Bridging the divide between the church and Christian hip-hop
I hope that whoever reads this article is not easily offended, nor turned off by the content discussed. But I do think that it's important when considering the lack of unity currently seen among the body of believers. If we are being honest, the Church has been divided for a long time. 2020 fully brought these differences to light. Racism has been a thorn in the side of the body of Christ since the introduction of Christianity to the Western world. But that’s not the only thing: doctrine, moral standards, abortion, homosexuality, sin, and what we should consider sin, all these things and more have created a great schism among us.
Even in music, we are divided by genre and style, which is fine considering that music itself is subjective to the hearer. Everyone isn’t going to have the same likes and dislikes. But what happens when we push aside one simply because of our lack of understanding? This is what I’d like to bring attention to. There is a clear divide between the church and Christian hip hop.
It was 2005 when I first heard of Gospel rap (that’s what we called it in Philadelphia) as a 20-year-old man. 50 Cent was the biggest rap artist of the moment, Jay-Z was in his Jordan-esque “retirement,” Kanye was still normal...kind of. Hip-hop was the biggest genre around and I was a fan of listening to everything. That’s when I was introduced to Cross Movement, a Philadelphia collective that rapped about Christ with passion, mixing theology with hip-hop production. I thought that they were corny honestly. To me, they were trying to sound like secular artists, just with Christ-centered lyrics. Quickly their CD went into my drawer and I returned to listening to rapper Ludacris. I was going to church. Every Wednesday. Every Sunday. But I wasn’t living it.
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The Lord truly got a hold of me in 2008. Even though I still dabbled in secular music, the desire to find something that offsets the culture that I grew up in was growing inside of me. Fast forward to 2012. One day, I was hanging with a friend who would later become my wife, and I came across a channel called JCTV. Up until that point, I only knew about TBN. But this channel was playing more youth-centered Christian content. There was a song playing by a guy named Lecrae. It was called "Church Clothes." I’ve never seen a rapper sound so good while talking about a message so unpopular.
But it was good! Finally, a genre that I could find commonality with!
Quickly, I started doing more research on CHH (Christian hip-hop), and found so many other artists like Propaganda, Andy Mineo, Sho Baraka, Beautiful Eulogy, John Givez, Theory Hazit, and others who I’ve enjoyed. I told my youth pastor about them, but my church seemed to not really catch on to the growing movement. In their eyes, rap music really had no place in the church.
Put quotations around that last statement: “Rap music really had no place in the church.” The fruit of this reality has shown up in many ways over the last decade.
Many believers magnified every move that Lecrae made, deciding what was biblically correct and what wasn’t. It came to a point where he publicly shared that he thought about leaving the faith. Many other artists were defecting from the genre simply because they did not want to be subjected to the overwhelming demands of a fanbase that seeks perfection that they haven’t obtained.
How can this be, when we’re all trying to point a lost, crooked, perverse, and dying humanity to the One who can redeem our depraved souls? The answers lie in the aforementioned statement: Rap music really had no place in the church.
The hip-hop culture is one filled with stories from communities that many of us, especially in the church, see as the top priority on our mission crusades for Christ, yet we have little understanding of said culture. Yes, the genre has its share of problems: the glorification of money, drugs, and the exploitation of women even by other women. There is egocentricity as pride fills the mouths of nearly every rapper. Many blame the ills of the world squarely on hip-hop music. While the argument carries weight, we know that it is what lies in our hearts already that is coming out in the music.
Knowing this, Christian hip-hop can come off as sort of an oxymoron. How can separate belief systems combine together when at their core, they totally contradict one another?
The church still has not put the pieces together to properly understand it. So, the best thing to do is to revert to the familiar: don’t acknowledge it. The same way that the church failed to acknowledge racism and once again that tree bears its fruit. CHH sits as an orphan child, waiting to be embraced by the mother that still won’t give them the time of day to love on them as they should.
Despite this, the genre has continued to grow. Lecrae has become the most successful artist the genre has ever seen. Labels have sprouted within CHH such as Reflection Music Group, headed by former Reach Records artist Derek Minor, God Over Money led by Bizzle, and the aforementioned Reach Records headed by Lecrae, which is the biggest label within the genre. Artists such as Minor, Jered Sanders, Datin, Wande, Parris Chariz, and Eshon Burgandy are making waves that even outlets like BET, Hiphopdx, and XXL are noticing, Rapzilla is the number one source for all things around the CHH ecosystem and more young people coming up in the church are listening to these artists than ever before.
But the church still has not fully accepted this reality.
So, how do the church and Christian hip-hop mend their differences? I don’t have the answer to that. But dialogue among church leaders and those within the genre will start the path to restoration, understanding that we’re fighting the same good fight of faith. A similar issue came up in Mark 9. The disciples told Jesus that there was one casting out devils in His name and they forbade him to do so because he didn’t follow them. Jesus answered, “Forbid him not: for there is no man which shall do a miracle in My name that can lightly speak evil of me. For he that is not against us is on our part.” (Mark 9:38-40)
Church, could it be that Christian hip-hop has been fighting on your side this entire time, but because they didn’t follow tradition, you’ve forbidden them to do the Lord’s work?
Christian hip-hop isn’t against the church. Rather, it is reaching the areas and people that wouldn’t feel comfortable with walking into a church service out of fear of judgment and possible ridicule over unearthed transgressions.
There is so much more to say, but I’m sure someone will write an even more comprehensive piece on this topic. Hopefully, all that was written will cause one to see that healing has to begin within the Body of Christ. In a day that's growing darker by the hour, we need to pull together more than ever before.
Let the mending process commence.
Sheldon Washington is a freelance writer and lives in Atlanta, Georgia. His wife, India, and him will soon have their fourth child.
