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Hearing Past Hip Hop: Theomusicological Truth and Knowledge

Hearing Past Hip Hop: Theomusicological Truth and Knowledge

Last updated on: September 14, 2026 at 1:56 am by Alan Lechusza Aquallo

Hearing Past Hip Hop: Theomusicological Truth and Knowledge 2026-09-14T01:56:58-07:00 Alan Lechusza Aquallo

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“Hold fast the pattern of sound words which you have heard from me, in faith and love which are in Christ Jesus. That good thing which was committed to you, keep by the Holy Spirit who dwells in us” (2 Timothy 1:13-14 NKJV).

Humanity weighs heavy. From September 9 through September 11, the weight of contemporary times pushes against mind, body, soul, spirit, and attitude.

During this period, the country has endured political dissent, cultural distortion, and a faith-based objection. The 25th anniversary of 9/11 and the Jewish New Year, Rosh Hashanah, should be an eye-opening experience for the country as a whole. Yet, for most, the revealing of new technology, political banter, and racialized commentary is the “edutainment” (read: essentializing education under the prominence of entertainment) for the moment.

Humanity, at this moment, is hard to endure. Global oppression/suppression has become normalized. Lines of demarcation are more weaponized than in the past. Language has lost its meaning; relevance is temporary and for sale. Humanity hurts.

Human or Spiritual Viewpoint

“Therefore, I remind you to stir up the gift of God which is in you through the laying on of my hands. For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind” (2 Timothy 1:6-7 NKJV).

Looking at the geopolitical conditions with a human viewpoint (Dr. Tony Evans) pushes aside looking at the geopolitical landscape with a Spiritual viewpoint (Dr. Tony Evans). A human viewpoint encompasses first-, second-, and third-person point of view (POV), whereas a Spiritual viewpoint has a singular point of view: God’s point of view. Substituting a human limited viewpoint for a Spiritual expansive viewpoint eschews the focus.

We, as humans, inject biases, desires, and opinions to cultivate a personally satisfying response. A Spiritual viewpoint dramatically shatters a selfish focus, creating a violent personal paradigm shift away from the self onto the Spiritual. The boundaries of a first-, second-, and third-person point of view (POV) are crossed while being broken not to obfuscate the gaze, but to realign the personal meaning, relevance, and importance of the gaze to a powerful external force, the totality of the Spiritual, rather than accommodating the minimizing of a weaker internal victimizing.

Photo | Hazakim Performing in Maryland | courtesy of Musick Studddnt, Wikimedia Creative Commons

Focusing To Expand

When considering how theomusicology can position our perspectives, moving away from a point of view (POV), and direct us toward a Spiritual viewpoint, Dr. Timothy Keller (Gospel in Life) provides what he notes as two main categories in which Christianity, and Christians, must consider to see how their internal and external relationships can be magnified through Gospel truth. The categories of communication and community, for Dr. Timothy Keller, help configure how we can begin to approach areas where Christian faith needs focused attention.

It is possible to apply these two categories, communication and community, to theomusicology. In doing so, the core elements of theomusicology progress from discipline-centered benchmarks into active scriptural knowledge and a faith-based discipline.

Recalling the core elements of theomusicology (personal testimony, discipleship, evangelism, biblical/scriptural text, community, and activism), the two categories defined by Dr. Timothy Keller capture these elements succinctly.

Communication: personal testimony, discipleship, evangelism, biblical/scriptural text

Community: community and activism

Further, the importance of these two terms, communication and community, includes elements which point to biblical knowledge and truth.

Dr. Timothy Keller (Gospel in Life) draws out that communication includes access to meaning, evidence, and knowledge. Community, as Dr. Timothy Keller notes, provides truth. On the surface, these subtextual points appear to be synonymous descriptors. Reading these two main themes, communication and community, through the invested elements illustrates their tight bond.

Communication is the point of access to, for, and about meaning; it provides evidence of a topic that provides the desired knowledge of a topic. Community is the binding agent acknowledging truth. When one is in a community, there is communication.

Regardless of a topic being discussed, there is an instinctive personal desire to obtain truth. The gathered community is the external representation of truth; a large body working out the mechanics of a topic to recognize and share the understanding of an agreed truth. Truth can only come through access to the dynamics of meaning of a topic, evidence of how the topic relates to the culture, which assumes and exposes inner-external knowledge. From this last point, the cycle starts again.

The Agency of Hearing: A Polemic and an Apologetic

“How the mighty have fallen, and the weapons of war perished!” (2 Samuel 27 NKJV).

The points made by Dr. Timothy Keller are centered on hearing. The act of deep listening and repeated hearing leads to absorption. Scripture points to the multiple layers of importance of hearing as a discipline.

“Consequently, faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ” (Romans 10:17 NKJV).

“In the Old Testament, the Shema, found in Deuteronomy 6:4, begins with the imperative ‘Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is One.’ This call to hear is not merely an invitation to listen but a command to obey. The Hebrew word ‘Shema’ encompasses both hearing and doing, indicating that true hearing involves a response of obedience to God’s commandments” (Bible Hub, n.d.).

“He who has ears to hear, let him hear” (Mark 4:9 NKJV).

“Consider carefully what you hear. With the measure you use, it will be measured to you—and even more will be added to you” (Mark 4:24 NKJV).

“Let the wise listen and gain instruction, and the discerning acquire wise counsel” (Proverbs 1:5 NKJV).

“But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all truth” (John 16:13 NKJV).

“Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you, as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom” (Colossians 3:16 NKJV).

Hearing, then, is the act of discernment, a segue to understanding and acquiring biblical knowledge, and the primary steps needed to obtain Scripture truth. Following Dr. Timothy Keller, communication must come first (read: hearing), followed by community (read: application) for biblical knowledge and Scripture truth to be accessed and broadcast. Theomusicology rests on the trajectory: hearing, access, application, with the discipline of hearing being central. Examining the core elements of theomusicology (personal testimony, discipleship, evangelism, biblical knowledge/text, community, and activism), each resonates with sound as an outlining factor.

In constructing this field of study, Dr. John Michael Spencer (Theomusicology, Greenwood Press, 1991) naturally allowed critical listening and hearing, as a practice, to accompany the critical agents of Hip Hop culture: rupture/flow, cut/mix, layering, the message. The strata of theomusicology, when using the agent of Hip Hop, operate outside of contemporary, post-1980/90/2000s essentialized Hip Hop (read: hip pop), as a critical socio-religious apologetic and a theological discipline agent.

Bound together, we can see how Yarden Mariuma’s ethnographic analysis of culture and Islamic language is applied, emphasizing Hip Hop, albeit Christian Hip Hop or non-faith-based Hip Hop, read through a theomusicological lens.

“[Hearing Hip Hop serves as] an operational concept used as a tactic…demanding countertactics tailored to it[, the agency of theomusicology]… the social purpose of having such ambiguous concepts [, such as deep listening and hearing,] available within one’s society, [points to] the idea that making the ambiguous specific can be a valuable…polemical [and apologetic process]” (Mariuma, Yarden. The Muslim World, Volume 104: 1-2, July 2014, pp 89-90).

Listening to Hip Hop, then, from the original elements of Hip Hop discourse (rupture/flow, cut/mix, layering, the message) through the application of the core elements of theomusicology (personal testimony, discipleship, evangelism, biblical knowledge/text, community, and activism) moves from the ambiguous to the concrete, illustrating biblical knowledge and Scriptural truth. No longer is the act of deep listening and repeated hearing limited to music with an assumed theological point of view. Listening and hearing theomusicologically become an active art, a biblical polemic and apologetic.

Hip Hop, then, regardless of the artist, has the capability, when critically listened to and heard theomusicologically, of promoting and arguing for the defense of biblical knowledge and Scriptural truth. Communication accompanies community; Christian faith comes through hearing the Word of God, and believing the truth in the Word of God to see how the Word of God is accessed, exists, and operates in contemporary culture.

Photo | 116 Clique On DWYL Tour, 2009 | courtesy of Washed With Blood 7, Wikimedia Creative Commons

Cultivating Truth

Through this perpetual motion, the relationship between communication and community is a summary of access to desired knowledge to obtain truth. It’s no wonder why the core elements of theomusicology fit perfectly into this cyclic relationship.

The six core elements of theomusicology, as noted, are each aligned within the categories of communication and community. Together, communication through theomusicology develops a community seeking truth, biblical truth, and knowledge expressed through music. Amplifying the point comes through active inclusion of sight with the sound.

Expressing Knowledge and Truth: Music Examples

The selected works cross different areas of Hip Hop: from orthodox Jewish, critical feminist, and Christian. Each performs across the layers of Hip Hop, engaging Scriptural knowledge and truth. Deep listening illustrates the urgency from each artist to hear the faith-based message.

The selected range of faith-based artists connects the points made by listening to the Word of God through community involvement while embracing the elements of Hip Hop culture alongside theomusicological core elements.

Limiting the examples to Jewish and Christian artists speaks to those familiar with faith-based Hip Hop and those who are outside of this genre. Each work provides a different level of comfort while challenging the socio-religious image of a faith-based Hip Hop artist. There is similarity and difference; a dynamic relationship that finds common ground in Hip Hop, while not minimizing the faith-based discipline and importance for the artist and their supporting community.

Black Jewish Orthodox Hip Hop. Nissim Black. “Mothaland Bounce” (Official Video), February 8, 2020. Video link.

Feminist Jewish Hip Hop. Lea Kalisch. “Eshet Chayil of Hip Hop” (Music Video), January 30, 2020. Video link.

Biblically Conscious Hip Hop. Chaasadahwar. “MACCABEES” (Official Music Video), December 1, 2023. Video link.

Men’s Christian Hip Hop Cypher. Psalms Of Men. “Son of a King” ft Datin, March 13, 2017. Video link.

Unbound Listening

If we combine Dr. Tony Evans’ Spiritual viewpoint reality with the two categories defined by Dr. Timothy Keller, of communication and community, a tight-focused lens provides dynamic, expressive access to biblical truth and knowledge. The agent of music, when read theomusicologically, following this operational process, generates a personal, radical paradigm-shattering shift to see and hear how music, regardless of the genre, becomes a guardrail from justification to sanctification. The ambiguous territory of listening and hearing firms, supporting the acquisition of biblical knowledge and truth, heightened by the visual experience. Using Hip Hop as the example, a critical polemic and apologetic surface to support and defend Gospel truth through the agency of theomusicology.

Photo | Da' T.R.U.T.H., Christian Hip Hop artist | courtesy of Raidarmax, Wikimedia Creative Commons

Photo | Da’ T.R.U.T.H., Christian Hip Hop artist | courtesy of Raidarmax, Wikimedia Creative Commons

Borders are crossed, rigid cultural definitions are softened, and the art of listening expands to hold biblical knowledge, Gospel truth, and culture simultaneously. Though humanity may hurt, when seen, if heard to communicate to a community actively, pain is isolated and neutralized through the rupture/flow, cut/mix, layering, the message of Hip Hop with the personal testimony, discipleship, evangelism, biblical knowledge/text, community, and activism of theomusicology.

To read more from Alan Lechusza Aquallo’s “The Sweatpant Sessions,” please consider subscribing for free and check out others on Patheos.

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About Alan Lechusza Aquallo

Dr. Alan Lechusza is a scholar whose name has become synonymous with critical thought and cultural discourse. He is a thinker and writer who explores popular culture with a critical eye. He holds a PhD and uses his deep, resource-rich understanding to question and redefine how we see art, power, and knowledge. His research covers various topics that aim to break down and rebuild our ideas about culture, artistry, and socio-political authority. Dr. Lechusza closely examines everyday cultural expressions in ways that challenge conventional thinking. His writings make people think and view culture in new ways. Dr. Alan Lechusza wants to create conversations to inspire change and challenge our understanding of how we experience the world. You can read more about the author here.

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