I have to come clean. I am not your traditional hip-hop fan. In fact, I usually steer away from hip-hop every other year because I am sick of the negativity. Before the Illuminati infiltrated hip-hop, I was pretty much done with it because of all of the talk about selling drugs. When 50 Cent dropped his first mainstream release at the beginning of the last decade, I was into alternative rock and roll. I hadn’t listened to heavy metal for a while, but I had flirted with hardcore, emo, and few other sub-genre of punk music.
I don’t really get into Christian rock that much. I flirted with Switchfoot and a few other groups, but Christian rock isn’t really for me. It seems to be a religious take on Southern rock, which is good, but is not up my alley. I have no prejudices against Southern rock, or Country, but it is not really what I am looking for, when I want to play music.
My love of hip-hop is that it covers all music genre, not just one or two. You can hear everything, from classical, jazz, soul, rhythm and blues, electronica, dance music, disco, anything and everything is sampled, used, reverse engineered, or created again from scratch, in hip-hop. That was the entire point of hip-hop for me. I like rapping, and I love to hear artists “spit” lyrics, and I like complex, abstract lyrics, but what moves me, is the music.
However I am in my late thirties, and there comes a time when you have to reconcile your love for beats with what is actually being said. When you consider the type of garbage that is spewing from rappers mouths these days, even so called progressive artists like Kanye West, Kid Cudi, or other existential, thoughtful, rappers, it is easy to just turn off the sounds.
Most people that like Christian rap love to talk about how definitively anti-Jay-Z they are. My issues with Jay-Z are not about the Illuminati. I am one of those few individuals that stopped listening to Jay-Z when 50 Cent was popular, because at that time Jay-Z came across as someone that was uninspired, who no longer had any love for the craft. If you are not hungry, if you are not enthusiastic about your message, why are you up on stage delivering it?
These days Jay-Z just comes across as someone that is doing exactly what he has been told, carrying out the work of someone behind the scenes leading people into darkness. That isn’t true hip-hop, that is rap music. Most mainstream artists are the same, some are more open with their message, like Jay-Z, but at the end of the day, they are all a diversion away from what really matters in this world. If you feel like you dress better, or that you are getting more money, or that you are more professional or carry yourself better, because of Jay-Z’s influence, that is good for you. However, that is what you should have already been doing. Our forefather’s were doing all of those things without a soundtrack, and it is sad, that it takes a soundtrack to encourage the masses to get their act together.
With most rappers the diversion is that in getting money they have elevated themselves, and they are now illuminated and they can help you to get your act right. That is why rappers put out songs or albums with the word motivated in it, to get your act together, to inspire you. But don’t talk about rappers glorifying evil or doing what everyone else in the mainstream is doing, because that is just the direction that this world is moving in. If you stopped listening to Jay-Z because of the Illuminati, or because of what appears to be the glorification of evil, you are missing the point, and stopped listening to him for the wrong reasons.
We can continue that conversation for many days to come. What I have found in Christian hip-hop, is what I had been missing for a long time in hip-hop. Positivity, great beats, glorification of God, glorification of Christ, inspiration. I am not saying that you will catch the Holy Spirit listening to hip-hop; perhaps at a concert, but only because of the fellowship of believers and praise and worship that might occur at a concert, but no, not listening in your car. But I will say that the messages give you a lot to think about. I also appreciate the fact that artists drop actual bible verses, and at times quote them. There is also rebuke, something sorely missing from other genre of Christian music that is made to make you feel good about God, but not question yourself. Rebuke also seems to be a component of Christian Rock, to be fair. Christian rap sort of gets inside of you, in between the lines, and sticks with you. But don’t listen to it for the beats, listen to it for the message …