What Are You Listening To???

So I'm promoting this mixtape for R.I.C. Productions(Marlon 'The Artist' Anderson and Lamonte Harris), it's called Love & Suicide and it's being released in January 2010. It features various gospel rap artists including Q.U.A.Z., P DOT, Chouzen, and singer L. Mo

Now I was never too big on gospel rap but I respect it and I will listen to it. I do like certain artists such as Da Truth and Lecrae and I'm starting to like it. I always end up in big debates about why gospel rap should/shouldn't be accepted.

So many times I hear people say they don't like gospel rap because it reminds them too much of secular rap/hip hop. That's understandable but I ALWAYS follow that up with a question: when you listened to secular rap/hip hop, did you listen to the lyrics or the beat?

• The answer to that question can tell you a lot about the person, but that's not the purpose of this. When I hear people say they listen to the beat, I tend to ignore everything they say or let it go in one ear and right out the other. I know it's bad but they have closed their minds to the message in the music so why should I really listen to their opinion??? They really wouldn't have one because all they hear is music, no words.
• A second answer I hear is that they do listen to the lyrics but it does nothing for them. That's understandable and I actually listen to their opinion. I've heard everything from the rappers don't have enough scriptural references to some rappers only mention Jesus once and call it gospel.
• The final answer I hear is that they listen to both the lyrics and beat. With this answer, I always ask, have you ever tried listening to the lyrics without the beat??? Sometimes people listen to both and get caught up in the beat or miss something because they heard something in the beat that took their attention off the lyrics.

I believe that people should really listen to the lyrics of some of these artists because to me, personally, they have THE MOST overlooked testimonies in the church.

One thing I really don't understand how people can say that this "new gospel stuff isn't real gospel" but they won't give it a chance. They are SO against gospel rap but they sing. To those who do that, I pose the question: if you lost your vocal ability and the only way you could continue to get your message out was by rapping, would you do it??? One person said yes and I laughed and ask: Well how can you shoot these rappers down? Do you know if they can sing? That may be their ONLY way to get the message out, how can you say what you say about them? I don't understand.

Sidebar:

Someone told me that they refuse to listen to Da Truth because all of this nonsense going on. No one is perfect, the man has a message that people should hear. He messed up, so what, pray for him because I'm pretty sure you did something just as bad or worse. If not, I applaud you, but that gives NO ONE room to judge him.

Back to the blog:

I have a question: If J. Moss, a GREAT producer/writer/singer who is very well accepted in the gospel industry, produced a beat and a gospel rapper did a song over that beat, would you say that you're not listening to it because the song reminds you of secular rap/hip hop song??? Or would you say oh J. Moss did this beat let me hear what this person has to say??? Or would you look at J. Moss in a different way for producing a song allowing a gospel rapper to get a message across???

Hmmm.....I wonder

Well I'm going to stop here. I personally think some gospel rappers should be more accepted by the church because it's just another form of praise and sometimes even worship. They're bringing the same message a pastor, singer, etc. would bring. It just SOUNDS different. One more thing, PLEASE stop saying that they're trying to "appeal" to the unsaved people and that's why you don't listen to this "new gospel stuff". Last I checked, our purpose was to get that message out there and reach/win souls for God. If that's not your purpose, maybe you need to rethink why you became a Christian in the first place.

Now ponder on that..........

Until next time...

God Bless...

Sista T

Some gospel rappers from VA evangelizing. Check it out. This is what I call evangelizing at it's best (some of them featured on Love & Suicide)