The Unbreakable Leo

As a young man I grew up always believing in the concept of tauhed even if I didn’t know the name for it in Arabic. There is no god but God and nothing is equal or comparable to him. Openly I broke with my parent’s Christian faith and tradition and chose to follow God’s way through the avenue of Islam. Not having a lot of materials to read about it, my intellect was stimulated through constant contact with hip hop culture. Through verse after verse I wasn’t taught about Islam, but rather reminded of words associated with it. So at times I felt that I was being slowly introduced to something that was changing my life.

The changing ideology of rap music and hip hop culture as a whole appeared to me over time. As a 15 year old boy I listened to people talk about making it through hard times with street smarts and rebuilding broken communities through educating the youth. As Inspectah Deck put it, “I kick the truth, for the young black youth.” Now as a 30 year old man I hear men talk about sexual exploits and the worship of money. At times it saddens me to see that hip hop in general became the very thing it preached against in my childhood. It became a sell out corporate tool only to make money for the few rich white CEO’s and not to rebuild those broke communities that so many rappers came from that has now become a badge of honor rather then a source for change.

One artist in particular shaped my thinking in ways I didn’t understand until I was older. I cherished her conscious understanding of the religious diversity of the Black community. She cleverly wove words of intelligence to plant the seeds of consciousness that the community so anxiously craved. It seemed that she tried to speak to all to awaken not just a single person, but the world. In Lauryn Hill’s song Doo Wop she starts the song off “Yo, my men and my women, don't forget about the deen, Sirat al-Mustaqim.” As she continues on, her words later divulge more:

To begin, how you think you really gon' pretend
Like you wasn't down then you called him again
Plus when you give it up so easy you ain't even foolin’ him
If you did it then, then you’d probably fuck again
Talking out your neck sayin' you're a Christian
A Muslim sleeping with the jinn

In another song entitled Final Hour she recites perhaps one of my favorite verses she’s composed:

I'm about to be in it
For a minute
Then run for senate
Make a slum lord be the tenant
Give his money to kids to spend it
And then amend it
Every law that ever prevented
Our survival since our arrival
Documented in the bible
Like Moses and Aaron
Things gon change, it's apparent
And all the transparent gonna
Be seen through
Let God redeem you
Keep your deen true
You can get the green too
Watch out what you cling to

This verse doesn’t need any translation for me, although for others it might. But I believe that she tops the song off perfectly in parts of her last verse:

Now I'm a get the mozzarella like a Rockerfeller
Still be in the church of Lalibela
Singing hymns a cappella
Whether posed in Maribella in Couture
Or collectin' residuals from off the Score
I'm makin' sure
I'm with the 144
I've been here before this ain't a battle this is war
Word to Boonie
I make salaat like a Sunni
Get diplomatic immunity in every ghetto community
Had opportunity went from
Hoodshock to Hood-chic
But it ain't what you cop
It's about what you keep

Song like these reinforced my ideas that all religions are just paths to the same destination. For me, my path is Islam but listening to people like Lauryn gave me much pride since too often it seemed that in the African-American community Muslims are at odds with their Christian neighbors. But at that time rap music brought younger people together and isn’t that what it’s all really about? Lauryn Hill isn’t Muslim, but then again why does she need to be. Hip Hop is a tool that made public the voices of the neglected and disenfranchised.

“Leave it up to me while I be living proof/ To kick the truth to the young black youth/ But shorty's running wild smokin sess drinkin beer/ And ain't trying to hear what I'm kickin in his ear."
-Inspectah Deck