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It seems this title and this article definitely stirred up some emotion in a lot of people. Some are sad to see it die, some are happy, and some even seem to be upset that we’re just talking about it. Well… why are we talking about it? Why it is a topic of discussion? Many of us reading this have a passion to reach those influenced by hip-hop with the truth of Christ. Overall… yes, it’s a spiritually dead culture as it speaks a lot of death. But, many of us are all about speaking life as we point people to the true creator. So, if you fall in that category – it is important that we are aware of what’s going on in the environment of this group of people were trying to reach.
A great example of this in scripture is when my man Paul went to Athens (Acts 17). As he looked around the city and saw all the idols and the worship of other Gods he got really upset. It was like a holy anger that was burning inside of him. I know some of us can look around at hip-hop and get angry at all the garbage that’s being spit. Even from a non-spiritual standpoint I sometimes get embarrassed at mainstream hip-hop as it’s so non-intelligent and elementary… when I tell people I’m a hip-hop artist they can quickly me in the category with all those other cats… ahh! It can be frustrating… but back to Paul. What did Paul do? Did he go out in the streets and go off and get judgmental? No… he observed. Acts 17:17-18 says, “And every day he went out on the streets and talked with anyone who happened along. He got to know some of the Epicurean and Stoic intellectuals pretty well through those conversations.” (MSG) He was building with cats and seeing where they were at with their spirituality. As he gathered information and spent time in prayer he got ready to relevantly present the truth. A couple days later that’s exactly what he did.
Paul stepped to the spot (The Areopagus) where the masses were chillin’ and politicking. They didn’t have cable, they didn’t have the Internet and they didn’t have the news… so this place is where a lot of new information was given. Acts 17:22 breaks down what happened where Paul began to speak, “It is plain to see that you Athenians take your religion seriously. When I arrived here the other day, I was fascinated with all the shrines I came across. And then I found one inscribed, TO THE GOD NOBODY KNOWS. I’m here to introduce you to this God so you can worship intelligently, know who you’re dealing with.” (MSG) My man Paul was peaking their curiosity and speaking their language. Now, they were hanging on the edge of their seats wanting to know who this God was. I encourage you to read the details of the chapter. Later in the passage he even quoted one of their poets as they said a line referring to the creator. I believe if this was today - Paul might quote a hip-hop artist. He pulled out that nugget of truth and built on it, as it was a familiar quote to the audience he was speaking to. Some believed that day, some wanted to hear more later, and some were made uncomfortable and walked away. But, that’s what the gospel does – it’s our job to present it in a relevant way, and it’s up to God’s spirit to work in people’s hearts. We can’t make it happen. But, we can do our part and be students of culture and be sensitive to God’s spirit. As we are students there is a fine line we must walk as we must remember we’re in the culture… but not of it. We should never promote the negative things of the culture or partner with them. Believers need to be more careful with this as sometimes we want to be so relevant that we end up looking just like them and doing the same stuff they do… then we have no effect at all – except maybe a negative one! Remember the scripture tells us we are supposed to be set apart and distinct in our character and in our lifestyle.
So as we desire to reach this culture we must also observe what’s on with it. On June 14th I was on tour in Texas and as I walked out of my hotel room I picked up the USA Today newspaper on the floor and saw the front-page story about hip-hop. Those I was touring with had just had a conversation about this the night before and then here it was… front page. The article stated hip-hop sales had dropped 33% this year so far. It echoed many of the things I shared in the first article. Now, some could look at this and say, “Oh man, hip-hop is about to be done – you should look to do some other type of ministry.” Hip-Hop may be declining in several ways, but if you read between the lines and also look at the charts its influence is not as dead as some may say. This is something we need to be aware of. The number one ring tone of the year (by far) is by hip-hop artist Mims. No other song came even close to the over 2 million ring tones he’s sold. But, his album has been out for several months and it’s sold less than 250,000 copies. What does that tell you? Times are changing. People aren’t buying albums much anymore. Ask a teenager when the last time they bought a CD was? Most of them just buy a song on itunes. Some of us reading this still love our CD’s… but the digital era is growing every day, and many people don’t want the whole album anymore. They just want that hot song or that hot ringtone.
Speaking of digital – the number one song this summer on itunes has been by Rihanna “Umbrella” featuring Jay-Z. Technically it’s not listed as a hip-hop song, but it has a hip-hop artist on it rapping. Some consider this quasi hip-hop/R&B… and that stuff is still all over the charts as you see artists like Fergie and Gwen Stefani doing hip-hop influenced songs with hip-hop artists on the regular. If you check out the Billboard Hot 100 (July 15th) you’ll see that 7 out of the top 10 songs have a hip-hop/R&B sound to them although only 3 are straight hip-hop. I’m not out there buying this stuff and supporting it, but I am checking out the trends to see what’s going on and what’s happening, and as I check that out – I can see that hip-hop still has an influence – it’s still here. As I stated earlier, I believe overall it is a spiritually dead culture – so that why many of us are here… to be vessels for God to use to speak life and point them to Christ. So, I encourage you to take Paul’s example: observe, pray, and speak truth. As we do this in a relevant engaging way we’ll see God’s spirit begin to bring people to life.
The reaon hip hop is dying is because of the type of lyrics in most of the songs. Rappers like Ludacris and Snoop Dog are always rapping about shooting somebody or having sex of some kind. If rappers stopped rapping about violence and sex then maybe people would listen.
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Once again... written by Abstract Unique,
December 11, 2007
Its funny for me to see people getting fired up over that statement and pointing out that God is life and the cecular is lifeless. The Hip-Hop is dead statement was not based on a spiritual factor. When people say Hip-Hop is dead in my opinion they are talking about the artistry behind it. Is there any creativity behind the majority of the popular Hip-Hop at the moment? Being an emcee is an art form. Nobody is putting any effort to elevate the art form. Hip-Hop is not moved by talent but by how much we can make. So in the race to make money we lost sight of what Hip-Hop was built on. Personally my beliefe is that Hip-Hop has evolved. Its a clone of its former self which has been diluted with toxins. The entire culture suffers at the moment because of it. Granted there are artist on both sides of the fence that continue to create music with substance but in the music industry majority rules and the goes for the christian industry or the cecular. Just my two cents..
www.myspace.com/slangrapdemocracy
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Lookin in the wrong places written by RealityHipHop.net,
August 22, 2007
Hip Hop is alive and well, both right here in the Holy Hip Hop area, as well as the underground artists. It came from people like us, back in the day. To say it is dead now, by looking at top 100 charts, is the same thing as saying it wasn't alive until the media picked up on it in the 80s. It is simply going back to the people, where it started, and where it will continue to live.
If you go back and look at the principles of early hip hop and rap, as stated by the founders, you will see that what you hear on the radio isn't even close to what they had in mind.
Holy Hip Hop is on top of the hip hop game right now, it is the closest thing to those principles, even closer than the underground going around right now.
Also when you say Hip Hop, be thinking larger than just rap, cus its a culture, and always has been. The culture is currently blowing up around the world right now. Look at breaking, we got people breaking on all the street corners in Europe and Asia, just like back in the day.
- just my 2 cents (guess you can put me in the group of people upset about it even being a question, haha)
blessings all
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well written by michel M seporghan,
August 16, 2007
What can we say? I don?t think that a lot of people think that rap is actually rap music but I have not really liked rap music my whole like when I was an unbeliever I just listened to it because it was something that other people listened to. The word of god says understand time and know how to minister to it. it might seem that rap or hip hop is dead but I don?t think that it will ever die or start to die to many people are influenced by that culture and that is why we still have gangs violence and people dying. So we just have to know how to understand them and talk to them.
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Hmmm written by who u think,
August 11, 2007
does it even really matter
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Not the artform, but the artists! written by C-Sick,
August 09, 2007
Of course we all know how devestating the lyrics in secular rap is, but what's killing it is the artists that labels are putting out. MIMS cant sell an album because he's a one hit wonder. When artists put out great CDs, they see great sells. When they don't they get ringtone sells. Once the industry figures out that the people want good music, Kingdom music will flourish like never before and nobody will think about calling it dead! Until then, we need the Body to support us like the world supports theirs!!!
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hip hop...dead...? written by meiko,
August 05, 2007
Honestly, because we are making Christ-centered music hip hop is not dead in a spiritual sense. Mainstream hip hop is dead because of its message.
Unfortunately the world sees it as C.R.E.A.M. AND that's cash but we see it as Christ. The world is ripe for Christ and also ripe for destruction.
Revelation tells it and we know how it ends, but it's how we affect our country and this world that determines how many stand and how many fall...
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... written by Matthew Kerr,
August 04, 2007
Illegal downloading is up to a new high as well. Too bad the influences have to remain.
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... written by isaac,
August 01, 2007
ye whoever says hiphop is dead is not lookin at the facts it is just one of thoes media roumers that people like to feed off of as much as secular hiphop is dead spiritually in itself it is vary alive
what kind of music do clubs play? contury? no hiphop is the most rythem based genre out there soooo that is my opinion anyway
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