I don’t know how many of our readers actually listen to much hip hop. And if they do, I don’t know how much in the lyrics they pick up on. I know I definitely didn’t pick up on this until one of my friends mentioned the five percenters’ presence in hip hop during the 90s. What we hadn’t noticed was the presence of Indigo Children and their rapid growth in hip hop’s culture during the late 90s and throughout the 00s. But with this growth and exposure of Indigo Children also comes a whole new level of skepticism.

With the tragic death of Capital Steez came somewhat of an influx of rumblings of a certain race of people who have highly superior intelligent abilities including, but not limited to, telepathy, higher levels of creativity, and superior abilities in fields such as art and music. They also apparently have relations to other worldly entities and are often described as gods.

I know what you’re thinking, but stick with me here.

These ‘Indigo Children’ are the brain products of Nancy Ann Tappe. Tappe claims to have been a ‘synesthete.’ Synesthetes are basically people who pair concepts; usually things like words to colors, or numbers to colors. A synesthete might interpret, for instance, the number 2 to be red, or the number 4 to be a dark shade of blue. Tappe seemingly saw people (and herself) in colors, she “saw eleven colors, but that changed in the late 60s and early 70s when she noticed another color among infants. She called it indigo, a color between blue and violet in the color spectrum.” (And no, her visions are not to be correlated with the growing use of LSD in the 60s…..)

Eventually this led to Nancy holding the belief that the next level in human evolution’s children were being born. They are more artistic and creative than other people and you can read all about it on this website. Under one heading on the website, we can see some famous Indigo Children such as Eminem, Barack Obama, Tiger Woods, and Mark Zuckerberg. You read this website and all you can really think is, “this is really interesting; how could anyone buy into this?” They do, and they even rap and sing about it. Some of them are so dedicated to the belief that they are energy entities, much like gods that have come to earth to live an embodied and sensual life for a bit before returning to their spiritual journey, that they kill themselves.

One theme that shines through hip hop songs about Indigo Children is the idea that rappers are self-proclaimed gods. They are the most attractive, the most artistic, wealthy, healthy, they are the best, and they are gods. This could easily be dismissed as common place braggadocio style that has its origins, due to and stemming from, the days of freestyle battles between gangs and rival emcees in the streets of NYC. However, this theme is very prevalent amongst the belief systems of self-identifying Indigo Children as well. As an emcee or listener of hip hop music, bragging and arrogance become second nature, flying under the radar, so to speak, that is, until you start listening and paying attention to some of the most recent come ups in hip hop.

At this point, it all sounds kind of vague. It’s sort of like, ok, this is weird, but how does this really make for any sort of serious discussion about the subject? Trust me, if you go look at some of the websites on this stuff, it just gets weirder and more eluding the deeper you go into it. To help understand, we can look at some contemporary hip hop artists that have become prevalent in the past 10 years:

-          The Underachievers, a NYC rap duo, just released their debut mixtape titled Indigoism. First of all, it’s a great album and a solid listenable rap tape from the Beast Coast. Second, it’s ridden with references to Indigo Children, even the title of the mixtape points to them.

-          Kid Cudi’s new album to be released sometime in April this year is titled Indicud. There are also plenty of questionable references to Indigo Children throughout much of his music. For example: from “Down & Out” he says, ‘How to zone and control your future while/I think I’m in the future too.’ – Knowing, controlling, and seeing the future are all big parts of being an Indigo Child.

-          In B.o.B.’s song “My Sweet Baby” he says a line: “”They trying to figure out what’s my business intensive/I’m simply trying to speak to who or what ever will listen/and reach out to the kids who the doctors prescribed with Ritalin/so this is for all my aliens and all of the indigo children.”

But the most interesting, terrifying, and telling tale of the presence of Indigo Children in hip hop is the one that has evolved around rapper Capital Steez (Jamal Dewar), member of popular Beast Coast hip hop group Pro Era. On December 23^rd 2012 we received the tragic news that Jamal had died. We were also told that his death was a suspected suicide and this was later confirmed by his friends and fellow musicians. What wasn’t openly revealed, per se, was the reasons for his suicide.

After reading some stuff people have been discussing on message boards about his death, one thing seems clear: Jamal thought he was a catalyst. What does this mean in terms of being an Indigo Child? I think the website for Indigo Children describes it best:

“Catalysts usually have a thick, heavy body (think Raymond Burr or Orson Welles.) They are often easy-going but can fly into a sudden rage. They are abstract thinkers, often conceptualizing things that won’t occur until far into the future. Right now, they are just waiting for the world to realize they are right. They may have difficulty relating to their siblings. They can be classroom disrupters, only because their thought processes are so different from the norm. Of all the Indigo types, they are the most likely to be labeled “autistic.” About fifty percent of them actually are autistic. The others use the label as a means of being left alone. They prefer the quietness of solitude. Catalysts are special; we should welcome them and honor their desire for isolation today. Tomorrow they will offer the solutions to today’s social problems of hunger, disease, poverty, and prejudice. Nancy receives many emails and letters from people who have self-identified as Catalysts. While it is certainly possible, it is unlikely at this time. Catalysts are very few in number because they have difficulty adjusting to the physical human body and because time is not ready for their message.”

Here is a screenshot of part of a long conversation Jamal had on Facebook with some people about his beliefs about he being an Indigo Child:

The number 47 is mentioned by Jamal throughout many of his songs and throughout this conversation on Facebook. If you take the date he committed suicide, 12/23/12, and add the numbers, you get 47. It seems he was planning this the entire time (unless it’s just coincidence) as he believed he was a catalyst, spirits who “have difficulty adjusting to the physical human body” and apparently “time is not ready for their message.” Indigo Children are said to be on a journey, experiencing different realities at different points of their life span. Jamal thought that his period on earth had ended (or maybe he just couldn’t handle the sensual body) and he tweeted just before he committed suicide, “The End.” Could this be his way of telling us it was the end of the journey for his spirit on earth and he was off to other realities in other parts of the universe? Only the Indigo Children will know.

Either way, I don’t know if I recommend researching too deep into this subject. It’s very weird, disturbing, and even cult like. This new age religion is confusing and complex, and it also has a fairly strong following. Not to mention, one Indigo Child warns us of pissing off Indigo Children because “what do you get from spiritually pissing off an Indigo Child? Dead Gods and universes smashing together….”

Jamal’s mind was obviously very heavily captivated by this concept of being an Indigo Child, and there is pretty conclusive evidence that it led him to killing himself. That being said, we also don’t know the full story around Jamal’s death; these are all just pieces being thrown together here. He could very well have suffered from some mental disabilities such as schizophrenia for all we know, but it is interesting and disturbing to read about the Indigo Children and relate it back to some influential and talented artists we’re listening to online every day. Either way, with the exposure Indigo Children are getting from popular mainstream artists, they must expect some skepticism coming from curious middle class writers and hip hop fans.