The Sacrifice Of Being Obedient As A Christian Rapper... (Part 1)

I love Hip-hop.

I have since I was a young boy wounded by the shrapnel of a long and bitter war waged between two parents who, like many of us have at times, struggled to see the full impact of their story arc on some of the people around them. Having watched my entire world annihilated by the sheer ugliness of divorce, and having been carried away to a strange new place where everyone had known each other for their whole lives (and might have been related for all I know) music was one of the few things I was able to find solace in during my adolescent & teenage years.

I consumed it with a rabidity typically displayed by lions and hyenas. All the typical 90's artists: Dre, Snoop, Tha Dogg Pound, Warren G, Bone Thugs, Pac, Biggie, Nas, Foxy Brown, Mobb Deep, West Side Connection, Erick Sermon, DJ Quik, etc. I lived & breathed Hip-Hop nearly every waking moment. I could recite countless hours of lyrics from memory.

Fortunately for me, God began to draw me near to Him in my early adult years. I stopped poisoning myself with the vulgar content in secular rap. God showed me a different type of Hip-Hop that was being pioneered by artists who most younger CHH fans probably aren't even aware of & likely can't fully appreciate for their contributions to the genre.

Years later, as I reflect on the current state of CHH I can't help but conclude that many issues in the genre being discussed commonly result from a significant segment of artists & fans not having truly shed that old mindset.

Sure, a lot of people have traded in vulgar music in favor of clean songs. That's a step in the right direction but in every other aspect of the music we make or consume, and what we desire or look for in artists, are we really differentiating ourselves from the world system?

Often I hear people espouse the theory that to reach the world we need to appeal to it. Christian exceptionalism is also becoming a rapidly endorsed concept among CHH artists and others, though by what standards excellence should be measured is seldom clear.

The logical extension of that rationale is a subconscious belief (or at least the practice) that we must assimilate into world culture, and that somehow doing so will enable us to rescue people from it. Read that again, because if you really ponder it much, you probably won't even need me to explain why that probably seems off to most of us.

My challenge to those who embrace that mentality is to show us all where scripture encourages that strategy?

I get it. It sounds romantic... like a real-life Matrix movie! People tend to forget that Morpheus, Trinity & Neo couldn't wait to get out of there every time they entered because their goal was to destroy it! People also neglect to acknowledge that films like that are simply fictional entertainment produced by people who in most instances do NOT even know or serve God. Sure, pop-culture references can sometimes be used effectively as an analogous way to illustrate valuable principals, but at some point we have to reconcile that analogies don't carry the same theological weight or significant of truth found only in sacred places like scripture and prayer.

In truth, the Word of God describes His people as set apart from the world in the Old Testament. (Leviticus 20:26) The New Testament calls believers a peculiar people. (1 Peter 2:9) It instructs us to have no fellowship with darkness, but instead to expose it. It actually goes so far as to say it's shameful to even talk about things done in secret. (Ephesians 5:11-12) 1 Corinthians 1:27 says God uses foolish things of the world to shame the wise AND weak things to shame the mighty.

None of that really sounds very much like emulating the world, does it? There's an old adage that says if you play in the mud you're going to get dirty. Modeling what we do as believers after any institution of man is a slippery slope at best. It's risky and yet, that's exactly what the majority of CHH artists do as they create & market their music.

The goal automatically seems to default to popularity, streaming numbers, recognition, acceptance by established artists, etc. It becomes a false equivalency that the more of those benchmarks you reach, the more effective you are for the Kingdom of God. Many wield those accomplishments as if they're some type of spiritual mandate, validating the favor of God on their ministry.

Except, in truth, there are a lot of false teachers, predators, and wicked people who have (or have at times had) massive ministry platforms and resources. That didn't make them any less abominable before the Lord though.

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All of this begs some serious questions we should each be asking ourselves:

As believers who make music, are we really trying to reach the world... OR are we seeking the approval of it?

What is the objective of what we are doing and what is neccesary to acheive that goal?

As followers of Christ who make music, how DO we define success? How SHOULD we define it?

Stay tuned for Part 2 of this article coming soon....