Christian Hip Hop Music History

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Christian hip hop (originally gospel rap, also known as holy hip hop) is a form of hip hop music which uses Christian lyrical themes to express the songwriter's faith. Only during the 1990s did the term "Christian hip hop" become descriptive of this type of music. Many mainstream hip hop artists have made acknowledgements of faith (including Kanye West, Ma$e, DMX, and Will Smith) but are not typically considered Christian hip hop artists, as the themes of their lyrics do not typically reflect spiritual faith, and often contain content considered blasphemous by some Christians. The audience is typically Christian, but is used in missions for the purpose of evangelization. Christian rap and hip hop artists are professed Christians in most cases, and use the fact that they are urban or suburban as a positive issue used to spread their religion, and like all Christian music, it can be experienced as Christian worship.

Holy Hip Hop is also a Christian rap and hip hop album label out of Atlanta, Georgia. Fall of 2006 is the expected release date of the fourth volume in the Holy Hip Hop collection. Holy Hip Hop also sposors a small variety of Christian rap and hip hop artists.

Christian hip hop is typically more experimental and diverse than mainstream hip hop, and pop-rap artists such as tobyMac, KJ-52, John Reuben and Paul Wright have risen above many artists who imitate mainstream hip hop in popularity. Artists like tobyMac, KJ-52 and John Reuben include nu metal and rapcore songs regularly, but often unify rapping and singing in the vein of R&B and pop as well. Paul Wright describes his music as "folk hop," and much like fellow Christian singer Mat Kearney, his albums consist primarily of acoustic pop with occasional hip hop elements. Christian artists such as GRITS consider the genre superior to its secular counterpart, thus the tagline of the group's album Factors of the Seven, "the most innovative hip hop in the industry." Christian hip hop also contains less sampling. John Reuben's music is notable for its lack of sampling, with a band in place of samples (a lá Hasidic rapper Matisyahu). Many conventional artists who operate in Christian hip hop sample as often as their counterparts, such as Mars ILL, whose album Pro*Pain was delayed due to legal issues regarding sampling. [1]

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Popular genres to fuse with hip hop in Christian hip hop include pop, R&B, rock, metal, techno, reggae, funk and jazz. In many cases, collaborations with pop artists in Christian hip hop lead to songs with rap verses and pop choruses (such as "Nuisance", John Reuben's successful duet with Matt Thiessen of pop punk band Relient K, and KJ-52's single "Are You Real?" featuring Jon Micah Sumrall of rock band Kutless). KJ-52 and tobyMac are two of the most successful artists in the genre to combine hip hop with various other musical genres, though the combination also receives criticism among hip hop purists. Popular conventional Christian hip hop groups include GRITS (who have received some mainstream success), The Cross Movement, T-Bone, LA Symphony and Mars ILL. Among underground Christian rappers and hip hop groups, conventional hip hop such as crunk is generally preferred, as opposed to pop-rap.

While many notable recordings and artists encompass the sphere of Christian hip hop, no one style (termed 'flavor') dominates. Traditionally, hip hop tends to fall into such categories as East Coast, West Coast (or Left Coast), Dirty South or even prison rap. Christian hip hop features all of those styles and more, transcending geographic restrictions and commercial underpinnings. Web stores such as 3Hmp3.com and CDBaby.com have opened the commercial market to artists not under contract with a particular record label, but whose recordings measure comparably and favorably with industry recordings.

Christian hip hop themed videos and DVDs are also increasing in availability and popularity. Christopher ("Play") Martin and Amen Films released a DVD entitled "Holy Hip-Hop" that is available in many stores where DVDs are sold. This item is featured prominently on the HolyHipHop.com web site.

Live events such as RapFest (held annually in August in New York City) as well as conferences such as the Holy Hip Hop Showcase (held annually in January in Atlanta) have helped to foster an increase of the circulation level of evangelical Christianity among youth and young adults. Other notables include The Yuinon & H.P., based in Detroit.

Whereas Christian hip-hop artists were few in the days of groups like Transformation Crusade (pioneering artists from Liberty University, can be heard on "King of Glory" by Commissioned), Christian hip-hop artists numerically are now as the stars in the sky. No longer is there a shortage of thought-provoking, theologically sound recordings in the sphere of Christian hip-hop. While some artists are growing in their ability to remain Biblical in their approach to emceeing, many quality recordings abound, of which artists like R-Swift, J. Johnson, Redeemed Thought, Timothy Brindle, shia linne, 2Five, Frontlynaz and Aprentiz comprise a very small sample.

Source: Wikipedia - the Free Encyclopedia