Trend: Christian Consumer Reporting

I've noticed a trend recently of people visiting multiple churches and Christian events in order to review them in sort of "Consumer Reports" fashion.

A few examples:

• Rapture Ready! Adventures in the Parallel Universe of Christian Pop Culture by Daniel Radosh


• The Houston Chronicle's "That Stranger In the Pew" blog


• Jason Boyett's "6 Denominations in 6 Weeks" article @ Relevant Magazine.com


• Matt Taibbi's "Jesus Made Me Puke" article in Rolling Stone magazine

I'm not sure how I feel about this.

On one hand, it probably does provide some valuable feedback to churches and "shoppers" about the visitor/outsider experience at their places of worship.

On the flip side, it commercializes something sacred and allows us to enter the consumer mindset of "What can you do for me?" My guess is that's not what Christ intended for his bride.

Your thoughts?

Promo: MidWest Music Fest / Gospel Rap Helps Save Darfur

Here are a few plugs for stuff you should know about:



DoubleEdge Sword Records (S.O.C.O.M., JayMay, Unknown, etc) are throwing their third annual MidWest Music Fest this weekend in Colorado Springs. Da' T.R.U.T.H. headlines.

Find out more here.

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Several gospel rap artists are contributing to the effort to Save Darfur.

JustParadox is heading up the collation to record a fund raising compilation album and reports that he has commitments and tracks from Minister RMB, Sivion (of DeepSpace 5), Ruslan (of theBREAX), David 2.0 (of Nureau Ink), CY, Mr Ren, Propaganda (of Tunnel Rats), Poems (of LA Symphony), Sojourn (of Future Shock), AppleJaxx (of Nureau Ink), Secta7, Von Won, Jin (The Emcee), Dialect (of Raiderz Of The Lost), Conflict, Tre-9 (0f Much Luvv Records), ICECE, C-Micah, Tha Heata, Mizz Reality, Sean P (of Bone Circus), Sacred Apparel Clothing, CitySlickaz Entertainment, Name Brand, Afaar, NomiS, Regg Henry, John Orozco, Dizzy Kidd, Dj Clutch & others.

Check it out on MySpace here.

News: UGA changes leadership / Gospel rap hits Allhiphop.com / Wade-O blog

A couple newsworthy stories hit the wires today.

- Curtis Jermany is stepping down from the Urban Gospel Alliance (UGA) to focus on his GZ Underground promotional/marketing company.

Curtis is my dude and has always had a place for my writing in his U-Zone Magazine. He's also trying to find investors for that so it can keep running.

Read more about this change here and keep Curtis, UGA, and U-Zone in your prayers.

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- And mainstream rap site Allhiphop.com caught wind of holy hip hop and has a little feature on it here.

Kind of the same ole, same ole ("Wow, there IS an alternative! Rappers DO believe in God!") we see pop up in the media every few years, but I appreciate any and all coverage the movement can get.

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- Finally, my man DJ Wade-O has launched a blog over at Illspot.net. Be sure to check it out often because he's dropping info and great links on the regular.

Ras & Nuwine's Gospel Radio Interview

Photo by Sketch the Journalist

Yo, are the Good News Bad Boys back at it again?

Could be. Last night Nuwine/Wine-O and Lil Raskull/Ras were interviewed on Houston's Praise 92.1 FM's "Street Gospel" show with DJ Wiz and Crazy C/DJ Revelation.

During the hour-long show, Ras and Wine reminisced about their early days of ministry and discussed the impact of Pimp C's words on Nuwine's desire to return to evangelism.

Listen to the interview here.

Props to Paradox for the link.

2008 GMA Award Winners - No real surprises

No real surprises here (based on the organization's past) for categories of interest to the HHH-fan except for the fact that Toby Mac (who has roots in the genre via dc talk and Gotee Records) won Artist of the Year.

List of winners

Rap/Hip Hop Recorded Song of the Year

"Name Droppin'"; Bone-Appetit Servin" Up Tha Hits; T-Bone; Rene F. Sotomayor, Teak Underdue, Dee Underdue; Flicker Records

Rap/Hip Hop Album of the Year

Group 1 Crew; Group 1 Crew; Christopher Stevens, Andy Anderson; Fervent Records

(They have Grits listed underneath this one too but I assume it is a mistake. Probably a bad "cut-n-paste" from the list of nominees.)

It's a shame that LA Symphony couldn't get their "One Dove."

Saints Gone Wild!

Really?!?

Nothing like naming your ministry event after a series of soft-core porn videos of underage girls.

Cosby raps / Bless't spins true "Dope Tales"

I've heard rumblings about Bill Cosby releasing a rap album for a while. Seems like it is a reality now.

Read more about it here.

I applaud him for doing it though I doubt it will find an audience.

However, if he can promise to bring the funk of that Fat Albert intro song I'm probably in.

Photo by Sketch the Journalist

If Cos needs some help, he should call my man Bless't. Dude's new ulta-real "Dope Tales" track is on fiyah!

I love the use of the Pimp C interview at the beginning and the loop of that line from Tre9's "Hands Up" song off The Farmer.

Check it out at his revamped MySpace page here.

Billy Graham rocks gospel graf?

'Tis true. This week the front page of the official website for the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association featured a spoken word and graffiti video.

Adding to its dopeness is the fact that the dude behind the turntables and mask in the clip is none other than fellow Texan and DayStar Tribe member DJ Promote.

Check out the video below and read more about the process here.

The Future of Christian Music / Braille's "IV" in a week / Bushwick Bill @ SxSW

Stuff you need to read/buy/view:

Christian music vet Charlie Peacock waxes prophetic with an essay about what the future of this faith music will look like. Read it here.

Braille Brizzy's next album "The IV" drops one week from today and looks to be a certified banger. Dude is previewing every single song from the disc on his MySpace for the next seven days. Run over and take a listen.



And finally, peep this nice quickie interview of Bushwick Bill from the SxSW fest last month. Keep your ears open for shouts to my boys Tre9 and S.O.M.

April Fool's Ain't No Joke

Did you hear the one about the white geek from Florida who made silly rap songs about Mountain Dew and mullets and prayers to Eminem and helped lots and lots of youth group kids know more about Jesus?

Just kidding!!!

Oh wait, no I’m not. That’s actually KJ-52’s story and it’s one I thought about this week when I ran across Reach Records’ “April Fool’s Day” joke that they had signed an all-female rap group called Verbs: 31.

What struck me was that it didn’t seem all that funny. I mean, is it really that far-fetched to believe one of holy hip hop’s most on-point labels would be able to find a trio of females who know how to rock a mic with spiritual relevance?

Digging into the story a little deeper, I don’t honestly believe that was their intended message. However, it was the first one that popped into my mind upon just seeing the headline and press release.

I think the humor was supposed to be in the actual identities behind the pseudo group.

Apparently they were spouses and label friends of many of the Reach regulars. And if they’re anything like my wife they may not even enjoy hip hop - in which case it would be funny to see them pretend to be MCs. But that inside joke doesn’t play the same to those of us not in the know.

There was one chuckle line in the press release when a Verbs: 31 member was asked about the origin of the group’s name.

" Just like the 116 Clique has a cool scripture to use to promote their music, we wanted to communicate that God desires to see his ladies rep him in character and virtue. We wanted to use 1 Peter 3:3-4 but that doesn't really flow as well as Proverbs 31."

However, the caricature wasn’t exaggerated enough to make the parody obvious. And given that the image of a female hip hopper in mainstream culture is equal to a stripper with a microphone – wouldn’t a talented Christian alternative, particularly from a company like Reach, be a good thing? I certainly wouldn’t laugh at it.

So shouts out to ladies like Elle Roc, Tragedy, Elsie, Octavia Harris and the whole Christian Female Rap Network who are doing this thing for real and helping queens all over the country realize that being a Christian woman in the hip hop culture really ain’t no joke.