Defying genre: Christian hip hop

By Casey Gillis
Media General News Service
Published: July 7, 2008

As the beat thumps in the background, Eric Scott shows off some dance moves.

Clad in a white T-shirt and red and yellow sneakers that peek out from underneath his dark jeans, Scott slides to the right and crosses his arms in front of each other. Four other dancers watch him intently, practicing the moves themselves, before they all line up and try it together.

Eventually, Scott adds another move into the mix, and another. Before long, all five of them — members of the Movers and Shakers, a Christian hip hop ministry group — are moving in unison.

Slideshow: Rhyming with Reason

After another successful try, Scott grins broadly, nodding his head.

“Ya’ll locked it in,” says Wendell Towe, a Christian rapper and the founder of Movers and Shakers.

Scott and the others are rehearsing in Towe’s basement, where he has his own small-scale recording studio. They’re dancing to “Give Me the Music Back,” a track that will be included on their upcoming album, “The Omegabet.” The song features the rhymes of Scott and Towe, as well as vocals from other group members.

“Every instrument we’re using it/For only introducing Him,” Towe, 28, raps on the track.

“The song is about taking … the music and bringing it back to God,” he explains.

“We are taking the music and bringing it back into the Christian arena.

“Whether I rap it, riff it or sing it, it’s the word of God.”

Warrior music
One of Christian hip hop’s trailblazers was a group called Soldiers For Christ.

And that’s really what these guys are.  They’re battling in an unexpected arena, in a genre that has a reputation for glorifying violence, sex and drug use.

They have to defend themselves against both people who think the music isn’t as good as its secular counterpart and those who think the genre itself is evil, that the medium is as important as the message.

“A lot of nonbelievers don’t know how to receive it, and a lot of believers don’t know how to receive it,” says Jason Lewis, another local rapper who performs under the moniker Humble T.I.P.  “Any move of God is going to be scrutinized, and there are going to be skeptics.”

But he soldiers on.

“My music really, really motivates Christian believers to win souls. It’s more like warrior music,” he says. “When you hear my music, you just want to go out and be used by God (to spread the word).”
While some national Christian acts have found success, the music itself still hasn’t really been recognized as a viable genre.

“When I got saved, I thought Christian rap was wack,” admits Scott, 22.

But he and other local Christian hip hoppers say the tide is starting to turn as the quality of the music and its promotion improves.

“This Christian hip hop thing is not just below the surface anymore,” says Perry Tankard, who hosts a Christian hip hop radio show for Liberty University’s 90.9, The Light.

“It’s more professional and innovative.”

A community
Much like secular hip hop music, Christian hip hop started as a grassroots, underground movement.

“(It) is more of a community than a genre,” says Lewis, 23. “Hip hop is a culture and a community within itself.”

The first commercially released gospel rap album was Stephen Wiley’s “Bible Break” in 1985. Other acts followed, including dc Talk, a band that got together here in Lynchburg, when members were students at Liberty University.

Christian hip hop has continued to play a role on Liberty’s campus.

“They’ve always accepted the Christian hip hop scene pretty eagerly,” says Lewis, a recent graduate.

He and Tankard have worked closely with the university’s Resident Recruitment Office, using the music to reach out to diverse communities.

“We’ve taken Liberty to areas that other ministry teams won’t be able to reach,” says Tankard.

Chris E. Johnson, executive director of resident recruitment, says it’s worked because of “the energy they bring to the stage.

“Their love for the Lord is most important to them.”

Ministry first
Talk to those who make Christian hip hop or are fans of it, and the conversation will inevitably turn to the Cross Movement, a hugely influential group that hit the scene more than 10 years ago.

Tankard, 26, first heard their music when he was at college in Florida. (He later transferred to Liberty.)

“The quality, for Christian hip hop, literally blew me away, and I’ve never been the same since,” he says. “They were like the Wu Tang Clan of Christian hip hop. At that time, they were six or seven deep.”

Tim Longenecker, another local Christian rapper known as Trouble, says groups like the Cross Movement — as well as other artists like Da Truth and KJ-52 — are helping change the face of the industry while remaining true to their faith.

“(Those guys) were solid about the way they approached it: ministry first,” he says. “They had really solid lyrics and are guys who are living it. They built a good foundation, something to trust in.”

“There For You,” a song on Longenecker’s upcoming CD, is about the challenges people face in relationships and was inspired by his wife, Kim.

“When I take her home and kiss her goodnight,” he raps on it, “she’ll have a ring on her finger, just like she should, right?”

“I want the content (of my songs) to be something I can, with good conscience, stand before God and still be able to say … in Heaven,” says Longenecker, 27.

The biggest challenge facing Christian hip hop artists lies along the fine line between ministry and industry, Lewis and Tankard say.

“I want (people) to enjoy what we do … but more importantly, I want them to get the message,” says Tankard, who doesn’t rhyme himself but has his eye on a bigger picture.

In addition to his radio show, Tankard also acts as Lewis’ deejay at live shows and is the founder of Strictly for Jesus Inc., an umbrella organization that currently includes Strictly for Jesus Entertainment and Strictly for Jesus Ministries. He represents several artists, including Lewis, and is interested in behind-the-scenes work: promoting, producing and creating elaborate stage shows.

“We’re using all these entities — the radio shows, the entertainment, the live shows — to bring it all back to discipleship,” Tankard says. “With everything based around that, you can’t lose.”

In the world, not of the world
While their motives are pure, Tankard, Lewis and the others also have to keep in mind that they’re part of the music industry, and with that comes certain expectations.

“We have to try so much harder,” says Lewis.

“Our beats have to be better. Our presentation has to be better. And our image.

“It’s like rollerblading up a hill in an ice storm. It’s a beast. But if you know that is what God calls you to do, no man can refute that.”

From the looks of it, Lewis has the image part down. Compact and muscular, he’s got that rap star swagger and style. But there’s no ego. A pair of dog tags, reading “I Love Jesus,” hangs around his neck.

“I’m always striving to stay humble,” he explains. “With that humility, everything else will fall (into place).”

Since he began seriously rhyming, Lewis has released two CDs and is wrapping up work on his third, “The Merger,” due in August.

He says his music is “for that young teen going into adulthood (realizing that) what I do in these six years is probably going to shape the rest of my life.

His subjects are often serious: “I don’t spit the good news just to get a check,” he rhymes in the opening track of his last album, “Society’s Threat.”

“When it comes to my Christ, my life’s a blank check. You see, G-O-D showed his love for me when he sacrificed his son on Calvary.”

But Lewis isn’t afraid to go for a laugh or two, like when he raps, “like Seinfeld’s mailman, yes, I am a new man.”

Lewis sees inspiration everywhere and carries around a spiral notebook, where he jots down ideas or entire songs. Sometimes, he’ll build an entire track around one beat he hears or one line that gets stuck in his head.

“Anything could inspire me,” Lewis says.

He doesn’t listen to much secular hip hop these days. Neither does Tankard, unless he’s doing research to stay up-to-date with what’s going on with beats and production values.

“The sounds are changing, and we have to change with (them),” Tankard says.

“The name of the game is to present something you’ve created. Be crafty with it, and present something that’s better than the rest.”

Tankard never developed a taste for the secular side of the hip hop world.

“Their role is the business side of it. You know, ‘Get Rich or Die Tryin,’” he says, referring to rapper 50 Cent’s album and movie.

“It gives me a better understanding of my position. We’re supposed to be in the world, but not of the world. We’re in the hip hop world, but not of it.”

Answering the critics
When Tankard first started listening to hip hop, his parents and the leaders of his church didn’t approve.

Hip hop isn’t alone. Even Contemporary Christian Music, which is widely accepted today, has had its critics over the years, and more recent targets have been Christian metal and hard rock.

“(Hip hop) has its negative connotations, but there are a slew of us out here trying to do the positive side,” Tankard says.

His parents eventually came around.

“They saw the young people getting involved, making life changes because of the music they were listening to and the messages (in that music),” Tankard says. “Even if you don’t understand it completely, understand the end result.”

Longenecker, who is also a youth leader at Cornerstone Community Church, says using hip hop can minister to groups of people who don’t like other genres of music.

“The kids are listening to the rap music that’s out there. It’s basically unavoidable in our culture,” he says.

This summer, he has a standing engagement every Tuesday night at the Master’s Inn, a Christian retreat facility in Altavista that offers youth camps.

If you walked in during a recent performance, it would have been difficult to distinguish it from any other concert a teen might attend. After some encouragement from Longenecker, the kids crowd around the stage and start clapping along to the music. A few bounce their heads to the beat, while others sway back and forth with their hands in the air.

At one point, Longenecker looks up into the air while rapping, “You’re everything to me.”

Later, he leads the kids in chanting “Jesus.”

For him, the bottom line is simple: This music can reach people.

“Whether the church wants to embrace it or reject it, it’s still going to have an impact on young people,” he says.

“If they (could) see what kind of ministry these guys are involved in, they could change their attitudes and embrace it, and a lot of good things could come of it.”