Today as I was running an errand I flipped on the radio to listen to the lunch time rap show on one of the Philly stations and then I got back to the office and was looking at an old Relevant (do I see a trend here) and noticed ads for new hip-hop albums from the Grits and others. These two situations reminded me of my struggle. When I was younger I loved rap, but as I was listening to the radio today I remembered how derogatory the lyrics were in all that rap I listened to when I was in high school and younger. But I'm equally aware of and I'm sorry to say this, but how bad much of Christian hip-hop or rap is. What comes to mind with this subject are words from Derek Webb to Christian artists reminding them that musicians are artists and some Christian musicians are only concerned with getting their message out and forget that there is music, and in rap a beat that accompanies those words. It is an art form and this is where most Christian rap drops the ball. They bring a strong message with a weak beat. You see this is what made Pete Rock and CL Smooth (a rap group from the 80's and 90's) so good. While I don't agree with religious views (being nominal Muslims) what made the rap good was a strong message from conviction with an amazing dj droppin' some funkay beats under those vocals. It is that match that makes a hit in my opinion. And Christians have the greatest message to share, about us moving from dark to light, from death to life. Man, if Christian rappers could spend the time on the music that they spend on the message, the hits would flow.
Now, to be fair I must say that on the other end of the spectrum is popular rap of the day that are only focused on the beat and evidently not the lyrics. Here is just a small list of hits in heavy rotation on the Philly rap stations
1. Put Some D's... (where I'm sorry most of the song I don't know what they are saying)
2. This is why I'm Hot (where the chorus is, "This is why I'm hot (3x) This is why you not, you ain't cause you not." Are you serious?)
3. Walk it Out (Where the chorus is Walk It Out again and again and again, it drives me nuts)
So, my conclusion is not to abandon the message because there is no message with those "hits" and yet they stick in my head because of the beat. Ah, and there it is, if Christian rappers could craft the sick, dope, funky (whichever word you want to use)beats, then think of the power of that, because clear lyrics about the gospel would then be boppin' in people's heads. What a match that would be!
That's my two cents, Audi 5000-G
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3 comments:
well, i aint much of a rap fan, but i totally see what youre saying. it would be awesome to get it so that people cant get the gospel out of their heads because of the beat it is presented in.
haha. dude this is precisely why i downloaded 20 classic hip hop albums from the 80's and 90's the other day. Decent message + great creative beats.
Love it. And yes, that straylight run song is super powerful. I forgot how much I used to love that song.
And as far as that book goes, the lady who wrote it seems to be fairly bitter about being excommunicated from the catholic church but the profound amount of research she's done to back her points is really challenging. I never realized that we as humans didn't know that females contributed to the pregnancy at all until like 1270. We thought men shot babies into the women and they just incubated them. The concept of an ovum didn't exist for a long time. When you look at the virgin birth from a biological standpoint, there's not much room for explanation even with a belief in a "miraculous fertilization." Half of the cells came from mary and if God sent some heavenly sperm to fertilize her egg...which in itself seems kind of creepy. Also if jesus didn't have a biological father than he technically can't be from the line of david, also, the concept of a virgin birth was foreign to the Jews. They aren't waiting for a messiah to be born of a virgin. When the 'angel" told her that she was going to birth the messiah she asked "How can this be, i've never been with a man." (Which is a weird thing to say if she was engaged.) But it shows that Mary didn't associate messiah with a virgin birth. Matthew misinterpretted the old testament when he was trying to make the link between Isaiah's prophecies and the story of Jesus.
The OT had already been translated into greek when matthew was reading it, and the "phrase young woman" in the original hebrew was translated as "virgin" so when Isaiah said that a young woman would have a baby, matthew took it as a "virgin" would have a baby. He also misunderstood some other passages in the old testament which affect his gospel (the two donkeys vs. the colt. he put jesus riding two donkeys because of his misinterpretation). I don't know some of it is a stretch, but other stuff is pretty challenging and worth sorting through for me. I hope your baby of non-virgin birth is doing super well and still kickin' and spinnin' and spin kickin'.
Also, i think the most challenging point regarding virgin birth is the fact that in the earliest sources that we have that are closest to the actual life of christ, (namely Mark and Paul), neither of them say anything about any sort of special birth of jesus. You'd think that if it was part of the message of "the way" (christianity was originally called The Way) that they'd atleast mention it. Paul even goes so far as to say that the only thing that matters is the ressurrected christ. So, I mean if paul didn't need the virgin birth to follow christ maybe we don't? Another interesting point regarding jesus is the fact that during his life, the names for Caesar were "Son of God" "King of Kings" "Prince of Peace" "Lord of Lords" "Savior" etc. so in calling Jesus Lord, the disciples were acknowledging that caesar wasn't Lord, or calling him the Son of God....it has a more socio-political message than the church has let on. I dont know. I'm still working through all this stuff. I find it fascinating though. I just bought seven more books last night. ha.
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