Miller - Religion and hip hop

This project was made possible and enabled by the compassion, brilliance, love, and support of many people. I owe a debt of gratitude to the scholarship and mentorship of Anthony B. Pinn. This book stands upon his intellectual contribution to African American religious thought, his work on Hip Hop in particular. Beyond his scholarly contribution, his mentorship is unmatched in a profession where, all too often, the commitments of academic life often mean thin guidance for doctoral students and junior scholars. Over the years, he has come to serve as one of the most important inuences on my academic formation. My gratitude cannot be contained in the words thank you for the encouragement and unmatched mentorship. Similarly, I owe an equal amount of gratitude to John L. Jackson, Jr. and Deborah Thomas. Their diligence in extending community, mentorship, and scholarly attention over the years has been immensely gracious. Jacksons suggestion, revisions, and multiple reads of this project were invaluable and contributed much to what it means to take up an ethnographic imagination. His support of this book from the beginning has meant a lot to me and has continued to be an important conversation partner and sounding boardespecially at the beginning stages of this project. Much appreciation to Ted Jennings at Chicago Theological Seminary for his friendship, mentorship and meticulous and careful teachinghis class on Jacques Derrida would come to be one of the most formative and important classes during my doctoral studies. Most importantly, Jennings taught me invaluable jewels regarding what it means to be faithfully unfaithful to the traditions by which we are accountable to (and how to read the text closely). I would like to thank Gordon Lynch for invaluable email exchanges related to the topic of youth and religion. These exchanges were immensely helpful for thinking through the subject matter. I owe a huge shout out to Russell T. McCutcheon whose approach to religion grounds this manuscript. His works Manufacturing Religion and Critics Not Caretakers were paradigm shifting for this project. These works altered my approach to religion in a rather profound waythey were the stimulus for my Aha! momentalbeit 150 pages into this book, thus, ipping my approach on its head and causing me to begin again. These two texts are indeed transformational and offered me language to articulate my claims and a window into critical approaches to the academic study of religion. McCutcheon became a virtual mentor and conversation partnerhis advice, suggestions, and critical queries over email greatly impacted and beneted this project. Mad props to him for his courageous and invaluable contributions to the academic study of religion and his passion for guiding students through that messy and complicated category we call religion. Many thanks, R! The wellness of the mind is contingent on the wellness of the body. Huge thanks to Monica A. Coleman for all her support, encouragement and for faithfully reminding me to take breaks and be well to myself. Doc C, you are a courageous beacon of light and I am so very grateful for your presence in my life! An immeasurable amount of gratitude to Bo Myung Seo, my doctoral advisor who always, so calmly, brings sharp and pointed thoughts to the table of intellectual exchange. Among many things, I am grateful for Seos support of this project from its inception. Seo is a rarity in the academy and continually encourages a healthy balance of creativity and critical knowledge production. His commitment to interdisciplinary scholarship enabled the beginning formation of this project. A huge shout out to a host of warm and supportive friends and colleagues who have helped in many ways over the years: Kunitoshi Sakai, Cassie Trentaz, Adam Kotsko, Howard Wiley, Eddie Kornegay, Afri Alelani Atiba, Emily Bieber, Esq., Kasturi Sen, Esq., Nessette Falu, Tanji Gilliam of Oil House Productions, Wilfredo Gomez, Carol B. Duncan, Margarita Simon Guillory, Christopher Driscoll, Derek Hicks, Josef Sorett, Shayne Lee, Tamura Lomax, Thomas Beaudoin, Daniel White Hodge, and especially my dearest friend and colleague, Elonda Clay, to whom this book is dedicated to for her invaluable and constant gift of intellectual exchange about religion and hip hop over the past ve years. This project would not have been possible without the many years of support and assistance of Ezekiel Dixon-Romanone of the ercest postmodern methodologists I know! To my beautiful Miller-Pace family in Long Island, New York, I couldnt have completed this project without such love and support especially my dear mother Charlotte A. Miller. I owe a debt of gratitude to Carol Ross, associate editor at Hyperlife Editing Services for her meticulous and dedicated editorial work and careful reading of this project from the beginning.