There has been some interesting discussion in blog world about the nature and propriety of Christian Rap. Here are a couple of links:
- Bob Kauflan fields a question about rap music here
- Tim Challies, who personally does not like that hipity hop, gives a sort of thumbs up for Christian rap, and asks for others to weigh in. You can read it here.
- Justin Taylor inteviewed Voice a few weeks back - you can read that here.
My comments over at Challies.com are copied here:
This sort of question is usually raised from within the church when genres of music outside the church's cultural mainstream begin to be harnassed and plundered for the glory of God. Can "regae" be Christian since it was made prominent by ganga smokin dudes with dreads? What about Christian punk? Hip Hop? It seems to me that your assessment is correct - music can be aimed towards edification or sin, the glory of God, or the gods of this world...in hip hop that means lyrics can flow towards the gospel, the Trinity, sin, Christ, redemption, etc. Or continue to be filled with pride, ice, rims, female dogs (keeping Challies clean for you), and other stuff full of idolatry evidenced in secular hip hop today. I pray for a flood of the former.
Our brothers like Voice and those from Cross Movement also face some discussion within the African American church, where hip hop can be repudiated by certain people. See the Ambassadors interaction with Ex Ministires for an example. The flash intro on Ex Ministries web site is also insightful. We need to pray for these guys.
Personally, I would highly recommend the Cross Movement (Ambassador, Flame, etc.) as they are doing theologically driven hip hop which is strong in the genre, Christ centered, is courageous, and exhibits biblical depth.
I reviewed Flame's new CD Rewind here. I think we need to see much more of this, not less. Additionally, check out his site for some of the lyrics. Sounds like Hip Hop to the glory of God to me.
Personally, I love that theologically driven, Christian hipity hop...