Article Appeared In
SERIES:
SING PRAISE
Righteous rappers bridging
genres
By SONIA MURRAY
Atlanta Journal-Constitution Staff Writer
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Contemporary
gospel music almost couldn't help but be hip-hop.
If its artists were serious
about reaching young people, it had to at least consider coming to terms with
the genre that clearly has them in its grasp.
If it didn't want to become
stagnant, it was only smart to make room for fresh blood -- meaning younger artists.
And it's a pretty safe bet
that most contemporary rock, R&B -- and, yes, gospel acts -- grew up with
the almost 30-year-old music.
Sounds pretty simple
doesn't it?
However, the bridging of
rap and righteous has been anything but.
Kirk Franklin, the nation's
biggest crossover contemporary gospel star, explains: "What all the drama
boils down to is this -- rap is so negative to so many people. And gospel is
positive. Inspirational.
"So when people just
see the words, or hear the words 'gospel rap' together it's like an oxymoron.
It's like saying someone is a nice pimp. Or a positive Klansman."
Still, in the inimitable
words of Miami rapper Trick Daddy, "God's for the thugs too."
And if you're really in the
business of saving souls, who better to splash some holy water on?
•
Hezekiah Walker, a
37-year-old pastor and performer known to wear diamond-studded necklaces and
communicate via two-way pager, remembers the struggle he had when he started
his ministry in 1994 in Brooklyn.
"I was welcoming the
hip-hop generation as they were, in the jeans, jewelry, all that," he
says. "And the church community, being so focused on getting themselves
into heaven, often don't look outside the church's four walls. And when they
did, some of them turned their noses down at those same people in the baggy
jeans and jewelry that I was letting in.
"But I finally made
peace with the fact hip-hop was about a group of people, a whole generation.
And there was no way I could just count out that whole generation. So I opened
my arms and started building."
A young Howard University
student saw Walker perform at a homecoming concert. He reached out to the head
of the Love Fellowship Tabernacle years later when one of his best friends was
murdered.
That young man was Sean
"P. Diddy" Combs. Now the entertainment
mogul, along with often X-rated rappers Lil' Kim and
Foxy Brown, considers Walker his spiritual adviser, earning him the title
"The Pastor of Hip-Hop" in both rap magazine profiles and features in
mainstream newspapers.
Franklin, on the other
hand, is probably hip-hop's best-known ambassador to the gospel world.
The Texas producer and
songwriter has sold millions of records fashioning very upright and traditional
praise singles like his breakthrough hit "Why We Sing" and "Now
Behold the Lamb."
He's also been spotted in
the same Burberry fashions as rap stars Bow Wow and Baby. And he isn't beyond
incorporating a Parliament-Funkadelic sample
("Stomp") or an oft-used rouser at rap concerts. ("All my real
live people throw your hands up!")
"What people miss is
that this is more about culture than the music," Franklin says. "It's
a way of life. There's no way I could be a part of that era and not be
influenced by that music. I was raised on [rappers] Grandmaster Flash, Jazzy Jeff,
Fat Boys, Kool Moe Dee, Eric B and Rakim."
And yet in the decades
since Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five recorded party songs like
"Freedom" and "Flash to the Beat," the music has splintered
into far less innocuous subgenres such as gangsta rap -- with gunslinging,
drug dealing and misogyny at its core -- and material rap, the rhyme du jour of Combs, Brown and others known to detail the
labels on their clothes and the luxury cars (supposedly) in their garage.
"I don't agree with
hip-hop morally," Franklin quickly adds. "But culturally I identify
with the fashion, the energy, the beats and so many other things about
it."
•
Hair cornrowed
and singing songs titled "It's on Like That" and " 'Bout a Thang," California singer-songwriter-producer Tonéx could easily pass for any stereotypical hip-hop star.
To the gospel artist, however, he's simply helping people see what he believes
are the two musical genres' commonalities.
"So much of hip-hop
comes from gospel by way of the blues, also a spoken-word tradition," Tonéx says.
"Hip-hop has also been
a siren for us. It's kind of a friendly community radio station talking about
current issues, as relevant, contemporary gospel should be."
Fellow hip-hop-inspired
gospel vocalist Deitrick Haddon agrees and offers even
more reasons for their intermingling.
"The beauty of gospel
music is that its truth can flow into any type of culture," the Detroit
artist says. "The message can come through over any beat, from any
messenger."
Indeed, beyond the often
perfunctory "First I'd like to thank my Lord Jesus Christ" that
rappers open with at award shows, praise is coming out of some unexpected
places. Witness Missy "Misdemeanor" Elliott concluding her second rap
album with a stirring gospel outro; or gruff rhymer DMX bookending his albums
in worship. Even Combs, with Pastor Walker's assistance, has a long-put-off
gospel CD in the works.
A rapper whose primary
message is gospel, however, has yet to make it to national stardom -- but Atlantans are doing their part to launch one.
For some seven years now,
first in Baltimore and now at V-103, announcer Frank Ski has purposefully
played the Haddons and Franklins alongside the J. Los
and the Ushers, giving gospel artists often relegated to either AM or low-rated
stations exposure on the city's top morning show. (Atlanta is the only Top 40
market in the country to have a successful FM gospel station in Praise 97.5.)
There is an Atlanta-based
Holy Hip Hop company that produces a syndicated radio show airing in 41 markets
(though not, ironically, in Atlanta itself), a TV show and a 3-year-old awards
show held last January at EarthLink Live.
And every Sunday from 7 to
10 a.m. the "Crunk 4 Christ" crew on Hot
107.9 pushes Jay-Z and Eve aside for local gospel rap acts like Sonny Faith of Vinings or Platinum Souls, a burgeoning duo whose members
have actually been able to make a living from their music.
"Sometimes we get
calls from cats saying they're just coming from the club," says James
"Boogie Blessed" Breedlove, who along with Dimitrius
"Meet Meet" Stevens and Eboni
Elektra make up the "Crunk 4 Christ"
announcers. "They're like, 'Yeah I'm sitting on my back porch, smoking a
joint, high, drunk and the whole nine, and something y'all said just touched
me.'
"I'm proud of that.
It's like we've found a way with this gospel rap to reach all kinds of people.
Thugs, everybody."
Somewhere, a prescient,
gold-toothed smile should be spreading across Trick Daddy's face.
© Copyright
2002. Atlanta
Journal Constitution.