At the time that I  was working for the All Eyes On Me Achievement Awards (previously the Houston-Texas Holy Hip Hop Awards) I had the  privilege of having an in-depth conversation with Sway (of MTV News & The Sway & Tech Morning Show) about the whole Hip Hop is “Dead” or “Dying.” I also talked to him about the statement he made that stating Gospel Rap is the missing element to the Hip Hop. Sway had presented an award during with he stated that since all his friends were in the habit of sitting around and talk about being Hip Hop Dead. He stated to the crowd that he had found the missing element in Hip Hop, speaking of Christian or Gospel Rap. Sway stated that he wanted to do a MTV news piece on the Holy Hip Hop. I decided to make the time to sit down and talk to him about Faith, Hip Hop and what he see’s from and Industry perspective what we can do as Gospel artist to make our mark.

Here Are Some Things I Gleamed From The Conversation I Had With Sway

We discussed the current state of the industry, including the fact that artistic and culturally Hip Hop is a dying art form. The DJ seems to be lost, but not as far lost as are the B-Boys and Graffiti Artist seems to be more obscure now than ever. They still exist just not as part of the “Hip Hop Elite” right now. I brought up the idea that Jesus is the only I know that can bring things back from the dead. So if there is going to be a movement that can bring new life back into Hip Hop I stated that I believed “Christian Rap” can be that missing piece as he stated. I also pointed out that Christian Hip Hop has clean lyrics and albums that people are looking for now with all this noise about not using certain words in the industry. We already got that. After the whole Don Imus thing and Nas response album and the cry out in the industry for music to not demoralize its listeners. The dumbing down of music hasn’t served to create better consumers. Maybe making better consumers wasn’t their goal maybe the dumbing down of society and popularizing negative stereotypes. People are getting tired of being called names, talked down to and having their ears violated with garbage. Sway responded by saying that we shouldn’t seek to market to the mainstream. Despite what some people say that we should seek to market to the mainstream. He went on to say that we should do what makes us unique and focus on what works the lyrics and content. To focus on building up our core fan base, to reaching out to the Gospel and Young Adult markets which present a larger buying base than just he traditional youth group focus. Sway said we should let them come to us “if they ever do.” He said we shouldn’t seem mainstream acceptance or success that our message dictates that we be non conformist to a secular society and that goes against our core values and teachings. He further said that once we’ve established ourselves and not let them dictate to us that we are in a place dictate to them. He clearly said that we should not go to them. We should focus on what makes us unique and become good at that. We discussed how late 80’s and early 90’s Hip Hop worked together whether they were political rap like Public Enemy, fun rap like Fresh Prince, gangsta music like NWA, or even the love rappers LL Cool James that they all worked together despite difference to force the mainstream to accept them as they were. They didn’t cater to the mainstream at first it was their uniqueness that made the viable. They created a market where they white power structure of the music industry and even tv networks like MTV refused to accept them. They forced them to accept them at take them as they are. This is a key reason we should seek to support all Gospel Rappers regardless of slant, dogma, crew, church, label or personal convictions. The goal is to get music with a gospel message pushed to a wider audience not to dumb down our music to appease the powers that be. Sway stated that we should try to build our Christian Market to the point where we can sell at least 150,000 to 250,000 a cd consistently and more. We have seen more and more artist get close to doing this. As a whole the movement has a way to go. He went on to say that we should build our gospel fan base strong so you still have the strong Christian market support. He stated that if we dumb it down and go mainstream that we would lose our core audience, we would lose what makes us authentic and we would in effect no longer be “Christian” rap. He was really trying to bring home the point that we should try to be excellent at what we do and secure our fan base before we try to get mainstream attention. I believe this to be true and wise words to consider.

My Conclusion

After talking to Sway, Dj Maj, KJ-52, AppleJaxx and Tre-9 and others in the industry, it seems clear we need to come together and a body, and respect the arm and feet, those called to the body and those called to the streets. The message is different but the body is one. We need to sure up the Gospel Market base, be authentic to who we are, make good music, market to young adults and the gospel urban market before we try to join the mainstream movement. We shouldn’t seek out the mainstream, but let it come to us with what we have and not let them change us. Yes, We need Christocentric lyrics, we need relevant music that relates to people’s lives and issues, so be real about who you are and what you do, keep it gospel, speak from the Judeo-Christian world view, we need to deal with issues of social injustice, civil rights violations, spitting only Christian standards to an immoral world. Focus on building the gospel market fan base and reaching young adults first. Other things we need to do that can help is focus on marketing to College Radio and get our singles licensed to play on Radio, TV and Movies.

Previous Post: Christian Hip Hop and the Media: How Can We Improve It’s Exposure? (Click On The Text To View The Article)

Media Coverage

I’m sure yall head the Kj52 Dear Slim song that MTV covered as a diss track. To make it a news worthy piece that had to cut out the spiritual part and focus on making it some silly beef situation.

Did You know MTV banned Mr J Medieros Constance video for “graphic content” which is bogus they have rappers with strippers in the back ground, and Mr J is talking about a real problem that addresses a major social issue. In 2006 500,000 to 1.2 million people were trafficked over international boarders and NO ONE WAS PROSECUTED IN 2006 FOR HUMAN TRAFFICKING, That’s a major issue. But MTV won’t play it, but they will play censored version of songs about graphic sex with women, strippers dancing in the background and misogynistic music.

BET also banned a quite of few Christian videos from their play list including Ahmad and 4th Ave Jones, they had the song Move On played on MTV. Its was a good song and video. MTV and VH1 are owned by the same company. MTV played dear slim as a beef record. VH1 says a song about praying for dear slim was one of the worst moments in hip hop ever. That was free promotion for Kj by the way and I’m sure its helped his sales because many more people heard his name and music and probably got interested. News is publicity. And you can take a minus and make it a plus.

AppleJaxx of Nureau Ink was on Shade45 and he got good publicity on the don’t quit you day job segment? Ever said he should rap and quit his day job. That’s a milestone in Holy Hip Hop. Anyone notice that we got positive coverage on a secular station?

What Has Worked So Far

KJ: focused on the white suburban youth groups with his silly songs and pop music and I think thats the key to his success. But there is only one Kj.

Grits: had good distro and got the videos played on Rap City and got a good following. But there is only one Grits.

The Cross Movement: appealed to the Older Theological heads in the urban gospel church market, and that’s how they did good. But there is only one CM.

T Bone: was consistent on the bible thumping demon assassin lyrics and appealed to the Hispanic community and toured at a lot of teen challenges, victory outreach and other places like that. But there is only one T Bone.

CHH Needs To Grow Up

The dialogue in Christian rap needs to broaden on content to include social and political dialogue to engage some of the older young adults. We need more content on Social Justice issues, like civil rights, and freedom or speech, etc…

We need to discuss real issues people deal with and not just fun music for youth groups.

We need to be ourselves and be good at what we do.

The quality and content in CHH has risen in recent years a lot and that’s good.

We need to keep pressing on.

** Note: Since the original writing of the above quoted material we have seen artist gain some more acclaimed success such as Thi’sl, Bizzle, Still Trill Christians, Lecrae & Reach Records, Jin and a list of others. **

TO SUMMARISE CHH NEEDS TO:

• We MUST GET the Gospel market and get the Young Adult crowed engaged
• We need Nationally Syndicated Radio
• We need Nationally Syndicated TV
• We Need industry wide standards, to bring an end to all the conflict between different camps
• We need a play list format to support across the board
• We need to build up your gospel market following before you branch out or try to expand beyond.
• CHH needs to get the attention of the traditional and contemporary gospel market like Da Truth did with the song with Tye Tribbet and they need to focus on making music and reaching out to young adults who have jobs and can buy albums more than youth who can’t afford albums or have to beg money from their parents.
• We need to market to young adults, with more social content, and deal with real issues, not just catchy songs.
• We should have balanced material. Our first focus should be build the gospel market, traditional and contemporary. Because those are the ones that you want to support your music.

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