Christian hip hop

Christian hip hop (originally gospel rap, but also known as holy hip hop) is a form of hip hop music which uses Christian lyrical themes to express the songwriter's faith. Only during the 1990s did the term "Christian hip hop" become descriptive of this type of music. Many mainstream hip hop artists have made acknowledgements of faith (including Kanye West, Mase, DMX, and Will Smith) but are not typically considered Christian hip hop artists, as the themes of their lyrics do not typically reflect spiritual faith, and often contain content considered blasphemous by Christians. The audience is typically Christian, but it can be used in missions to reach those considered unsaved or lost souls. Christian rap and hip hop artists are professed Christians in most cases, and use the fact that they are urban or suburban as a positive issue used to spread their religion, and like all Christian music, it can be experienced as Christian worship.

Christian hip hop is typically more experimental and diverse than mainstream hip hop, and pop-rap artists such as tobyMac, KJ-52, John Reuben and Paul Wright have risen above many artists who imitate mainstream hip hop in popularity. Artists like tobyMac, KJ-52 and John Reuben include nu metal and rapcore songs regularly, but often unify rapping and singing in the vein of R&B and pop as well. Paul Wright describes his music as "folk hop," and much like fellow Christian singer Matt Kearney, his albums consist primarily of acoustic pop with occasional hip hop elements. Christian artists such as GRITS consider the genre superior to its mainstream counterpart due to the diversity, thus the tagline of the group's album Factors of the Seven, "the most innovative hip hop in the industry." Christian hip hop also contains less sampling; one of the highlights of John Reuben's music is its lack of sampling, with a musical band in place of samples (a lá Hasidic rapper Matisyahu). Many conventional artists who operate in Christian hip hop sample as often as their counterparts, such as Mars ILL, whose album Pro*Pain was delayed due to legal issues regarding sampling. ^*

Popular genres to fuse with hip hop in Christian hip hop include pop, R&B, rock, metal, techno, reggae, funk and jazz. In many cases, collaborations with pop artists in Christian hip hop lead to songs with rap verses and pop choruses (such as "Nuisance," John Reuben's successful duet with Matt Thiessen of pop punk band Relient K, and KJ-52's single "Are You Real?" featuring Jon Micah Sumrall of rock band Kutless). KJ-52 and tobyMac are two of the most successful artists in the genre to combine hip hop with various other musical genres, though the combination also receives criticism among hip hop purists. Popular conventional Christian hip hop groups include GRITS (who have received some mainstream success), The Cross Movement, T-Bone, LA Symphony and Mars ILL. Among underground Christian rappers and hip hop groups, conventional hip hop such as crunk is generally preferred, as opposed to pop-rap.

History

Stephen Wiley was the first artist with a commercially released and distributed gospel rap cassette with his 1985 tape Bible Break. Better known was the young Christian emcee D-Boy, who was murdered in 1991 in Texas for taking youth from gangs and converting them to Christianity. D-Boy is possibly the first Christian emcee martyr, and an album has been published dedicated to him (A Tribute to D-Boy), featuring several underground Christian emcees. dc Talk was the first major commercial success among Christian hip hop groups with tobyMac later rising to prominence.

Prior to the new millennium, Christian hip hop was a niche, with few artists reaching major success and most being disregarded by the secular and Christian industry alike. Many of the artists of the time performed hip hop simply to spread a Christian message, while others were genuine in their approach, and many suffered from low-budget production. Christian hip hop rose in popularity with the arrival of Gotee Records in 1994, which signed popular artists such as GRITS and Verbs (then known as "Knowdaverbs"), who was regarded by All Music Guide as "that rare thing: a talented gospel rapper." ^*

Reaction

As with many inchoate and newly formed musical genres and subgenres, Christian hip hop had difficulty in finding an audience as it was dismissed by religious leaders and churches as being sacrilegious or devil music. Despite the early rejection, Christian hip hop has managed to follow other forms of mainstream-style Christian music, such as Christian metal and punk, in becoming a dominant force within contemporary Christian music. For example, Christian music awards shows such as the Dove Awards and Stellar Awards have added rap and hip hop categories and many church congregations have adopted hip hop-themed musical worship.

Christian hip hop has enjoyed some crossover acceptance as well. One of the most notable mainstream reactions to Christian hip hop was to KJ-52 and his single "Dear Slim," which was written to Eminem in an attempt reach him with the message of Christ. The song became famous and controversial among Eminem fans when it was featured on the hit show Total Request Live. It was then that KJ-52 began to receive hate mail (including death threats) from Eminem's followers, though the song is not a "diss" according to KJ-52. This also lead to the single being disparaged by VH1, an issue the artist addressed in his song "Washed Up."

The United Kingdom has also recently embraced Christian hip hop with groups like BoomboomTown and One Love; although their music has become iconic in underground Christian hip hop circles, they have yet to achieve mainstream success. Christian hip hop scenes are also growing in Japan, with artists such as Yoshi Blessed.

Christian hip hop

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History

Reaction

External links