Is there room for Christianity inside the ciphers of mainstream Hip Hop?<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Disclaimers* See Bottom<\/p>\n

Recently I\u2019ve seen lots of posts by music lovers from the gospel side of the world expressing great joy at seeing gospel artists on reality shows, winning mainstream awards, and being given a \u201cplatform\u201d on regular TV. I usually look over these tweets with some guarded cynicism and a crucial side eye. I mean for much of my youth there was all this talk of being set apart, not being of (this\/the) world. So here I am now aged 30 years and far removed from the gospel music paradigm. I found myself a bit confused at this new \u201chey include us\u2019 mentality. So I decided to find out what was going on. At the center of the recent fervor seemed to be a rapper named LeCrae<\/strong> out of Atlanta.<\/p>\n

LeCrae\u2019s name was familiar to me, I encountered some of his early stuff and it didn\u2019t suck but I didn\u2019t follow his career. So fast forward to about 2011\/2012 and the release of his \u201cChurch Clothes\u201d mixtape and his name is everywhere. The Atlanta emcee was everywhere, not just on gospel industry folks\u2019 timelines but everywhere including the Grammys, BET ciphers and the like. These appearances were usually followed by gospel folks\u2019 excitement and \u201cwe\u2019re finally being included\u201d type tweets. Cue my side eye and Dora blink. So earlier this week I saw all this talk hit a fever pitch because LeCrae was going to be performing on 106&Park. I said well sheesh let me listen to this young man and see what he has to say and what his performance looked like. I was pleasantly surprised.<\/p>\n

I wondered if he was doing the over preaching, guilt inflicting\/shaming technique that many gospel rappers seemed to employ. He wasn\u2019t! His song \u2018Round of Applause\u201d featuring a verse from B.O.B is actually just what mainstream hip hop needs, BALANCE. The song is about overcoming the odds and making it \u201cout\u201d. It\u2019s about how for him that meant acknowledging and relying on God. I released a sigh of relief. Finally someone found an approach that just might be welcome in hip hop. What\u2019s his formula? He\u2019s actually a hip hop head, like he listened to actually hip hop music before becoming a Christian. He also considers himself an emcee who also happens to be a Christian. This works. In simple terms he has the mainstream platform because he\u2019s relatable and the dude can rhyme.
\nFor far too long I think that was a missing element from many wanna be Christian hip hop artists. They approached rap from outside the culture and they really weren\u2019t good lyrically. What they lacked in skill they made up for with heavily over preached lyrics about super high expectations and sinning.\u00a0 And really those kinds of songs had no place in Hip Hop. So to answer the title question if an emcee chooses to rhyme about his life from an honest place and that place includes a love for God and family alongside well placed beats and flow, then YES there is a place in mainstream hip hop for them. If that\u2019s not what you\u2019re doing as a Christian rapper then I suggest you just put down the mic.