If it’s wrong to love Scientology hip-hop, we don’t want to be right

 
Peter Bonyai asked us if we’d seen a three-year-old video put out by Scientology which features one of our favorite performers, Scientology’s in-house hip hop giant, Chill EB. We told him we weren’t sure, but we really didn’t need much excuse to visit it again as long as the Chillmaster was in it.

Unfortunately, you have to sit through a lot of really boring scene-setting by the masters at Golden Era Productions in this video as it tries to build a mood and cast a spell over its intended audience — Scientologists who are likely sick and tired of forking out their hard-earned cash to the International Association of Scientologists (IAS). But once it gets going, not only are we treated to a few glimpses of Chill, but the hard rap line is laid down by none other than Rev. Alfreddie Johnson — yes! The Literacy King himself!

Alfreddie may be Scientology’s most visible African-American figure, and he’s been in the middle of a lot of Scientology history, including the strange merger of Scientology and the Nation of Islam. But perhaps his greatest exploit was somehow escaping criminal charges when just about everyone else around him at his former literacy center was caught up in a state insurance fraud prosecution. Alfreddie made himself somewhat scarce after that first went down, but we’ve noticed in recent months that he’s starting to make a comeback as a man on the scene. This video reminds us of just what a big deal he was considered at one time.

And maybe that’s the best reason for revisiting this video, to remember how things were just a few years ago, right when Alex Gibney’s Going Clear and Leah Remini’s Scientology and the Aftermath arrived and put some serious hurt on the church, which seems to be in a real tailspin. So let’s remember these Scientology quasi-celebrities giving it their all as the ship SS Miscavige began heading into stormy waters.

There’s Chick Corea, of course, who has done OT 8 twice. People often ask us if bassist Stanley Clarke is still involved, and here’s your answer. Australia knows OT 8 singer Kate Ceberano, but she’s really not known in the States. David Campbell is the father that Beck so rejected from his life he took his mother’s last name, Hansen, instead. Jim Meskimen is the son of actress Marion Ross, and seems to work harder than ever on behalf of the church. The rest we’ll let you look up.

 
Alfreddie certainly got us worked up watching that inspiring message. But time and again, as we watched this video, we kept thinking, this is all to inspire Scientologists to fork over money to a slush fund, the IAS, that they then get no discernible benefit from. Debbie Cook testified that there was more than a billion dollars in the IAS fund when she left in 2012 — it’s likely much higher today.

You just have to give David Miscavige credit for continuing to put out emotional appeals like this intended to separate his followers from their cash — and purely for his own benefit. Now that takes some hubris.

 
Don’t forget these other recent gems of Scientology hip hop:

May 27: Praise Xenu, we have more Scientology hip hop, and even better it’s Aussie flavored
July 11: Hip hop continues to amaze us and we hope it transports you as well

 
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Posted by Tony Ortega on August 6, 2018 at 07:00

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Learn about Scientology with our numerous series with experts…

BLOGGING DIANETICS: We read Scientology’s founding text cover to cover with the help of L.A. attorney and former church member Vance Woodward
UP THE BRIDGE: Claire Headley and Bruce Hines train us as Scientologists
GETTING OUR ETHICS IN: Jefferson Hawkins explains Scientology’s system of justice
SCIENTOLOGY MYTHBUSTING: Historian Jon Atack discusses key Scientology concepts

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