of will’ is gnostic. gnosis is a very specific *individual* experience, according to the gnostics who came up with this stuff to begin with!
how do we know that? seriously, how? there’s no way to say this with such absolute certainty! what if they were just some guys who liked to rap and wanted to make some cash and did some drugs and whatever? why must it be ‘mystical’ and ‘gnostic’? why can’t it just be what it is? rap has enough intrinsic value to people who like it (and i’m not one of those people) without the need for additional jargon. i fuckin’ love elp, but have you ever heard an intervierw with those guys? they were a bunch of stoned out kids who wanted to create insane music, and that’s good enough for me, ’cause they did! i love genesis, too, back when peter gabriel was with them, but they weren’t ‘gnostic,’ they were just a group of guys who made some amazing music!
*not everything is gnostic.* if every ‘manifested act of will’ or whatever was ‘gnostic,’ we wouldn’t even frickin’ need gnosticism– we could all just sit around nodding and twiddling our thunbs!
plus, you can’t just drop gnosis out of the picture entirely. gnosticism is about gnosis, the direct, personal and individual knowledge of and acquaintance with what we call THE GOD. call it enlightenment if you want, but if something doesn’t have *GNOSIS* as its focus, IT’S NOT GNOSTIC.
bleh.
July 29th, 2005 at 10:55 pm
methinks you protest too much. the zep lyrics were as close to a direct knowledge of god as anybody elses OPINION of what that means. if you think you have the franchise on the direct, personal knowledge and aquaintance with what we call god, then you are just wrong. wrongity wrong wrong. you become no better than cathoholics, jehovahs or baptist twats that have the right to tell anyone else that they`ve got in wrong. jimmy page bought crowley`s castle for a reason. i don`t have a clue what it is, but i assure you he does. the man knows shit. it comes out his amps. you don`t go across america breaking attendance records everywhere in the face of serious criticism in the deep south without knowing something. i was 11 when i first heard it and it changed my life. it resonates with something elemental in all of us. a pulse. a gnosis. as it`s focus.
July 30th, 2005 at 12:02 am
okay, alistair.
July 31st, 2005 at 7:48 pm
The knowledge of self and God (gnosis) cannot be attained:
I vow to attain it.
i do tend to agree with that. any restriction on what we can know is a ridiculously untenable position to take. i`m not sure of the agenda of one who would take it. i would put it into the category of game(capital g) and look for the payoff(capital p) and suggest elitist intellectualism.
proof. we invented the knowing in the first place. we are the one`s doing the knowing.
August 2nd, 2005 at 8:06 am
Did any of you realise that all the musicians, singers and songwriters are all from the angelic realm, Light and Dark? They are most definately telling you the oldest love story in the history of this planet. Each angel sings or creates on behalf of the planet they were born under. Divide all the angels into 4 groups consisting of: Group 1 representing the North Eve/Isis/Cleopatra/Mary Magdalene/Guievere/Jean D’Arc etc vs Group 2 representing the East EvaSatan)/Nepthys/Martha/Morgan Le Fay for the feminine angels and then for the Group 3 angels representing the West Adam/Osiris/Jesus/King Arthur vs Group 4 representing the South Devil/Seth or Set/John the Baptist/Lancelot. Each angel has very similar characteristics to their leader. I wont tell you what they are but you can work it out by comparing the angels and their similarities. Follow the story by listening to your radio and deciphering the conversations of the Gods and Goddesses. Remember “Those with ears will hear”!
The coded language is all there, you just need to know that they have returned and conduct these conversations telepathically. The songs are their private emotions and thought processes. And yes there is plenty of gnosticism and symbolism, even in CD artcovers and music videos.
What you resonate with musically says a lot about where you are at Spiritually. Everyone knows that Music in the UniVERSE is written through Spirit. Music moves planets and that is how the Gods and Goddesses have always done it. Remember Johanne Kepler’s theories on Music of the Spheres?
Enjoy the show…
God Bless
Musicangel
August 2nd, 2005 at 10:38 am
I don’t really buy that Biggie’s song “Juicy” is gnostic. But there is definitely “esoteric” stuff in a lot of hip hop, but that shouldn’t be conflated with gnosticism–there may be an overlap, but they are not necessarily the same thing and I feel the two are being erroneously conflated to a certain extent in the essay and in some of the responses. That being said, the symbolism of Biggie and Pac, as ghetto messiahs is something I’ve thought about and that should be explored in an article or 2(hundred). Just like Jesus, these are guys who grew up without biological fathers in the house (past the birth in the manger thing, Jesus’ human pappy, Joseph, disappears entirely from the narrative…did he abandon the fam?). Like JC, they come from humble roots (and Bed-Stuy ain’t a middle-class neighborhood though recent gentrification is changing that), but also noble roots…Pac’s aunt was Assata Shakur and his mother was heavily involved in the Black Panthers; Biggie’s moms is Jamaican and there’s the whole nobility of Ras Tafari. They were both in a sense embodiments of the Word like JC, whose oratory could move spirits and change hearts; in Pac’s case, he’s a bit of a contradiction like the biblical Jesus…woman-centric at one point, offensive the next, militant the next; both Biggie and Pac hang with those of ill-repute (drug dealers, thugs, gangstas, ho’s) just like JC hanging with tax-collectors and prostitutes; Pac and Biggie were seen as potential threats to the established order; both of them predicted their deaths (like Christ), died and symbolically were Born again with post-humous albums. And with Pac, you have the persistent rumors that he never actually died, that it was someone else, a theme in certain gnostic narratives of Jesus. On top of that, even the rivalry between the two fits, somehow as, contrary to the NT depiction of Jesus and John the Baptist’ relationship, there is evidence that they were actually rivals that, at one time JC was a disciple of John and then broke away. There are still a few followers of John the Baptist in the middle east and they don’t revere Jesus at all, they see him as someone who learned from John and then went “bad” (stole his flow? like Pac accused Biggie of doing?).
August 2nd, 2005 at 10:43 am
On the esoteric, hip-hop tip, I definitely second the Wu-Tang thing. Basically, any 5 percenters in hip hop at least before the early 2000s when lots of the messages became indistinguishable from the bling-bling thing. Rakim, Jeru the Damaja, Poor Righteous Teachers, Brand Nubian.
I’d also cite esoteric stuff in Dilated Peoples, KRS-One, Jedi Mind Tricks, Ice Cube’s Death Certificate album and most definitively Deltron 3030 (Del the Funkee Homosapien and Dan the Automator). You’ll probably also find some gnosticism in there as well.
August 2nd, 2005 at 11:39 am
Well, what IS gnosticism? That’s the whole point of this essay, really? If this isn’t gnostic, then what is - how can we apply criteria to find out if something’s gnostic?
August 2nd, 2005 at 1:54 pm
you keep asking the gnostics and they keep not answering the question in a way that gives boundaries. they seem to know what it`s not though. if it`s boundaryless then it can include musical lyrics and performance and other forms of art as well.
religions that demand that you can only have a religious (spiritual) experience through thier religion are retentive game-rule types that can`t stand sharing. it`s thier way or the highway. it`s a natural human process to search for meaning and attempt to directly understand all that life entails. it`s available to all of us. once the umbilical cord is cut we are free to begin the journey. we are all gnostics unless we become game-rule bound. that`s just a will to power.
August 2nd, 2005 at 3:22 pm
I don’t buy it because I don’t buy your criteria. They’re both too specific and too general at once.
For instance, using your three criteria, then the following mentality would be gnostic:
1. I observe that I have no money and certain restrictions on my ability to make money.
2. I intuit that there is a potential for me to make big bucks someplace! somewhere! beyond my current cash-flow situation and restrictions.
3. I experience the other money-making possibilities and how to make them work and now I’m getting my green!
Now, I’m not hatin’ on money in my example and I’m not saying there isn’t something positive and valuable about the process of realization here–it demonstrates initiative, good creative thinking and problem-solving, business sense (be the possibilities legal or illicit) and hustle. It also adheres to your criteria. And yet, to my mind, this ain’t gnostic perception. It simply falls short. There’s something more you’re not capturing in your criteria.
Certainly, I may see potential aspects of gnosticism in Juicy, but that’s not the same thing as it being gnostic. And there’s nothing to suggest from the song Juicy that Biggie has a gnostic perception of things and is therefore gnostic. Just because I can interpret something as being gnostic, doesn’t mean it IS in and of itself. The perception lies within the perceiver. And yes, anything can be gnostic to a gnostic, just as anything can be seen mystically by a mystic, etc., but not all mystics are gnostics (even if a gnostic-mystic can perceive hir fellow mystics as being so!). But the quality your ascribing does not necessarily exist inherently in the thing you’re lookin’ at.
Now, gnosticism makes use of the esoteric–it relies on deeper meanings, hidden meanings, higher perceptions of certain aspects of the phenomenal world, but there’s a certain flavor to the meanings perceived by gnostics that may or may not be shared by the esotericist.
That’s just my take.
August 2nd, 2005 at 4:37 pm
what you are describing is deciding to get a job. what tim is refering to, i believe, is that the people in the ghetto in those songs are motivated by a higher purpose in thier lives, to go from gang-banging to a spiritual form of existance, driven by a series of bad experiences. most of the people in those environments stay there. the thing that gets you out is gnostic. or not. who knows. but it is some form of energetic device that enters these people and gets them free from the constant war. charisma? is that the thing? is that not gnostic?
August 2nd, 2005 at 7:35 pm
But tell me how there’s evidence in Juicy that Biggie perceives himself as going from crack-sales to a “spiritual form of existence”? Certainly a less dangerous form of existence; certainly a less negative mode of existence, but is it spiritual? Is that the experience Biggie is having in the song? And you’re right, most people in those environments do stay there and it’s great when they find the will and drive to not do so, but that needn’t be a gnostic experience and there’s not enough evidence in what is being marched out as evidence of Biggie’s gnosticism to say that it is. And no, what I’m describing in the counter-example isn’t just someone deciding to get a job, though deciding to “become” a killer MC could be interpreted that way. and nothing in my counter-example contradicts Tim’s criteria as written. Deciding to get a job would fit in there because the criteria set out are not clear or specific enough to encapsulate a gnostic experiencing and not also some other mode of perceiving. And again, how the thing is being experienced appears to me to be a vital component in determining whether something is gnostic or not. Is B.I.G. experiencing gnostically or simply in another, positive and uplifting, non-gnostic way?
It ain’t impossible, the case being made just isn’t strong enough to me.
August 2nd, 2005 at 7:52 pm
Well, what’s spiritual? How do we define it for ourselves, and how could we possibly seek to judge it for someone else?
Well, you’re still not giving me a leg up on telling me how to know that yourself or someone else is experiencing something “in a gnostic way”… that’s really the thing I’m most interested in - again, I don’t so much care if Biggie is or isn’t gnostic. I used it as a case study to give us something to compare our concepts against. To simply say its not without saying why doesn’t much help me
August 2nd, 2005 at 8:17 pm
have yall had the Gnostic vs. gnostic debate?
big G vs. little g….
what about O.G.? Original gnostic?
G - G - G - G - G - G _UNIT!!!!!
sorry
August 2nd, 2005 at 8:30 pm
Is 50 Cent a Secret Gray Robed Christian? “You can find me in da club” - maybe he doesn’t mean like the dance club, but the secret gnostic rapper club. Hahah. Anyway, I heard from this dude that 50 Cent stole his whole identity from this *real* street thug of the same name who was this crazy short dude who was like Robin Hood and stole from rich people to give to the poor kids in his neighborhood and he was a hero and everybody loved him until he got killed.