Christian Rap

No, I didn't say "Crap" - I said Rap.

Yes I know many are very opinionated about rap and hip hop - but there's some pretty "dope" albums out there that I'm proud to have in my collection.



Do you like any rap ?

Old Skool rap ? (early DC Talk, Dynamic Twins, SFC, Freedom of Soul, PID, Mike-E, Michael Peace)

Gangsta rap ? (Gospel Ganstaz, God's Original Ganstaz)

Cracker rap ? (KJ 52, Ill Harmonics, Furthermore)

"Other" rap ? ie. rapcore, hip hop, dance (trance), etc ?



Some rap is repititious and annoying... but not all -Some rap has excellent lyrics, some are all up in yo face -lyrically as well as a rockin sound. We all know the Bride team up with DOC "God gave rock n roll to you" - even the biggest hater of rap has got to kinda dig that one.



Let the opinions roll.....

I like Bride's "Fistfull Of Bees" and Pillar's first couple of albums, but I don't consider those as true rap albums. They are rock albums with rap styled vocals. I liked the last two studio projects from DC Talk, but those were also hybrids.

As far as real rap goes, I don't like it. I do have some Toby Mac and KJ-52 on my Zune, but only for my Campus Life kids. If not for them, I would delete the files.

I like Bride's "Fist Full Of Bees"too.

I dig Toby's Extreme Days - very punchy song.

Being a rocker, rap wasn't for me back in the late 80s... until someone told me about D-Boy Rodriguez's story of ministry and ultimate death by drive-by. I had to get his stuff and listen to it. "Street Poet" was good stuff and I played it at work (back in the lab of a plasma center) where my co-worker was hispanic like D-Boy and was into secular rap. He loved it ! Said the dude was as good if not better than "real" rappers. That was a great opp to share Christ with him.
From there, I ate up the current bands and even seen some in concert.
So today, I can't say I'm all into rap, but I gotta special place in my heart for the old skool Christian bands.

Oh, and I love that song by Marky Mark and the funky bunch: Wildside, not so much for the sound but for the deep lyrics that make a point.

Can't get into the rap or hip-hop at all. Not even rap vocals over hard rock or metal music. I don't even really like that Whitecross song with the rapping over the bridge section.

rockerVu2 wrote:

I like Bride's "Fist Full Of Bees"too.

Me three!

I remember a girl I knew back in HS buying an album in the local Christian bookstore by a group called the "Rap-sures". She was not expecting what she got.

I've got the "Rap-sures" album... very painful sounds... but the lyrics and intentions were right on the money

As I said, even the biggest rap hater's gotta like this at least a little bit:

Tall Tyrion wrote:

rockerVu2 wrote:

I like Bride's "Fist Full Of Bees"too.

Me three!

I remember a girl I knew back in HS buying an album in the local Christian bookstore by a group called the "Rap-sures". She was not expecting what she got.

I actually have that group on Vinyl record!! I was looking for decorations for the room I was counseling at Church Camp this past summer and bought a bunch of records and made a mural (it was an 80's themed week). I made it out of a couple Stryper records, Petra, Psalty the Songbook, the "Rap-Sures", and to top it all off, Amy Grant!

Some rap I like, most I don't. But as for the different styles of rap, I didn't have a clue about that as it all sounds the same (which is something people often say about metal).

I can tolerate a world with a degree of rap music in it, and sometimes it even works well with metal (Bride etc.) but RnB is surely something that only came about because of sin. It is nasty, it is horrid, it is something worse than the language of Mordor....... which I won't utter here.

Fundy

Quote :

but RnB is surely something that only came about because of sin. It is nasty, it is horrid, it is something worse than the language of Mordor....... which I won't utter here

whoa.... ouch

Guilty/Forgiven wrote:

Quote :

but RnB is surely something that only came about because of sin. It is nasty, it is horrid, it is something worse than the language of Mordor....... which I won't utter here

whoa.... ouch

Wow, he's not kidding about being a Fundamentalist.

I will confess I have a few albums of the rap nature. Namely the original DC Talk, the first two PID and even an ETW tape. I even saw DC Talk live twice when they toured with DeGarmo & Key as well as PID when they came to town.

I haven't listened to them in sooooo long. Now a days I just tend to stick with rock and metal. I think back then I was sort of experimenting with different sounds.

Staybrite wrote:

Guilty/Forgiven wrote:

Quote :

but RnB is surely something that only came about because of sin. It is nasty, it is horrid, it is something worse than the language of Mordor....... which I won't utter here

whoa.... ouch

Wow, he's not kidding about being a Fundamentalist.

Manafest is pretty fly and his album The Chase is pretty dope if I should say so. I like him. Also don't mind KJ-52 either

Manafest is pretty good.. but I've never cared much for KJ. Guess I haven't given him enough of a chance.

Serious rap aside, there's some Christian rap bands that totally don't take themselves seriously (as far as the genre goes) - one of my favs was "Say What?" (yes, that was their name) - dudes were off the charts funny ! They had songs like "Johnny Fencerider" where they used The Doors' "Riders on the storm" samples to sing "Riders on the FENCE", "I can sing higher (than Sandi Patti)", "Fresh Fish", "Mix-master Mighty White", "Nuclear Fishin' ", and a buncha other ones that were just a total crack up. They sounded really good too, had that old Will Smith Fresh Prince sound to them.
Another one that cracks me up and sounds really good is "Furthermore" - with songs like "Fluorescent Jellyfish", "Are you the Walrus"... these guys are just straight up weird, but I love em.

I found this interesting song the other day by sheer accident. It's by a guy named C-Lite who was featured on the song Background by Lecrae. The movement this guy has started (God Belongs in my City) is also worth checking out. The name of the song is aptly titled, In My City and even features the singer from Doubledge (I thought that was a random choice lol)

That's tight ! You can bet, if it's collaberated or linked to Lecrae's name - it's gonna be good. Lecrae's got it down !
I'm likin this

Love that chorus.

I like the chorus, but I can't stand the intentionally off the beat lyrical delivery of so much rap now. It sounds like these guys have no knowledge of following a basic beat.

I have recently acquired Manafest's album. Good stuff!

Guilty/Forgiven wrote:

Being a rocker, rap wasn't for me back in the late 80s... until someone told me about D-Boy Rodriguez's story of ministry and ultimate death by drive-by. I had to get his stuff and listen to it. "Street Poet" was good stuff and I played it at work (back in the lab of a plasma center) where my co-worker was hispanic like D-Boy and was into secular rap. He loved it ! Said the dude was as good if not better than "real" rappers. That was a great opp to share Christ with him.

I have that album on cassette, from the church library.

Guilty/Forgiven wrote:

As I said, even the biggest rap hater's gotta like this at least a little bit:

I remember that song… Petra was with StarSong and played that…

Good stuff there...

I have 3 or 4 albums of KJ-52, plus some of his mix tapes.
Also, I have some TobyMac.

I like D-Boy because it's from the beginning of rap. Like a lot of music, the first stuff is always the best. IMO.

I've got one KJ-52 and some tobyMac stuff just for my Campus Life group. I know they like them, so I play them for the kids.