Sunday, June 17, 2012 is Father’s Day. It’s the day Americans celebrate fatherhood. But many people experience Father’s Day with mixed emotions because they don’t have the relationships they’d like to have with their fathers.
Fatherlack is a term that describes an intense desire for a physically and/or emotionally absent father. Individuals fulfill their fatherlack by seeking out older men they admire. These men might be grandfathers, uncles, cousins, mentors, pastors, big homies, drug distributors, pimps, other men engaging in extralegal activities, or daddy God.
Throughout hip hop history rappers have described multiple instances of filling their fatherlack with the fatherlove of a daddy God. These relationships with daddy God are not perfect. In fact, daddy God’s dealings with his children have been just as complex as the aforementioned relationships with human fathers and father figures. In honor of father’s day, check out these rappers’ relationships with daddy God. (Each of the videos is analyzed in more depth in Rap and Religion: Understanding the Gangsta’s God.)
Lauryn Hill prays to a patriarchal omnipotent father in “I Used to Love Him.”
DMX prays to a daddy God who is his comforter in “The Convo.”
Lil Kim prays to her daddy God for love, joy, peace, and happiness in “Heavenly Father.”
Nas calls himself God’s Son, and in “God Love Us” he describes daddy God as a reservoir for unconditional love.
The Lady of Rage raps in “Get with Da Wickedness (Flow Like That Remix)” that being the daughter of God makes her a goddess.
Joe Budden’s daddy God forces him to take responsibility for his actions in “Pray for Me.”
Tupac identifies as God’s son in “Blasphemy.” His daddy God empowers him to survive oppressive situations by any means necessary.
Boots of The Coup describes how he eventually distanced himself from Jesus the pimp who was his primary father figure in “Me and Jesus the Pimp in a ’79 Grenada Last Night.”
50 Cent prays to a God who don’t say nothin’ back in “Many Men.” Like his absent bio father, his father God is also silent.
What kind of father is daddy God to you? Leave your description in the comment box.