I grew up in a christian family, and for a short period in my life, I attended a christian school. At our teens church, they always encourage us to have christian friends, to always listen to christian music and to always read christian books. Who was that again that always shouted at church; "You're not a student christian. You're a christian student. You're a christian first before you became a student?" You get where this is going don't you? Labels, labels and more labels. But you know, previously, like way earlier on in our history, we had no labels. Everyone called us "those people who follow Jesus." Or "those people that preach about that man." Then some smart person must have said something like; "Hey, if they're like Christ, why don't we call them Christians?" I don't know how true, but someone once told me that the label "christian" was an insult. Like it was to be in the same category as "rebel" or "heretic" or "bad people". And it makes sense, if not, could you explain all the persecution we faced early on?
But then, today, we have this trend of "I'm not a gospel rapper" or "I want to reach everyone and not just christians, so don't put me in a box with that label." And now I'm like; "so what are we going to call you now? Just a rapper? But your music is very different from other types of hip-hop music."
Remember Datin's album? CHH Ain't Dead? He brought this CHH legend, Michael Peace, who said something like; "Back in the days we decided to make it clear as to who we were representing with our craft. There would be no metaphors and no pronouns, but we would spell it out JESUS!" Didn't those guys want to reach everyone too?
And you see, everyone's usually clear as to who they represent. Rick Ross is clearly representing cocaine, Kendrick Lamar is clearly representing his Hebraic whatever, SixNine, Lil' Uzi Vert, Lil' Pump, do I have to go on? These guys are very clear on who they represent. After all, by their fruits you'll know them, and then we remove the label we've got just so we can reach everyone?
I don't think it's cool to leave everyone guessing like "Is he a christian artist? Is he not a christian artist?" I don't think that's what Jesus would have done. Recently, I've been reading the book of John, and Jesus made some pretty bold claims as to His identity. He didn't leave everyone guess like "Is He God? Is He not God?" His statements were so bold that some folks shouted BLASPHEMY! If we're christian people, why aren't we as bold as Christ in our art? Like, why would you be bold to reach out to unsaved people, but then you say "I'm not a christian artist" in your art? I feel like it's for this reason, this "Don't Call Me A Gospel Rapper" trend, that makes the whole world say CHH is dead. And I really love guys like KB and Datin who are destroying that misconception.
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