The Award Show God Shoutout Phenomenon

Author's note:

I posted this online a few years ago when I was helping promote The Fence documentary I worked on with Bobby "Tre9" Herring.

Given the time that has passed and our now diverted passions, I'm honestly not sure if it will ever be completed or released. But given that last night's BET Awards had plenty of this, I figured it would be worthy of resurrection today.



It seems to happen at every award show – so much so that it’s now a frequent punch line. The rapper who rhymes about selling drugs, pulling guns, and sleeping around with your girl gets honored for his work and the first thing out of his mouth is “I want to thank God.”

Why would someone promote and sell a lifestyle that appears to be so sinful if they are really trying to follow the ways of Jesus? How do they think their God receives such words of gratitude?

Is the “spiritual/Jesus track” at the end of the album a reflection of their true relationship with the Creator or something they tack onto the record to make their momma proud?

This year, we’ve already come through the Grammys, BET, and MTV Awards where such sentiments were no doubt proclaimed from the stage. There's also been the Dove and Stellar Awards where Christian music artists most certainly did the same thing.

Watch this exclusive clip from The Fence documentary series that explores these topics through interviews with people like Houston rap figures Paul Wall and Madd Hatta (97.9 KBXX) as well as comedian D-Ray and Christian rappers R-Swift and Urban D.

How would you respond to their stories, explanations, and reasons for this “Award-Show-God-Shoutout” phenomenon if you were in front of them? Are there valid reasons behind such sentiments?

Leave your comments here and let me know what you think.

Vid: The Award Show God Shoutout Phenom

We released a new trailer for "The Fence" documentary we've been working on for a while. I actually loosely edited this one (selected the clips, made the cuts, and put them in order) and another (more talented editor) gave it the polish.

Here's the tease and link:

It seems to happen at every award show – so much so that it’s now a frequent punch line. The rapper who rhymes about selling drugs, pulling guns, and sleeping around with your girl gets honored for his work and the first thing out of his mouth is “I want to thank God.”

Why would someone promote and sell a lifestyle that appears to be so sinful if they are really trying to follow the ways of Jesus? How do they think their God receives such words of gratitude?

Read the rest and watch the video here.

Photo: Ras in the studio

Tuesday (Dec 30) I was at 4930 Studios with s/ave working on The Fence documentary. We just walked in from a great talk lunch at Chilis and caught the legendary Lil' Ras in the booth recording a track for Much Luvv's upcoming sports-themed album.

This was my first pic on the new iPhone so I was doubly geeked.

Mainstream rap blog covers David Banner "Gangsta rapper Jesus" clip

Rizoh at The Rap Up blog was kind enough to cover the Rick Ross/David Banner "Jesus would've been a gangsta rapper" interview from "The Fence." It's a mainstream hip hop site so it should be interesting to see their readers' thoughts.

Feel free to stop by and drop them a line there too.

Rep Christ in all ways if you decide to visit.