Christian hip hop

Christian hip hop (originally gospel rap, 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. The audience is typically Christian, but is used in missions for the purpose of evangelization. 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.

Holy Hip Hop is also an Christian rap and hip hop album label out of Atlanta, Georgia. Fall of 2006 is the expected release date of the fourth volume in the Holy Hip Hop collection. Holy Hip Hop also sponsors a small variety of Christian rap and hip hop artists.

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 very small 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, others would consider themselves "Christians who make hip hop" (proselytizing was not their primary focus). 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." [1]

Artists and style

Many mainstream hip hop artists constantly make acknowledgements of their faith in songs (including Kanye West, Ma$e, DMX, Bizzy Bone, Young Buck, 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 some Christians.

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 Mat Kearney, his albums consist primarily of acoustic pop with occasional hip hop elements. Christian artists such as GRITS consider the genre superior to its secular counterpart, 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. John Reuben's music is notable for its lack of sampling, with a 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. [2]

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.

While many notable recordings and artists encompass the sphere of Christian hip hop, no one style (termed 'flavor') dominates. Traditionally, hip hop tends to fall into such categories as East Coast, West Coast (or Left Coast), Dirty South or even prison rap. Christian hip hop features all of those styles and more, transcending geographic restrictions and commercial underpinnings. Web stores such as 3Hmp3.com and CDBaby.com have opened the commercial market to artists not under contract with a particular record label, but whose recordings measure comparably and favorably with industry recordings.

Christian hip hop themed videos and DVDs are also increasing in availability and popularity such as Christopher ("Play") Martin and Amen Films released a DVD entitled "Holy Hip-Hop".

Live events such as RapFest (held annually in August in New York City) as well as conferences such as the Holy Hip Hop Showcase (held annually in January in Atlanta) have helped to foster an increase of the circulation level of evangelical Christianity among youth and young adults. Other notables include The Yuinon & H.P., based in Detroit.

Whereas Christian hip-hop artists were few in the days of groups like Transformation Crusade (pioneering artists from Liberty University, can be heard on "King of Glory" by Commissioned), Christian hip-hop artists numerically are now as the stars in the sky. No longer is there a shortage of thought-provoking, theologically sound recordings in the sphere of Christian hip-hop. While some artists are growing in their ability to remain Biblical in their approach to emceeing, many quality recordings abound, of which artists like R-Swift, J. Johnson, Redeemed Thought, Timothy Brindle, shia linne, 2Five, Frontlynaz comprise a very small sample.

Reaction

File:Kj52 02.jpg

KJ-52 is among the most controversial Christian emcees.

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 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. 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 and Hinds 57[3].

External links

• HeadzUp FM - KHDZ 24/7 Christian Rap Holy Hip-Hop: Mixtape Live DJs
• The HolyHipHop database Your online HHH-resource