Posted on February 11, 2013 by Chris Broussard in Articles, Ear to the Streets17
I recently attended an event where a well-known Black pastor was preaching. Hip, relatively young and Baptist, he delivered a scintillating sermon on social justice that at times had the audience cheering loudly. While I loved his message of empowering the poor and providing equal opportunities for the downtrodden, I was more than a bit turned off by the way he quoted three popular secular rappers as if they were Marcus Garvey, Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. DuBois.
He wasn’t quoting KRS-One, Chuck D or Dead Prez, mind you. Nah, the cats whose lyrics he recited with such gusto and admiration rose to worldwide fame by promoting themselves as pimps and glorifying selling drugs to Black people. Yet in a sermon in which this Reverend chastised the rich and powerful for their refusal to share the wealth and hammered the holy rollers for ignoring scriptures that address social justice, he saw fit to exalt dudes who flaunt their affluence in the faces of poor, struggling Blacks, who advocate the type of promiscuous lifestyle that helps fuel the fatherless crisis and all the negative outcomes that come with it, and who brag about their role in a drug game that’s sent millions of brothers to prison or the grave.
I’m not one who thinks Christians can’t listen to secular music or that non-Christian celebrities can’t be admired from the pulpit, but when a rapper’s music is pornographic and murderous, his content and persona shouldn’t be given props by a Man of God during a serious sermon. It makes the preacher look confused at best and hypocritical and phony at worst. And to make matters worse, I’d be willing to bet this hip hop Reverend couldn’t name one song by Lecrae, Bizzle, The Cross Movement or any other Christian rap artists.
And he’s not alone. The refusal of many (probably most) traditional Black churches to embrace Christian hip hop – even as they sometimes embrace secular hip hop – is sad, unfortunate and detrimental to their congregations. Those who reject it because they believe all hip hop is evil need to stop judging by their traditions and personal tastes and start judging by The Word. The Bible doesn’t exalt or debase any particular musical style or genre. It never says “death and life are in the power of the beat, the rhythm or the bassline.” Instead, it tells us that “death and life are in the power of the tongue” (Proverbs 18:21). It’s the lyrics and the words that make a song holy or hellish. A Hammond B3 organ is no holier than a human beat box or a drum machine. A choir can be just as ungodly as a rapper, and a rapper can be just as anointed as a choir. It all depends on what’s being said or sung and on how the singers or rappers are living. Furthermore, the anti-hip hop church crowd needs to realize that most of their kids are going to listen to and be influenced by the popular music of the day anyway (in this case, hip hop), so why not try to combat that or at least balance it out by exposing them to Godly hip hop alternatives?
But at least the aforementioned churches’ neglect of Christian hip hop is rooted in an attempt to be Godly. I think the ministers that give props to the pimp rappers and gangsta’ rappers yet ignore the Kingdom MCs are far more in the wrong. These ministers are simply being carnal and worldly, choosing to promote sin over righteousness in an awkward and ridiculous attempt to be “down.” If you like hip hop and are a Christian, let alone a minister, there’s no excuse not to dig gospel rap. If you’re bumpin’ 2 Chainz on the regular and have no Christian hip hop in your iPod, something’s wrong Rev.
You certainly can’t say Christian hip hop isn’t good enough anymore because any objective observer has to admit that the beats and flows are now on par with secular hip hop. Heck, some Christian rappers are actually using the same producers that create top secular beats. You can’t say Christian hip hop isn’t relevant or doesn’t address today’s social issues because it probably addresses them more than the music played on your local blazin’ hip hop and R&B radio station. For instance, what secular ** has created a song about the drug game as poignant and insightful as Thi’sl’s “I Hate You”? And you can’t say Christian rap isn’t conscious because Sho Baraka’s latest release, “The Talented 10th,” is a hip hop version of the historical Black church at its absolute finest. In the tradition of Frederick Douglass, Henry Highland Garnett, Bishop Henry McNeal Turner, David Walker and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Sho intertwines Black history, a scathing, scripturally-sound critique of racism, and true Biblical spirituality – all over dope, cutting-edge beats that’ll keep your head noddin.’
Every social gospel, right-wing-reviling, James-Cone-Liberation-Theology-preaching minister should have Sho’s “Talented Xth” in heavy rotation. Not to mention, Eshon Burgundy, Wit and Dre Murray, Tedashii, Japhia Life, Swoope, Mouthpi3ce, Propaganda, Reconcile, Da’ T.R.U.T.H. and many others. Then the Reverend who wants to show off his hip hop chops will have some MCs who are really worth quoting from the pulpit.
