When speaking of many Christian endevours its often said "we are not growing like the world because God said the world will hate us." Often you hear well we don't have the resources that the world has that's why our business, church, or genre is not growing. I got to thinking about the recent accomplishment of one of Christian Hip Hop's flagship artist Lecrae and it caused me to question why so late in the Hip Hop game is someone like Lecrae being recognized.
I grew up on hip hop. I'm 35 years old and I remember listening to The Beastie Boys, Run DMC, Eric B. and Rakim, Big Daddy Kane and the list goes on and on, but I have to admit also at that time in my life I was experiencing a transformation spiritually. God began drawing me to Himself and even though I was raised in the church I began to realize what salvation was. There was a guy in my church that began to put me on to cats like SFC, D-Boy, Idol King, Dynamic Twins and that list goes on and on. I enjoy music and I have to admit that even though these rappers on the Christian side of things were speaking some real truth I gravitated more to the secular because of the production quality.
As time went on production quality grew, rappers also polished their craft and on the Christian side of things it seemed that many artist were not just catching up to the secular artist in quality but surpassing some of them. Rap began to become more and more commercial and I began to realize that the only genuine rap out there were underground artist and guys like Common, Talib Kweli, Lupe Fiasco and some others. I also began to realize as I grew more as a Christian, that on the Christian side of things there was more substance than a lot of secular artist.
Fast forward to now, this past week Christian Hip Hop artist Lecrae was one of the the rappers in Cypher 5, the International Cyper, for the BET Hip Hop awards. This was pretty much historic for Christian Hip Hop. To be on the same level as secular artist in a secular event at this level was huge. I have to say that Lecrae did a good job in not only properly representing Christ but also in showing excellence in his craft. I ask the question though, why so long? As I stated earlier Christian Hip Hop is not something new. I have tapes from the early 90's late 80's of Christian Hip Hop artist so why so long. The excuses of well the world will not love us I can't buy on this one, or we're speaking to much truth so the world won't listen, although there is some truth in these claims it seems to be just another excuse. My assessment is that growth in the Christian Hip Hop genre is so slow because the Church in general has not gotten behind the movement.
When I say the church hasn't gotten behind the movement I don't mean just allowing artist to do youth rally's at your church or booking them for kids events I mean the church has not been strategic enough monetarily to back a movement that has the potential to engage a culture that the church cannot and will not reach. The reason Lecrae, and Reach records and other labels that have done well do well is because they have managed to bridge the great divide between themselves and the church. Now this success of bridging that gap is paying dividens in making them even known by secular artist, why because they are tearing up itunes on their release dates, it comes down to money and the church being open enough to these artist to promote them in what they are doing. It doesn't hurt that these guys do ministry for real outside of just rapping. The churches need to see more artist with excellence in craft and ministry in heart that that can provide money in accounts to do relevant work.
I've read a few secular reviews of the BET awards and it's clear cats didn't know who the hell Lecrae was but something that was common in the reviews I read was that he handled his business in the Cypher. That's a big win for the Christian Hip Hop community as was shown on twitter as Lecrae was trending like I've never seen him trend, and almost all the comments were complimentary.
So what now? Well I believe its now Lecrae's duty to put other artist on. It's his job to expand the genre even more because the truth of the matter is although a Christian Rapper like D-M.A.U.B. or KamBINO may be known in the CHH world people outside of this world don't have a clue who they are. Even other gospel artist don't know who they are, it's a huge hurdle to jump. Guys like Lecrae and Reach Records now need to use their influence to get more quality CHH artist in, and may I say not just the ones from their own camp. This is a perfect time to show unity in genre even if we all don't believe the exact same thing. Also CHH must continue to work to find a way to bridge the gap between themselves and the church this is important. I don't care how much an artist wants to have the attitude "well forget the church imma do me" it's not going to work fam! Plain and simple the money is where the church is and you have to convince them that your ministry is worth backing. Lastly as the church is approached more with this missionary work the church needs to be more open minded, not just to any artist out there asking for backing because all artist don't deserve it but to quality artist that are really able to promote Christ in a diversity of venues. Lecrae's success at the BET awards was in part because of the wisdom he used in his rhyme. He was not preachy but he was clear and this is what the world needs to hear and to feel from us. The Bible says he that win souls is wise, we need more Pauls in Hip Hop that can navigate the culture yet stay true to Christ while doing so.
