Christianity, Culture, and Hip Hop
A while back I listened to an
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. I always had an aversion to rap music, partly due to my upbringing and partly due to the fact that the rap being put out by Christian artists was lyrically and doctrinally weak. Then I was exposed to a new set of rappers, including LeCrae and Shai Linne. I was stunned by the doctrinal content of their lyrics. A lot of conservatives rail against the shallowness of contemporary Christian songs. These songs break that mold and devastate that argument. See some samples at the end.
But the question that tends to come up is whether or not the medium of hip hop in general (and rap in particular) is an appropriate medium for conveying Biblical truth. Shai Linne tackles some of those ideas head on and discusses his journey as a Christian and as an artist. He is intelligent and well-spoken. He is obviously educated in the reformed tradition (his song, Mission Accomplished, is an excellent defense of Limited Atonement). I offer up a few quotes from that interview for your contemplation.
I didn’t have to leave my culture in order to become a Christian, but rather allow Christ to inform my expression of my culture.
We’re trying to capitalize on the power of the medium of hip-hop. One of the benefits that it has is that you’re able to pack a lot of information into a small amount of musical space and that really just lends itself to exposition and some of the deeper things of the Word.
I would never try to force anyone to like hip-hop. My main thing is, can we unify around the centrality of Jesus Christ and Him crucified. You don’t have to become a rapper or even enjoy rap, but my hope is that you would appreciate the truth that is being communicated. That’s the same with any genre. I wouldn’t want to blindly accept anything because it came in a certain package, but I want to Biblically attempt to listen and discern, What’s the content? What is the message that’s being communicated?
So, if you’re a traditionalist, what’s your argument against an artist like Shai Linne. The shallowness argument is gone. He traces the roots of hip hop to a positive origin. And what of his statement about Christ informing the expression of his culture? Does sanctification require a cultural transformation? Some interesting thoughts here.
Tagged as culture, hip hop, Shai Linne + Categorized as Music, Theology
I once disliked hip-hop because I thought it was contrary to Biblical principles. I dislike it now because I think it is artistically shallow. Content is important, but it is not prime. The strength of art comes from the artistry, not from the content. Oscar Wilde once said, “All bad poetry springs from genuine feeling.” C.S. Lewis noted that we need fewer Christian artists and more artists that are Christians. I can find many doctrinal errors in Dante and Milton, yet they are great artists, and their works affect me in a profoundly spiritual way. Mozart is as powerful as Bach, and Mozart was far less religious.
Christians (not necessarily you, Mark) far to easily excuse bad art because of its “Christian” content. I would like see Christians uphold good art, and see the spiritual benefits of such art, rather than combine good doctrine with poor art.
All i know is we have been preached at to only listen to certain music style and content our entire lives. It gets old to hear people just keep repeating that something is not good because it resembles something else. I have yet to find someone who can show me a Bible verse that says that becasue something sounds Celtic (or some other style) it is sin. I believe God gives principles for what he requires in ALL aspects of life. It is up to us to apply them how we feel the Holy Spirit is leading. My husband and I don’t even have the same convictions as far as music goes–BUT one thing we definately agree on…no matter what any one says here on earth, we believe when we get to heaven the music we hear will be NOTHING like anything we have experienced on Earth. There will not be copyrights from the Wilds or Soundforth or Rockettown Records, etc. I think we will all be surprised at what we hear and won’t be concerned with the debate in heaven—Thank God! On the rap, I personally just do not care for the sound of Rap and Hip Hop music-secular or Christian. Jacob likes Hip Hop sound sometimes, but he would not like it with Christian lyrics–he thinks if he is going to listen to Christian music he wants it to be Churchy kind.
@Jeremy – Thanks for the comments. I would agree that we as Christians tend to accept sub-par art simply because it purports to be Christian. And my goal here is not to establish Christian hip-hop as something everyone should listen to. I’m more interested in engaging those that would say that certain cultural expressions, like Shai Linne’s rap, are incompatible with the Gospel or inherently sinful. As far as good art vs. shallow art, I’d be interested in hearing how we as Christians should go about establishing criteria for distinguishing them. And why does a certain cultural expression generally get designated as shallow art? Person A might be deeply moved by a Bach concerto while Person B is deeply moved by “Times” by Tenth Avenue North. Is person B more shallow? Do certain people connect more to musical elements while others connect more with depth of lyrics? I don’t know the answer to these questions.
@Abbey – Yeah, those are more the kind of people I’m addressing. The kind that say that western classical or choral music is the only kind of music that is appropriate for Christians to listen to or participate in. Why is one culture’s expression more honoring to God than another’s? I think one thing that will mark the music in Heaven is its diversity.
Mark, good question about the culture…here’s a thinker for you…why is it ok to like music from a culture as long as that is your culture…for instance, the African’s dance and sing, but if we white people, er Eastern Americans, did that, it woudl not be God-honoring, just interpreted as dancing and making noise for our pleasure? if something is wrong its wrong for all, right right for all. i have yet to hear a “good argument” for that as well!
oh, i forgot to add, as far as the culture thing goes, One could argue that it IS American culture: HipHop, Rap, R&B, Country–so with the previous mentality woudln’t it make sense then that that sort of “Christian genre” would be GOOD?
@Abbey – Well, I could see the argument that something would be right for one person but wrong for another. I think the whole meat offered to idols discussion would relate there. If your conscience prohibited you from eating the meat because of its association to idolatry, then it would be wrong for you to do it. But if your conscience was clear because you did not associate the meat with the idol, then it was fine for you to eat it. Now, whether or not this relates to music is another discussion.
I’ve seen some people try to apply this argument to music and say that certain styles of music have a distinct association with certain evils. But it seems to me that they’re creating associations where none need to exist. In other words, it would be like the person offended by meat offered to idols trying to convince everyone not to eat the meat, because they see the association.
I think that argument fails on a few levels. First, just by using that argument, you are assuming that the thing itself is not inherently wrong. In other words, the meat offered to idols discussion did not really concern meat, in and of itself, but rather had to do with a person’s conscience. The actual meat had no moral value whatsoever. Second, I don’t think Paul intended for those young Christian’s to remain in the immature state where they saw reminders of their old life anywhere. I think part of the maturing process is to understand why things are right or wrong and lose the associations you had to your old self.
But you also bring up a separate argument, which is, why is one cultural expression necessarily better than another. Or even, why is one cultural expression moral while another is immoral. And on top of that, what is it that makes something moral or immoral. A song or melody possesses no innate morality. A song or melody can not sin. I think we need to wrestle with what causes something to be moral or immoral before we can start labeling things.
Here’s some of my thinking on that, and I admit it still needs refining. Immorality is not an item, it is an action. For any action (I would include thinking in here as well) to be immoral (against Biblical standards of morality), it must include a context and an attitude. Certain actions are sinful in one context but not another. For example, sex is wrong outside the context of marriage, but within the context of marriage, it is honorable to God. While the context may be right, I may have a wrong attitude with my action that would make that action immoral. Your son may take out the trash, but have a terrible attitude doing it, so his right action is now a wrong action, not because of the context, but because of the attitude.
So based on that, I would like to see an argument from a traditionalist that either 1) shows how certain musical styles are immoral based on that understanding of morality, or 2) show me the flaw in my understanding of morality.
To answer your question from a few posts ago, I don’t know what the Biblical basis for artistic expression is. I have pondered on that for quite a while. The Bible says that we are created in the image of God. One aspect of this image is the desire for creative expression. The whole creation is God’s creative expression. He could have just made life without any aesthetic qualities. We don’t need a beautiful universe to survive. God expressed himself through His creation.
Mankind seems to have the same desire. We desire beauty. This is not a physical desire. It is an emotional/psychological/spiritual desire. I am not sure how you can explain this desire naturalistically. To me, it is evidence we are created in the image of God. I once read an interesting book called “Art and Technics” by Lewis Mumford. He spoke about how we as humans are not content with making tools. We make tools that have aesthetic qualities. Look at all the types of cars. Look at the iPod. We want cool-looking tools. This is part of the God-image in us.
All that to say, I believe art to be part of our spiritual make-up. The question of what determines good art versus bad art is one which has been debated for centuries. (Do you really expect the answr to that in the comment section of a blog post?) What I do know is that there is good art and bad art. I like Bach, and I also like Weezer. I would say that Weezer is the lower art of the two. Both affect me, which is why I like listening to them. Bach affects me on a deeper level. My issue is that too many people don’t realize there is a deeper level.
There is a vital need to use hip hop to bring forth biblical truth. If you analyze the impact of hip hop on the world today, you will see that it is the only genre of music that breaks down barriers. Meaning that racial, socio-economic, religious barriers etc are broken when it comes to hip hop. It is embraced by the majority of the world’s population. Which brings to light the pressing importance of using hip hop to bring glory to Christ. shai line along with the other artists of Lampmode, CMR, and Reach are examples of using hip hop to convey biblical truth.
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