Hip Hop as the music of Reformation

LOUISVILLE — Bill Buchanan of Asheville, North Carolina, goes by DJ5 when he’s spinning records at wedding receptions and other gatherings. His day job is executive director of Youth Mission Co, which plans and leads justice-centered and biblically-based mission trips for youth and young adults.

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In the “Hip Hop: The Music of Reformation” class he offered this week at Presbyterian Youth Triennium, Buchanan offered each attendee a pair of headsets so they could easily hear him and his musical selections.

“You may ask yourself, why is a middle-aged white guy up here talking about Hip Hop?” Buchanan said. He put in a lot of research, and “I’m here sharing what I have learned out of appreciation. The music does not originate from people who look like me. It comes from the musical tradition of African Americans in this country.”

“I offer this out of great appreciation, not any sense of appropriation,” Buchanan said. “I think there is genius in the creation of all this music.” He noted that African American friends looked at his material to give him guidance and feedback “to tell this story well.”

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Buchanan took his exploration of hip hop only through the 1980s and 1990s in order to keep the language clean. He began his talk with the blues, foundational music for Hip Hop, and this quote from Howlin’ Wolf: “When you ain't got no money, you've got the Blues. When you ain't got no money to pay your house rent, you've still got the Blues. A lot of people holler, 'I don't like no Blues,’ but when you ain't got no money, and you can't pay your house rent, and can't buy no food, you … sure got the Blues!”

Blues “is not about a relationship,” Buchanan said. “It’s about the economic system working against you.”

His musical clip was B.B. King performing “Why I Sing the Blues.” “He’s telling the whole story,” Buchanan marveled, including the slave trade, cycles of poverty and urban renewal.

“The Blues takes pain,” said Willie Jennings, “and makes it productive.”

Hip Hop itself was born on Aug. 11, 1973, in the Bronx, Buchanan said. The DJ Kool Herc threw a back-to-school party at a community center, where he played old soul and funk records, focusing on the breakdowns by picking up the tone arm to repeat the breaks. His friend Coke LaRoc served as MC, making announcements and shoutouts and hyping the crowd.

Buchanan shared “Apache” by The Incredible Bongo Band, calling it “quintessential old school stuff.” He also discussed Grand Master Flash’s improvements on some of Kool Herc’s methods, playing a track called “Superappin” by Grand Master Flash and the Furious Five. “It was revolutionary, y’all,” Buchanan said.

For examples of sampling, the introduction of the TR-808 Drum Machine and scratching, Buchanan played Run-DMC’s “My Adidas” and Public Enemy’s “Prophets of Rage.”

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Buchanan placed Jazz between the 1900s and 1940s. He made a point to discuss ways that African musicians played European instruments differently, were not bound to notation, and were free to express themselves. Jazz has values that include extemporaneous soloing, which are shared equally. “Jazz was showing America what democracy was before American understood what democracy was,” said the Rev. Dr. Otis Moss III.

The headphones that each participant received had both blue and red channels. The blue had samples of whatever genre Buchanan was exploring; the red channel showed where the sampling came from in another genre. It was a rich experience.

Buchanan also took time to explain how Soul music took R&B elements and infused church elements including tambourines, the Hammond organ, call and response, vocal ad libs, tempo changes, a walking bass line, clapping [“especially on the ‘2’ and ‘4,’ Buchanan said], and questions and instructions for the band and the audience. When he played the Isley Brothers’ “Shout,” Buchanan asked participants to name the qualities they heard.

“I grew up with this song,” he said, “and didn’t know all this church was in it.” Or, as Moss put it, “We live between the Blues moan and the Gospel shout.”

For the Funk genre, Buchanan discussed the musicality — 7^th chords, extreme syncopation, hyperactive bass lines, psychedelic influences, affected vocals, groove-based and danceable. The example came from James Brown: “It’s Too Funky in Here.”

“Musically and lyrically, something is unresolved here,” Buchanan said. “The genius is it can say that while giving this irresistible groove, you just want to get up and dance to it.”

The genius of hip hop is this, he said:

• It’s Blues, urban Black youth telling difficult truths.
• It’s Jazz, adapting the turntable as a musical instrument. Freestyle rapping is extemporaneous soloing with authenticity.
• It's Soul, sampling Soul records and the breadth of life experience.
• It’s Funk, telling you that things are not all right, but with an irresistible beat.

He concluded by explaining how Hip Hop is the music of the Reformation, or “why Hip Hop is like being Presbyterian”:

• It was born out of the protest of Disco narrative. Presbyterianism was born out of a protest over Roman Catholic theology and practices.
• Hip Hop takes music down to the essentials, including beat and lyric. Presbyterian theology “is about taking out the extras of beliefs, rituals, etc.”
• Hip Hop puts music back in the hands of the people. For Presbyterians and other Reformed traditions, it’s about putting the Bible back into the hands of the people. “Technology is key to both,” Buchanan said.
• Hip Hop samples from its musical history to say something today. Presbyterians “sample the Bible and the Book of Confessions to speak about the present situation.”

“I think Hip Hop is a lot like being Presbyterian,” he said, “and I hope you feel the same way.”

Prersbyterian Youth Triennium - Wednesday Interest Groups

Buchanan's class was one of several interest group classes offered this week during Presbyterian Youth Triennium. Watch the video above to get a glimpse of some of the others.

Videographer Randy Hobson contributed to this story.