Five Percenter Rap: God Hop’s Music, Message, and Black Muslim Mission. By Felicia M. Miyakawa. (Bloomington, Indiana University Press, 2005. Pp. 190, black/white photographs, appendix, glossary, notes, bibliography, discography, indexes, music credits, ISBN 0-253-21763-6)

Black American Islam pushes many people’s buttons. When I told a colleague that I was reviewing a book about hip-hop associated with the Five Percent Nation, a splinter group from the Nation of Islam, he asked if they were “even more extremist” than the Nation of Islam. The latter group, famously associated with its members Malcolm X and Louis Farrakhan, has long faced criticisms of racism, antisemitism, homophobia, anti-christianity, and sexism. Amidst the US-led “War on Terror,” Islam and its supporters are subjects of intense political scrutiny and pressure. An entanglement of politics and ideologies separates critics and defenders of Islam. Alongside allegations of violence that have chronically stigmatized rap music, it was not surprising that my colleague assumed the Five Percent Nation was an extremist black nationalist organization. Felicia Miyakawa’s book sets out to interrogate this assumption, and to examine the features of Five Percenter music. Miyakawa writes in a straightforward style, focusing on facts and events rather than forming dense theoretical interpretations. Her account begins with an overview of Five Percenters’ history and theology. When the Nation of Islam began to splinter and destabilize in the early 1960s, one of its key members, Clarence 13X, separated from the group and founded the Five Percent Nation in Harlem (“Mecca,” in Five Percenter terminology). The Allah School in Mecca was established soon afterwards, and still remains the Five Percenters’ headquarters. Although their founder was killed in 1969, Five Percenters went on to play important roles in hip-hop from the 1970s up to the present. Five Percenters consider their organization a “way of life” rather than a religion, and sense a duty to “civilize the uncivilized.” The “uncivilized” are the 85% of the population who are lost and have not yet learned Five Percenter theology. Ten percent of the population is considered blatantly and irrevocably evil, enslaving the poor. The remaining Five Percent see themselves as “poor righteous teachers.” Five Percenter “Lessons” stress numerology (“Supreme Mathematics”) and a system of attributing meaning to letters (“Supreme Alphabet”). Their doctrine draws on black nationalism, Egyptology, and other systems to formulate a cosmology (wherein each black man is a God and origin of universe), and to emphasize healthy living, self-sufficiency, anti-materialism, family unity, and a binary gender code. Because Five Percenter doctrine prioritizes verbal skills and is generally disseminated orally, rappers are especially suited to communicate its messages. The second part of Miyakawa’s book examines how these messages are embedded in Five Percenters’ music (“God Hop”). Although some music theory and notation is used (particularly regarding rhythm), the text is generally accessible to readers with no strong musical training. Miyakawa traces an impressive number of song lyrics which allude to Five Percenter theology – typically obscure uses of numerology and acronyms scattered throughout a song. Following this, Miyakawa describes many technical elements of rap music; any Five Percenter content here seems almost secondary to her descriptions of generic hip-hop devices. Chapters are devoted to verbal delivery, and to “groove” (including scratching, verbal flow, and layering). Various charts help to clarify Miyakawa’s observations. A chapter on sampling practices serves as a excellent introduction to this hip-hop aesthetic in general. Rather than discussing legalities, listeners’ responses, or theoretical issues, the author focuses on sampling techniques and creative processes. After presenting six generic hip-hop sampling conventions, Miyakawa explains how and why samples are chosen, where samples of various types are placed in songs, and what purposes they serve. Finally, Miyakawa identifies Five Percenter references and numerology in liner notes, album art, and the ordering of songs on albums. Here, she provides a unique and insightful discussion of …