Question

Hip Hop

Discuss what it is about hip-hop that makes it such an appealing vessel for challenging Islamophobia that individuals of Islamic faith continue to engage in the culture despite the difficulties of navigating both their religion and hip-hop affiliation.

Answer 1

Answer.

In recent time, the hip hop community has witnessed the increasing rise to fame of several young creative Muslim musicians who use their music as a tool to talk about their struggle, their identity as Muslim minorities in the Western societies.

Many Muslim rappers hope their presence in the music breaks stereotypes as it uses the medium of a popular low brow art to express religious principles and ideals thereby helping to spread awareness about the larger secular and cultural nature of Islamic philosophy as opposed to the stereotypical and discriminatory perspectives which prevail in the mainstream society. Moreover, given the popular presence of hip hop as a highly modern, open-ended and commercialised genre which draws inspiration from socially conscious lives, the hip hop culture presents an avnate garde trend in artistic expression for the Muslim minorities as it allows the audience to see them at par with other struggling communities like African Americans, Hispanics and South Asian youth which are represented by hip hop music and dance.