Christianity and Rap Part II
Christian Hip-Hop is relegated to being a subculture of the most popular genre in the world. While the religion stands to hold around 2.1 billion people on the planet (27.27% of the world population), it does not translate into the Hip-Hop community. If anything, the entire idea is seen as a joke or as childish by many people in the mainstream. Artists such as Lecrae, Sho Baraka and Tedashii are therefore completely ignored when it comes to the overall study of the craft.
In my previous article discussing Hip-Hop and Christianity, I delved into the case study of Chance the Rapper and not the exact problems with the subgenre. It's something that I glossed over to stick to the subject of the article. But what is the problem?
Communication.
To communicate is the basis of Hip-Hop and music in general, but it means nothing if the overall goal of the music isn't clear to begin with. Is Christian Hip-Hop meant to praise? To testify? To evangelize? The question must be asked to clarify the way in which a person will use their verse.
To begin, if the song is meant to praise, it would be therefore in a accordance with Psalms 150:6, which explains clearly that all that has breath should praise the LORD. There are many reasons to give Him praise, which include but do not exclude: His holiness, mercy, and justice (2 Chronicles 20:21, Psalm 99:3-4), His grace (Ephesians 1:6), His goodness (Psalm 135:3), His kindness (Psalm 117) and His salvation (Ephesians 2:8-9) to name a few. In that train of thought, very few things could be seen as being bad, from the rambunctious cries of hallelujah draped over trap beats to the piano and boom-bap rapper. We can't judge an offering of praise nor compare our own to that of others as Cain did to Abel in Genesis - the point give the most pure and honest praise you can.
To continue, to testify (Psalm 66:16) would theoretically be the easiest of all the means to use Hip-Hop music. The verse length is conducive to the idea, permitting anyone to really put their stories into the written word. A rapper could take the entire album or the singular song to talk about their struggles (Psalm 40:9-10) and their pains on their route to Christ (Ephesians 2:8-9). However, the state of the christian music industry doesn't permit that, with the positive and contemporary sound having more of a commercial viability, with none of the top 20 highest selling albums being exclusively Hip-Hop albums.
As well, let's conceptualize that the rap song is meant to evangelize - it will undoubtedly fail in most cases. The reasoning comes from the individual attention needed to evangelize as Jesus told us to do (Mark 16:14). If you're to teach someone GOD, it is with gentleness and respect (1 Peter 3:15), not generalizations. As well, the idea of the message and to evangelize is the easiest to confuse, overtaking the lyrical skill and attention needed to make a good song or artwork. The prime example would be Christian Movies (which Josh Keefe explains in detail in this video exposé below). To summarize, the most important part is that if one looks at the evangelization as just that, the media is morally and spiritually good, however the skill is lacking as they see the evangelization before the technique. Which, in turn, pushes people to not listen as they see that the quality is lacking.
From there, it isn't difficult right? All anyone should use now are beats, as they should be theoretically free of anything as the beat doesn't convey the message as powerfully as ones words. The quality should be high as this is for the King of Kings and worthy of him through your creativity. This quality question leads to a problem that fans of the music have issues with Christian Hip-Hop: they copy other artists. It's blatant and problematic. NF is seen as a carbon copy of Eminem and Logic without the technical skill just as Lecrae is nothing but a washed up southern rapper in the vain of a Nelly or a watered down André 3000.
That needs to stop.
To be inspired by the Holy Ghost is the goal (Acts 1:8) and anything that comes otherwise should be stopped Even though there are no new things on Earth (Ecclesiastes 1:9), Hip-Hop is a field of imagination with things that haven't been touched or explored due to the lack of attention in the genre. It's an open field right now. Bring your best bars and you could take the entire genre by storm because there are no "greats" even though there are staples of the sound such as Lecrae and Tedashii.
In conclusion, I don't believe that there are no great Christian Hip-Hop artists or projects - my personal favorite is Sho Baraka's The Narrative, a powerful christian albums with serious social ramifications which is great overall - I just stand in my belief that our artists can be better both creatively and technically. There is no reason for christian artists to not be creative if our infinitely creative GOD was able to create the universe and made us in His image. To be like Him. It's not a condemnation but a criticism that can easily be fixed.