Why Christian Rap? 
By: Bert Bocachica 

Hip hop and rap music originated in the Bronx, New York. It was in the late 70s to the early 80s when this new artistic form of expression began. In a time when inner-city voices were muted or ignored by society, finally, a forum was available for the people to share their views on social, political and everyday issues.

The art form was derived from the roots of the Funk Music's rhythms and Jazz's most popular vocal technique called scatting. Though scatting is generally tones and musical phrases with no actual words, the freedom of expression is the most closely related common factor to rap. The artist has the liberty to leave the rehearsed and written lyrics to let the heart speak. 

With the accompaniment of funk music (e.g.: James Brown, Sly and the Family Stone, Brass Construction, and others), the platform was set to allow the performers to reach an otherwise unreachable audience, that being the younger generations and the minority population. 

The popularity of the music style soared and rap music became a sub category of music genres recognized globally by radio disc jockeys, record companies, retail record stores, charting companies such as Sound Scan and Billboard and more. Kids all over the US of A were now verbalizing their inner-most feelings and thoughts by “singing” their own rap lyrics to the accompanying music.

It became obvious that this was more than just a fad or a phase, thus the birth of "The Hip Hop Culture".  The Hip Hop Culture was made up of several elements.  DJing, MCing, Breakdancing, and Graffiti. 

The most popular of the elements is  mc’ing or rapping.  Many aspiring artists and hobbyists dedicated time and thought into ways to " move the crowd" while dispersing a lyrical content which was of importance.... at least in the heart of the lyricist/composer also known as the rapper.

The first stumbling block faced by rappers was the music. Naturally, since all of the music was pre- recorded, rappers would not find an instrumental break long enough to say their lyrics to. Through the creativity of certain individuals the disc jockey became a mobile band for the rapper which was also now considered the master of ceremony (MC). Playing the instrumental breaks from records, back to back, created a continuous musical loop over which the rapper shares their songs. The DJs enhanced their paricipation by quickly mixing sounfs from one record to another. At one point a DJ decided to keep the rythm manually by pulling back a certain sound on the record repeatedly and that developed into what the world today knows as scratching.

In all cultures, there is a language, dressing style, and appearance, which can identify it. Now it was time for hip hop to have its own dance. Using the funky  pop locking techniques and pantomime gimmicks embraced by gymnastics, the hip hop culture introduced a new dance called  breaking. Also referred to as breakdancing, this new craze was performed on the cement, tar and concrete floors of the Bronx streets and schoolyards. The advantage of a smooth floor for this dance lead the breakers to carry around large sheets of cardboard and even linoleum pieces at times for their surface coverings. In less than 5 years there were movies, shows, videos, and dances revolving around hip hop at the disposal of people everywhere. Hip hop had no boundaries. 

I was born and raised in the South Bronx therefore I can attest to the intense interest in rap music by Urban Youth. As in any disenfranchised group of people needing to belong to a family, hip hop soon became a group or crew-driven venture.  Associations of neighborhood teens would assemble and form what was known as crews. To be "down" or accepted in this crew you had to rap, dj, tag, or breakdance. Or like some of the guys I knew, you had to have the biggest boom box radio.  If you couldn't do any of those perhaps you had an expressive artistic ability to portray the hip hop culture through murals, designs and artwork painted by spray paint…Graffiti

Graffiti was one of the only elements of the hip hop culture to become a crime.  Young people began scribbling their “tags” and images on public and private property wherever and whenever possible. Strategically, most of the artwork was painted on the outside of subway cars, giving the art form its highest degree of exposure, as well as attracting its highest degree of trouble. Defacing private and city own property was not welcomed with cheers from city officials therefore; most of this artwork was done late at night into the early hours of the morning.

In this competitive world, anyone involved in this culture was viewed as a threat by their peers. Particularly for the MC, these threats became more and more visible through the lyricists’ work as they began to exalt their skills and claim supremacy in this rapidly growing genre.

In an effort to settle differences, crews would battle each other in all phases of hip hop. DJing, rapping, breakdancing and graffiti writing went from being a form of entertainment to becoming a substitute for physical encounter. 

Many noteable crews and organizations arose from the streets of New York of which Africa Bambatta's Zulu Nation was one of the largest. They practically created a sub-culture within a sub-culture. After the rise and fall of many local crews, the pressure was on those remaining in the hip hop scene to gain the number one status.

Realizing the attention and respect that rap was getting, there was a line of distinction created which separated hip hop into two categories, underground and commercial. In the underground rap scene artists would use their lyrics to verbally assault opposing crews and exalt their own posse and skills. On the other hand, the mainstream/commercial market looked for various ways to use hip hop to promote their products or get their message across (social/political) to a population which was usually overlooked. The inner-city youth.

Now that we have established the foundation and development of this style we will explore the effectiveness of it within ministry.

Let's say that 60% of the Protestant churches in the U.S. Of A. are made up of mostly young people. Of that percentage, it is estimated that 40% listen to rap music regularly on their personal radios, and/or in music videos.  Retail records indicate that hip hop / rap music sales made up an estimated 70% of all music sales. The demand for music videos of this genre has lead major cable television networks to offer live video request programs where a viewer can request the video he or she wants to watch on demand.

On the other hand, Contemporary Christian Music contributed only 20% of all retail music sales. This is a sad fact considering the amount of young people in the protestant church.

Using the same statistics, it is said that an estimated 35% of the youth in the Protestant church have a true relationship with God while the remaining percentage have not truly surrendered their hearts to the Lord.

Which percentage are you a part of?  

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