Hip Hop Philosopher

02-06-24

Dr. Jon Ivan Gill

When it comes to his outlook on the world, Dr. Jon Ivan Gill (MTS 2007) has always used hip hop as a trusted lens. It’s given him a way to communicate deep ideas in easy to relate ways. “Hip hop is a way I have seen a bridge between philosophy and the world,” he says. “Hip hop has always been more than what we thought it was.”

This outlook on the role music can play in helping people understand themselves and the world they live in is part of what persuaded Dr. Gill to find a way to merge his background as a rapper, philosopher and theologian. As a rapper, Dr. Gill, who goes by Gilead7 on stage, has often merged religion and an exploration of the challenges of our world in his music. “Underground hip hop is sort of like religion which helps us understand how we fit in the world,” he said. To expand his understanding of religion, he found his way to McCormick where he was challenged and inspired to deepen his ability to explore the deep questions of our time. “I got my theology voice at MTS,” he remembers. “MTS really blew my mind. It confirmed my suspicion that there were so many ways to understand religion.” Today, he’s also a professor at Gustavus Adolphus College in Minnesota where courses like Philosophy and Battle Rap allow him to draw an even tighter connection between the various schools of thought that shape our world. “We’ve been told that philosophy is just this one thing — Plato, Nietzsche, Kierkegaard,” he explains. “But philosophy is just a love of wisdom and that can come from various sources.”

The convergence of music and philosophy does not stop in the classroom, or in his published work. Most recently, Dr. Gill and his brother Stephen Andrews opened a record store, Aesthetic Religion Records & Texts, with a curated, eclectic collection of music. Drawing from his upbringing in Chicago and his wide ranging influences, the store offers everything from jazz to soul to hip hop, from Miles Davis to Jimi Hendrix and Common to Johnny Cash. But more importantly, what the store strives to do goes beyond inspiring a purchase. “This is a way to cause people to re-imagine what music is… to find the music that shapes their lives,” he concludes.