Here we go again with the 4th installation in the God Loves Hip-Hop discussion series.
We're gonna continue our series next month and every third Thursday until November so stay tuned for more conversations. Be sure to keep the feed going on twitter #GodLovesHipHop
Here we go again with the second installment in the Praise & Problems (P&P) series. Once again, P&P will review some of the most popular rap videos on youtube in an effort to celebrate the strengths of Hip-Hop and critique the weak spots in order to encourage greater growth in Hip-Hop and Hip-Hoppers. If you missed the first P&P installment, check it out here.
In our first P&P post we discussed a hood anthem featuring Rick Ross. I love hood anthems. But I mean, what true hip-hopper doesn't? So I figured why not take this second installment, and feature another hood anthem? And we have chosen none other than DJ Khaled's "Welcome to my Hood." Originally released in 2011, This song guest features some of the biggest names in southern Hip-Hop; T-Pain, Lil Wayne, Plies, and of course, Rick Ross. Boasting nearly 16 million views on youtube, and a remix with more than twice the rap stars and another 3 million views, I think it's safe to say, this one goes hard. Let's check the video again.
Praise: It's a Family Affair
Once again, we always wanna start with the positive. There's a few things I really like about this song and it's video. I think the thing I like most about this song is the hook. Welcome to my Hood!
Oppressed people must often band together to
meet the challenges of a depraved community.
I like how T-Pain says it, "Everybody know everybody, and if I got it everybody got it." Maybe you're afraid when you drive around the hood because you don't know anybody, but in every hood I've ever lived in it's just like T-Pain said, "everybody know everybody." It's just like a big family. There''s often a strong sense of community and connectivity. I'll admit that ghetto communities have lost a lot of that familial flavor, but it still exists in many ways. That leads me to the other point. I spoke about this a little bit in the first P&P post and here it goes again. The poverty and degradation in the hood demands that oppressed people band together. So when he says, "if I got it everybody got it," it's a perfect description of how the hood pulls together when the need presents itself.
My favorite verse (by far) is Plies'. when I'm listening to this dude describe the hood, I feel like I'm at home. Stealing cable, waiting out probation, garnished checks for back child support, eviction notices from shady property managers, and all the rest. As grimy and as detestable as it can get, it's home; and we learn to make due and appreciate the goodness that it does have to offer. I love the hood. Growing up in the hood demands a certain type of resiliency and toughness. I learned so many lessons from the street fights, poverty, drug abuse (S/O to Harry-O), and all the rest that I utilize regularly in my everyday life. It's long been said never judge a man until you walk a day in his shoes. Let's make those shoes air force ones and let's take that walk around my block in my hood.
Problems: Tell Me a Little More About Yourself
I'm not sure what Rick Ross and Lil Wayne were thinking. I suppose Lil Wayne was really excited about being out of prison because all he talked about was himself. I didn't get much about his hood. Even less though is the content of Rozay's verse. I mean, rapping about one's hood/upbringing has got to be the easiest and most oft repeated themes in Hip-Hop. If you can't rap about your hood then I'm worried as to whether or not you can actually rap at all. However, it's not that they simply failed to rap about their hood, but rather that they talked so much about themselves.
Slick Rick shows proof that braggadocio and swag
isn't new, but rappers must pursue a greater good.
I've said it before, braggadocio is not new to Hip-Hop, but it often appears that the loudest voices in a lot of today's rap music are simply painting self portraits of their latest, wildest, most expensive exploits. Maybe it's the ultimate form of celebration having made it out the hood...then again, maybe not. Maybe it's just a sad display of new-school narcissism. Maybe that's why more people don't give back to the hood. They have no intention of coming back to develop the community, they just came back to stunt and shine.
Again, I love the hood. But, with all the challenges that we're facing, we've got to commit to community development, family enrichment, and education reform. Welcome to my hood, where everybody needs everybody, and if we get it everybody got it. We're all in this together. That's my prayer. Welcome to my hood!
Many fans and listeners are confused by the
messages coming through their earphones.
DISCLAIMER: For those of you who have been reading and following these posts, there's no way anyone can say that I'm not a true lover of Hip-Hop. If you're not convinced, just go back and read my previous posts. But as I promised in my first post, I do intend to critique and challenge Hip-Hop to higher heights. So with that said, there's this:
I had a young lady ask me yesterday if it's okay (or sinful) to listen to music by secular artists that have a positive message. Good question. Age-old, brain-stumping question. The answer (in my opinion) is simply a yes. However, that yes is with a few reservations. I have a hard time following an artist with duplicitous messages in their music. In other words, you can't be singing "feed the children, help the children" and then on the very next track be rappin about "kill em all" because that by default includes the little children that you just finished feeding. And this is something that is a very significant matter in Hip-Hop. For example:
So then all of a sudden Weezy got all sentimental on us and decided to talk about insecurity and character and true love. Truth is, it's a powerful song, it's just a hard message to take from a guy who we just heard rapping about mindless promiscuity.
Let me first say that I think Kendrick Lamar is a deep and insightful dude. This song in particular is a really thoughtful look into the inner-life of a prostitute. I have other thoughts about songs by men on the inner-lives of women; nevertheless, this one revisits some powerful and important concepts. Young girls should hear it.
Earlier, I mentioned the young lady who asked me the question about music. I pulled this video because she brought up this song as an example of Kendrick Lamar's music that troubles her. Hip-Hop prides itself on not being preachy, but it is. This song is a perfect example. The simplistic repitition of the hook not only illustrates the sickening cycle of alcoholism, but leaves the listener with one heck of a head-ringing takeaway. He seems to suggest that he's convinced that it's reckless, but he relents to "Pour up - Drank." But I guess that's life right? SMH! Kanye West Jesus Walks
There is no way you thought I was gonna talk about duplicity in Hip-Hop without talking about this song. No way! Just admit it, after you heard this song for the first time you really wondered whether this dude Kanye West was actually a Christian. I know I did...well at least it made me give more of his music a listen. Truth is, the song is honest and deep. I feel him on this.
Braggadocio in Hip-Hop is nothing new. It's as old as the art form itself. Rappers been braggin since rappers been rappin. But this is different. I really get the sense that in this song Yeezy's actually sayin "'F' all y'all." I must add though, I like Kanye. I think he handles some weighty concepts at times. But here, he's really talkin reckless.
I guess one of the issues in Hip-Hop is that it refuses to be white-washed. It's gritty, and grimy and it refuses to be hypocritical. However, if I'm praying for Jesus to walk with me, then I'd think that laying tracks like "Power" would be difficult to mix and press. Let's face it, there is a consistent inconsistency in Hip-Hop that confuses even the most faithful fans. If we're going to talk about the tensions of hood life, fame, and trying to make it in the world then let's do it in an authentic, consistent, thoughtful, and honorable way, rather than this sort of lyrical shock treatment that happens in rap.
Even though many may not like to admit it, the contributions
of hip-hop to wider society are vast and varied.
There are those who for some reason still think that "that hippity-hop noise" is just an annoying appendage and public disturbance to civilized society. However, after last night I am convinced that they are the ones who have their heads in the sand; ignoring (or possibly even denying) the contributions that hip-hop have made to wider popular american culture.
I was enjoying the laziness afforded by a day filled with your typical Christmas-day festivities. I'm not sure what I was watching. Might have been Lebron and the Heat beating up on the Kevin Durant and the Thunder or it might have been Indiana Jones and the Lost Ark. Either way, the TV was watching me closer than I was watching it (if you know what I mean).
I was half asleep, but I perked right up and smiled a "there it goes again" type smile when I saw some random movie trailer for some random movie that couldn't have been any farther from hip-hop or black urban culture, but the background music to the trailer was (if I remember correctly) Rick Ross' "Everyday I'm Hustlin." I wish I had been recording it, or at least that I could remember what the movie was. But it was just so funny to me because the movie and the song didn't match at all. Then, the very next commercial was almost the same thing. It was for some random product that was in no-way related to hip-hop fully fitted with a rap beat. Wow!
I would assume that every true hip-hopper has had that experience before. You just smile and think to yourself, "Yeah, we outchea." The fact is hip-hop has had a long and fruitful relationship with numerous corporations and media outlets for marketing and advertising purposes. From Dolce & Gabanna to Doublemint gum, Nike to Nikon, Hennessey to Hewlett-Packard, there seems to be no limit to reach that hip-hop has in mainstream american culture. Here's a few of the all-time favorites.
On another occasion I'll try to delve deeper into the intersection of hip-hop and capitalism, but that's another venture. Here's the point behind this post. Rap music and hip-hop in general is as american as baseball and apple pie. Get used to it. Listen to it, and try to hear the voice of the streets.
In June of 2012 rapper Ice-T directed and produced
this documentary that featured numerous rap legends.
The credits are rolling and I'm sittin here bobbin my head to Rakim's classic "Microphone Fiend." Of all the songs that could lace the credits of a documentary about rap music, this one is perfect. The beat has that smooth guitar riff and the bass line is bangin at the same time, but what's most recognizable is Rakim's rhythmic and melodic, yet powerful and bodacious flow. The beat is a classic, but his voice is iconic. The film is Ice-T's recent Something from Nothing: The Art of Rap.
As I watched and listened to the film, I couldn't help but be re-captivated by these guys that I once heralded as my heroes. I listened to the beats that I grew up hearing and recited the lyrics I was raised up repeating. I watched them talk of their favorite rap acts and rap lines and recite freestyles and old songs. They talked about everything surrounding hip hop culture, but mainly the...Art of Rap...rhyming, writing lyrics, structuring songs, rhyme schemes, subject matter, artistic influences, and everything else that has to do with the skill that it takes to pick up a pen and a pad write some words down and then stand in front of mic and try to impress the crowd. It's nothing I never heard before...not for real, but some of the details reminded me how gifted rappers actually are.
These guys are ghetto poets. Homegrown in the grimiest conditions, forged in the fires of life's harshest cruelties, and then having their artistic skin thickened and fortified by the fiercest competitors; all fighting for the same stage with limited limelight. Don't get it twisted, rappers are artists. Some of them so brilliant, you and I simpletons have a hard time understanding them. And most people are just too stuck up to believe that despite the fact their clothes are baggy and they talk with a slang that they have something meaningful and powerful to say.
It's sad and significant, but from Primo to Jay-Z, they all seem to agree the key to hip hop is understanding the language. And if you don't understand the language you're gonna be frustrated and lost. It's kinda like standing in the chinese restaurant and swearing that they're talking about you. Most people don't like it, simply because they don't understand what the emcee is saying. Sad but true. You're lost. Your loss. Hip-hoppers gain, because what hip-hoppers hear is...a voice.
And that's the theme that kept jumping out at me throughout the film. Rappers work hard to develop their voice. What separates them from the cacophony of competitive noise around them? What do they bring that is fresh and authentic? What do they do that no one else has done? What do they have to say that has not already been said? Is anybody listening? Is this thing on?
That's where rap gets real because before "The Message," "White Lines," "Fight the Power," "Straight Outta Compton," and so many others, no one was listening to us. They tried to exploit us and confine us to the cages of concrete housing projects and silence us with the sanctions of institutional oppressive systems. But rap music started rebelliously blasting on the airwaves, and before long the world could see how much beauty was being locked away in those concrete cages. The world could feel the pathos of the beat. Then the world began to hear the powerful poetry and the ethos of the urban streets and ghettos.
That's why I love rappers. They represent some of the best of what Cornel West (in his book Democracy Matters) calls the tragiocomic--the ability to take something terrible and make something beautiful with it. They took the harsh reality and depravity of the ghetto and made music with it. They made Something from Nothing and that something beautiful is (at least in part) TheArt of Rap.
I started writing a little less than ten years ago with the intent of helping people grow in faith. I started my other blog (4G) for that purpose. As a pastor, that's what I do on a daily basis. I have served as a staff pastor for new members and I have pastored a church plant in an urban center. Thus, my ministry has always been focused on winning people to the kingdom and growing them up in the faith. With this type of ministry focus I am always asking how we can better serve and reach people. However, it begs many related questions like, who are we not reaching? Why aren't we reaching them? How do we reach them? What comes after "G"?
As a Seventh-day Adventist (SDA) pastor in particular, these questions shed revealing light on who we are why we do what we do (as a denomination). Without going into too much detail I'll just simply say that though our denomination has historically had a consistent presence in the inner-city, we have been absentee fathers or distant uncles at best, yet far from nurturing mothers. In other words, you can always find an SDA church in the inner-city, but SDA ministries with a rich legacy of strategic, incarnational, service to specific people groups in inner-city are few and far between.
As an african-american male, raised in an impoverished community during the golden age of hip-hop, I love the hood and I love hip-hop. Nevertheless, I love the Lord and I love His church. While I have committed my life to serving His church, I am also thoroughly committed to serving His children who were raised in an environment that was divorced from (or at least abandoned by) the church.
This blog is dedicated to celebrating the virtues of hip-hop. I will also be careful to critique hip-hop from a biblical and theological point of view. Believe it or not, there are numerous biblical and theological themes that resonate deeply with hip-hop culture. I intend to explore those parallels and offer ideas and insight as to how hip-hop and hip-hoppers might continue to grow into closer correlation with the character of God, while remaining authentically hip-hop.
So let's get it! Let's explore an authentic and refreshing balance between hip-hop and holiness. Truth is, many hip-hoppers were raised in a hostile environment. Yet, hip-hop helped them make meaning and cope with their surroundings. Nevertheless, the power of God does what no earthly power can to transform a life. I am motivated to pursue that life...the life that was forged in the fires of adversity and challenge, nurtured by culture, and then redeemed and renewed by a loving God. Fact is...that life is my own. I hope you're enjoying 4G. Welcome to 4H.
Here we go again with the 4th installation in the God Loves Hip-Hop discussion series. 
