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Spreading the Word (up)
Thursday, August 18, 2005
First there was Christian rock, then Christian R&B; now taking the stage in the evolving world of Christian music is Christian hip-hop, or gospel rap.
After a decade-long struggle to find its audience, gospel rap is finally catching on, and New Jersey artists and ministries have played a large role in its success.
At the 11th annual Rapfest, held last Saturday in the Bronx, N.Y., 26 gospel hip-hop acts performed for eight hours straight, while close to 4,000 people braved the heat and bobbed their heads to the artists' godly rhymes. Several of the 26 acts hailed from New Jersey, including The Carriers, Messenger 777, Jersey Chica and Runaway MC.
Compare that to Rapfest's inaugural event in 1994, where only five artists performed for 50 people, according to Rapfest's spokesman.
This fall, the Bridge, a Howell-based Christian radio station serving central and northern New Jersey and parts of New York City, signed on for its first gospel hip-hop radio show.
And at the recent Victory in Praise Music and Arts seminar in Miami, more than 60 percent of the artists in the new artist showcase were gospel rappers. "Definitely an increase from years before," said Garland "Miche" Waller, musical director for the award-winning Rev. John P. Kee choir in Charlotte, N.C. Waller's been involved with the convention for more than a decade.
"There's a whole underground movement that's launching," said Minister Floyd Cray, host of the Bridge's "Gospel Vibrations" show. Cray has hosted various gospel rap shows for the past 12 years and thinks of himself as the Russell Simmons of gospel rap (he's a producer, manager and radio personality).
"It's going to the forefront because of the way the world is going right now," he said. "You get all these artists out here glorifying bling-bling and a materialistic lifestyle, but you don't hear one song saying, 'I have chlamydia, I have an STD, I had a child out of wedlock ... you hear about what you can do for self-gratification.
"That's not the reality of this music and this lifestyle, because people do hurt and people need to know why they're here and what their purpose is in life."
The gospel hip-hop movement is centered on two basic themes: countering the negative influences in contemporary hip-hop and ministering to the younger generation in a language they understand.
"Hip-hop is a tool," said 28-year-old Eddie Cortes, one-third of the Paterson-based Carriers, which also includes Jeremiah Smaha of Paramus and Remy Basuri of Clifton. It's a way to reach out to all the kids put off by traditional church services, but turned on by the rap music booming from
every street corner, radio station and club, he said.
"There are some churches out there that still use methods from the '70s to reach out to kids, but it doesn't work. We have to keep up with the times and trends to reach them," said Cortes, who recently moved to Kissimmee, Fla., to expand the group's ministry, Carriers of the Cross.
Speaking their language
By using a medium that young people can relate to and messengers that aren't so intimidating, Cortes hopes he'll be able to close the divide between church and street.
"Most kids complain, 'Oh, church is boring,' and this really grabs their attention," he said. "I think our generation, our age group, as we're growing up and becoming leaders in our communities, we know what we liked and caught our attention and we're using that to reach the younger people. ... But, if God ever said, 'You can't use hip-hop, you need to use something else to reach the kids,' I would definitely do that."
And there are certainly people who would welcome something else. For while gospel rappers may have the ears of the youth, it's the older, more traditional generation the rappers are having trouble wooing.
"The most difficult part is not being credited as a real ministry to some of the traditional folks," said Cortes.
That resistance stems from the belief by some that gospel hip-hop is an oxymoron and rappers, Christian or not, are the antithesis of what constitutes a "good Christian," said Waller, of the Kee choir.
"They're used to the hymns and choirs and things like that and maybe the whole attitude of the street coming into the church has not been accepted," he said. "Grandma still wants to hear regular church music and the artists have to understand as well that some places are not ready for it."
Waller said the "street" appearance of some artists could be off-putting as well. "Baggy pants, the jerseys and the hats on backwards, all of that plays a role into what people think about what church is and what church isn't."
Messenger 777, born Aaron Warner, 28, has been writing rhymes and performing gospel rap since he was a 13-year-old in Salem. He resents the attitude that some traditionalists have toward Christian hip-hop, and says the church needs to focus on the message and not the methods if it wants to reach today's youth.
"The perfection issue and the holier-than-thou attitude have become such a turn-off to the unsaved that at this point, they'll never get saved because they don't want to be like us," he said.
"I think it kills the chance to minister and to save some young people because to them, at that point in their life, especially young people ...it's an impossibility that they know they rationally can't achieve.
"You don't have to be perfect to love the Lord. The whole thing about loving God and having a relationship with God is that your imperfections can be justified through forgiveness through Christ. We're all human and there's none of us that are holier than the next man and nobody is as righteous as the next."
Messenger says he would practice what he preaches if given the chance. While some of his contemporaries strive to avoid all forms of secular hip-hop for fear of corrupting the message, he would welcome the challenge.
"If I had the chance to share the stage with anybody, Jay-Z, 50 Cent, Eminem, any of these cats that you hear on the radio ... I would do it, because my message is still the message of God. I don't care what was said
before me and what will be said after me. My opinion is that, I'm there, I'm ministering and I'm doing what God called me to do."
Cortes added, "And then we can minister to the artists themselves."
By MAKEBA SCOTT HUNTER
NJ
HERALD NEWS
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