“We came from Shaolin, but we’re bringing Hip-Hop culture around the world" (The RZA, Wu-Tang Clan). The papers in this session explore the potential intersecting points relating to Hip-Hop's cultural evolution and individual artistic journeys as seen in the work of The Wu-Tang Clan and B-Boy Gato. The engagement of “Supreme Mathematics” and the wide and varied use of cultural references by The Wu-Tang Clan, helps to form and create a narrative that resonates with Chan Buddhist teachings and hagiography. Similarly, B-Boy Gato's experience highlights the transformative power of breaking amidst violence and exile. Through their artistic expressions, both The Wu-Tang Clan and B-Boy Gato navigate societal challenges, constructing narratives of heroism and enlightenment. The papers in this session provide insights into the multifaceted expressions of Hip-Hop culture from pop culture references and religious engagement to the transformative potential of dance within marginalized communities.
As hip-hop celebrates its 50 years aniversary, one of the cultures four elements is entering another historical milestone. Breaking is for the first time an olympic sport at the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris. Scholarly writings on hip hop and religion seems to favorize rap and rap lyrics. In academic studies on religion and dance, breaking is as good as absent. This paper will explore the art and spirituality of Carlos David Catun Quintanas, AKA B-Boy Gato, known as one of the most innovative breakers from Guatemala City, Guatemala. Having received death threats from one of the most notorious gangs in Guatemala city, B-Boy Gato now lives in exile. The aim of this paper is to examine two of his productions, reflecting contexts of violence and exile. Building on theories developed by Homi Bhabha and Edward Soja among others, spirituality will be explored along spatial terms.
Although Rolling Stone journalist Touré’s 1994 review criticizes Wu-Tang's underground style, calling them “ciphers” who embrace the aesthetics of the “have-nots,” the cipher in fact signifies both zero and the whole within the context of the Five Percent Nation’s Supreme Mathematics, which Wu-Tang further correlates to the 360 degrees of a circle via the thirty-six deadly pressure points found in the Wubei Zhi (a Ming dynasty military treatise). This paper will examine Wu-Tang’s zero-is-hero trajectory and its parallels to the tale of Chan Buddhist patriarch, Huìnéng 慧能, the “barbarian” whose rhymes revealed a natural knowledge of dharma as no thing. In scripting a context for their own hero's narrative from Supreme Mathematics, kung fu cinema, and lyrical sword style, the Wu-Tang Clan has taken the blank canvas of the self and built a chamber, a cipher, and a sphere of enlightenment for themselves and their fans.