FINAL REFLECTION
"Christian hip hop (originally Gospel rap, also known as Christian rap, Gospel hip hop, holy hip hop, or Christ hop) is a form of hip hop music that uses Christian themes to express the songwriter's faith." (Wiki) I picked my topic on music particularly the genre of Christian Rap. This is my favorite type of music and is something that I am passionate about. Christian rap is about spreading the gospel in music form just like other Christian songs but just with beats. This genre though is confused with mainstream rappers who rap about God. “While many mainstream rap artists include rhymes about God and Jesus, artists such as Kanye West, DMX, Nas and Tupac Shakur are not considered Christian hip hop, as their lyrics focus on worldly, often profane matters.”(Clark) This brings one to a case of Christian Rap is not about being Christian or about one who raps about God, but about one who believes in Jesus Christ and just wants to spread his message. “Christian hip hop and rap artists tend to be professed Christians, and use the fact that they are urban or suburban as a positive issue to spread their faith, and like all Christian music, it can be experienced as worship” (Clark) I also loved learning and writing about it. I learned many things and had to research a lot of stuff but overall this has been a great experience for me and I loved it. I focused on a variety of things in the different blogs. The main topics covered the so called “witch hunts” of Christian rap, some information about my favorite rapper Lecrae, and how most have actually heard of this genre but just don’t realize they have.
While writing about this topic I found that the blog 3 was probably the most important to me in that I looked up the “witch hunts” of Christian Rap. I was very surprised to find that a lot of people have accepted more and more over the years. There are of course those people who will reject the music just because of the Christian message it brings.” Christian hip hop has a history of being dismissed by churches as sacrilegious, or devil music” The Christian rap message is not so much just rejected by the message but mostly by the people of the Church. Some feel as though that the message Christian rappers bring is not of Jesus but they are only about themselves and bettering themselves. “I dare you to go to ANY so-called "Christian" rocker or rapper's website and show me the simple plan of salvation, the Gospel of Jesus Christ. You cannot! The reason is because they are of the world, and the world follows them. This is why professed "Christian" rock-n-roll bands like P.O.D., Mercy Me, and Third Day have all appeared on the godless TONIGHT SHOW with Jay Leno. Do you think they would invite John the Baptist and allow him to preach on the TONIGHT SHOW? No way! James 4:4 plainly teaches that to be "a friend" of the world is to become God's enemy.”(1) This comes to the conclusion that yes people do use Christian Rap wrong. There are people using this just to make money or get their name out. This leads to my question, can you condemn all of Christian rap because one person has used it in vain? Hasn’t the religion of Christianity started wars? Hasn’t people used the name of God in wrong? The answer is yes, so this leads to my next question in that can you condemn the message of Jesus Christ because some have used it in vain. The answer is simple no in that we as humans use things wrong and we do evil things but the message of Jesus Christ is pure and overall Christian Rap portrays this message of love for the sinner. This also comes to the point that another one of my favorite rappers, Trip lee, is that Christian Rap could be considered a genre but it could not be. “I think, you know, some people think of Christian Hip Hop as its own genre. Some people don’t. You know, I think it could go either way. If you want to think of it as a genre, that’s fine. Or if you want to think of it as there’s some people within Hip Hop who are Christians, who are intentionally communicating from a Christian worldview, that’s how I would probably describe myself.” The message is not of Christianity; the gospel hip hop as some would call it, is only about Jesus Christ and his message. Christian Rap is attacked but overall the music is accepted and is actually used in many different movies, TV Shows, and some albums have topped the charts of popular music sites like ITunes. The public has mixed feelings towards Christian rap some reject it and attack it but most actually accept it. This is the case of the rapper GRITS. “The GRITS song "Ooh Ahh" received positive exposure on various TV Shows and movies, such as The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift and Big Momma's House 2.[22] It was also featured as the theme song for the second season of MTV’s hit show The Buried Life” This shows that Christian rap is accepted by most people even if they do not believe in Christianity. Also in the case of the rapper Lecrae, his album Gravity brought a lot of attention to Christian Rap. “The first week of sales for the album set a new record for Lecrae, with Gravity debuting at No. 3 on the Billboard 200 with 72,000 units sold, and was the biggest sales week ever for a Christian hip hop album.” This shows that people like it and that it is getting more and more popular. The “witch hunts” are most toward the case of people trying to get money by doing Christian Rap or doing it for God’s work. It’s hard to make some much money and not fall into the temptation of the world for Christian Rappers. “It’s not about the sales per se but about the souls you save through the sales.” – Platinum Soul (gospel rap group). “In this article, I examine how anatomies of religious belief interact with gospel rappers’ everyday struggles to balance the need for a paycheck with winning the big payback of life everlasting.” There are definitely people who attack and accept Christian rap but there are more issues than that. Christians themselves are at a so called War with themselves in that it is hard to glorify God and at the same time live like this world tells you to do. The Struggles is not only between the attackers of Christians or Christian rap but more of a Christian vs. him or herself.
This has been a very fun experience to me in that I have gotten to research about a topic that I love. My favorite blog is number 2 in that I got to look up pictures and describe them. This was great in that I’m a very visual person and I just love looking at pictures. The most difficult was blog 3 and 4 for me in that I have never done an annotated bibliography so it was difficult for me and that blog 3’s research for the topic was long and tiring. Overall I feel as though I could connect to the passages I heard about music. I connected to the text that showed me how we as people listen to music. One of the things that were pointed out was that we use music as an escape. This was actually how I used to use music and was really cool to see that I did this. This is so much the case in people who listen to rap because it speaks to people. People can relate to music, this is why I wanted to share Christian rap because this is what I relate to. I have been about to reflect on each piece and how each blog changed and that I was able to get to go deeper and deeper into the topic genre of Christian Rap. I was able to go from a very broad topic to different and more specific topics in it.
Overall I would say that this class has taught me a lot about myself as a writer. At first my blogs were very weak but I feel as though I put more and more time into them and they are much better. I myself have learned that my writing skills were lacking coming into this class. I realized that I had much too work on, especially my grammar and spelling. I discovered that I can learn how to write and that I’m not as bad of a writer as I tell myself. I will definitely use what I have learned in this class for my other classes. I will work on my grammar, spelling, and staying on topic because this is what I struggle with the most in. This class has helped me out in writing and I feel as though I learned a lot about my writing, about myself, and my topic. I hope to continue to better my writing now and actually don’t absolutely dislike writing papers and blogs now.
1."Christian Hip Hop." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 23 Nov. 2012. Web. 28 Nov. 2012. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_hip_hop>.
2. Zanfagna, Christina. "Kingdom Business." Kingdom Business: Holy Hip Hop's Evangelical Hustle 24.2 (n.d.): 196-216. Print.
3. "Lecrae." Interview by Tim Newcomb. Time Vol. 180 Issue 13 24 Sept. 2012: 58. Print.
4. "Review: Gospel Rapper Lecrae's New Album Is Solid." Rev. of AP Regional State Report - Texas, 09/04/2012. n.d.: n. pag. Print.
5. (1) Web. 03 Dec. 2012. <http://www.jesus-is-savior.com/Evils%20in%20America/CCM/whats_wrong.htm>
6. (Clark) "Holy Hip Hop: Can Rap Music Glorify God?" Holy Hip Hop: Can Rap Music Glorify God? N.p., n.d. Web. 03 Dec. 2012. <http://www.clarkyboy.com/holyhiphop.htm>
7. "Jesus Musik." Jesus Musik. N.p., n.d. Web. 03 Dec. 2012. <http://blog.chron.com/jesusmusik/2012/05/lecrae-responds-to-the-%E2%80%9Cchristian-rapper%E2%80%9D-vs-%E2%80%9Crapper-who-is-a-christian%E2%80%9D-debate-kind-of/>.
8. "Gravity (Lecrae Album)." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 12 Mar. 2012. Web. 03 Dec. 2012. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gravity_(Lecrae_album)>.
While writing about this topic I found that the blog 3 was probably the most important to me in that I looked up the “witch hunts” of Christian Rap. I was very surprised to find that a lot of people have accepted more and more over the years. There are of course those people who will reject the music just because of the Christian message it brings.” Christian hip hop has a history of being dismissed by churches as sacrilegious, or devil music” The Christian rap message is not so much just rejected by the message but mostly by the people of the Church. Some feel as though that the message Christian rappers bring is not of Jesus but they are only about themselves and bettering themselves. “I dare you to go to ANY so-called "Christian" rocker or rapper's website and show me the simple plan of salvation, the Gospel of Jesus Christ. You cannot! The reason is because they are of the world, and the world follows them. This is why professed "Christian" rock-n-roll bands like P.O.D., Mercy Me, and Third Day have all appeared on the godless TONIGHT SHOW with Jay Leno. Do you think they would invite John the Baptist and allow him to preach on the TONIGHT SHOW? No way! James 4:4 plainly teaches that to be "a friend" of the world is to become God's enemy.”(1) This comes to the conclusion that yes people do use Christian Rap wrong. There are people using this just to make money or get their name out. This leads to my question, can you condemn all of Christian rap because one person has used it in vain? Hasn’t the religion of Christianity started wars? Hasn’t people used the name of God in wrong? The answer is yes, so this leads to my next question in that can you condemn the message of Jesus Christ because some have used it in vain. The answer is simple no in that we as humans use things wrong and we do evil things but the message of Jesus Christ is pure and overall Christian Rap portrays this message of love for the sinner. This also comes to the point that another one of my favorite rappers, Trip lee, is that Christian Rap could be considered a genre but it could not be. “I think, you know, some people think of Christian Hip Hop as its own genre. Some people don’t. You know, I think it could go either way. If you want to think of it as a genre, that’s fine. Or if you want to think of it as there’s some people within Hip Hop who are Christians, who are intentionally communicating from a Christian worldview, that’s how I would probably describe myself.” The message is not of Christianity; the gospel hip hop as some would call it, is only about Jesus Christ and his message. Christian Rap is attacked but overall the music is accepted and is actually used in many different movies, TV Shows, and some albums have topped the charts of popular music sites like ITunes. The public has mixed feelings towards Christian rap some reject it and attack it but most actually accept it. This is the case of the rapper GRITS. “The GRITS song "Ooh Ahh" received positive exposure on various TV Shows and movies, such as The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift and Big Momma's House 2.[22] It was also featured as the theme song for the second season of MTV’s hit show The Buried Life” This shows that Christian rap is accepted by most people even if they do not believe in Christianity. Also in the case of the rapper Lecrae, his album Gravity brought a lot of attention to Christian Rap. “The first week of sales for the album set a new record for Lecrae, with Gravity debuting at No. 3 on the Billboard 200 with 72,000 units sold, and was the biggest sales week ever for a Christian hip hop album.” This shows that people like it and that it is getting more and more popular. The “witch hunts” are most toward the case of people trying to get money by doing Christian Rap or doing it for God’s work. It’s hard to make some much money and not fall into the temptation of the world for Christian Rappers. “It’s not about the sales per se but about the souls you save through the sales.” – Platinum Soul (gospel rap group). “In this article, I examine how anatomies of religious belief interact with gospel rappers’ everyday struggles to balance the need for a paycheck with winning the big payback of life everlasting.” There are definitely people who attack and accept Christian rap but there are more issues than that. Christians themselves are at a so called War with themselves in that it is hard to glorify God and at the same time live like this world tells you to do. The Struggles is not only between the attackers of Christians or Christian rap but more of a Christian vs. him or herself.
This has been a very fun experience to me in that I have gotten to research about a topic that I love. My favorite blog is number 2 in that I got to look up pictures and describe them. This was great in that I’m a very visual person and I just love looking at pictures. The most difficult was blog 3 and 4 for me in that I have never done an annotated bibliography so it was difficult for me and that blog 3’s research for the topic was long and tiring. Overall I feel as though I could connect to the passages I heard about music. I connected to the text that showed me how we as people listen to music. One of the things that were pointed out was that we use music as an escape. This was actually how I used to use music and was really cool to see that I did this. This is so much the case in people who listen to rap because it speaks to people. People can relate to music, this is why I wanted to share Christian rap because this is what I relate to. I have been about to reflect on each piece and how each blog changed and that I was able to get to go deeper and deeper into the topic genre of Christian Rap. I was able to go from a very broad topic to different and more specific topics in it.
Overall I would say that this class has taught me a lot about myself as a writer. At first my blogs were very weak but I feel as though I put more and more time into them and they are much better. I myself have learned that my writing skills were lacking coming into this class. I realized that I had much too work on, especially my grammar and spelling. I discovered that I can learn how to write and that I’m not as bad of a writer as I tell myself. I will definitely use what I have learned in this class for my other classes. I will work on my grammar, spelling, and staying on topic because this is what I struggle with the most in. This class has helped me out in writing and I feel as though I learned a lot about my writing, about myself, and my topic. I hope to continue to better my writing now and actually don’t absolutely dislike writing papers and blogs now.
1."Christian Hip Hop." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 23 Nov. 2012. Web. 28 Nov. 2012. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_hip_hop>.
2. Zanfagna, Christina. "Kingdom Business." Kingdom Business: Holy Hip Hop's Evangelical Hustle 24.2 (n.d.): 196-216. Print.
3. "Lecrae." Interview by Tim Newcomb. Time Vol. 180 Issue 13 24 Sept. 2012: 58. Print.
4. "Review: Gospel Rapper Lecrae's New Album Is Solid." Rev. of AP Regional State Report - Texas, 09/04/2012. n.d.: n. pag. Print.
5. (1) Web. 03 Dec. 2012. <http://www.jesus-is-savior.com/Evils%20in%20America/CCM/whats_wrong.htm>
6. (Clark) "Holy Hip Hop: Can Rap Music Glorify God?" Holy Hip Hop: Can Rap Music Glorify God? N.p., n.d. Web. 03 Dec. 2012. <http://www.clarkyboy.com/holyhiphop.htm>
7. "Jesus Musik." Jesus Musik. N.p., n.d. Web. 03 Dec. 2012. <http://blog.chron.com/jesusmusik/2012/05/lecrae-responds-to-the-%E2%80%9Cchristian-rapper%E2%80%9D-vs-%E2%80%9Crapper-who-is-a-christian%E2%80%9D-debate-kind-of/>.
8. "Gravity (Lecrae Album)." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 12 Mar. 2012. Web. 03 Dec. 2012. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gravity_(Lecrae_album)>.