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.

Rick Warren Headlines This Weekend's Flavor Fest Urban Ministry Conference in Tampa

Rappin’ Rick Warren and The Purpose Driven Posse?

Maybe not. But that doesn’t mean the high-profile pastor of California’s Saddleback Church doesn’t see the validity of using that genre of music to spread the Gospel to members of the hip hop culture. In fact, this weekend he’ll be a keynote speaker at an event called Flavor Fest designed to educate, train, and provide resources to ministers and “urban missionaries” dedicated to that specific community.

It started over ten years ago when Pastor Tommy Kyllonen aka Urban D included a photograph and couple of paragraphs about his Tampa Bay youth group in the liner notes of his first nationally distributed CD. Shortly after The Missin’ Element was released, Kyllonen said he began to receive an influx of calls, e-mails, and on-site visit requests from people around the country who wanted to replicate the success of his hip hop-saturated Crossover Church.

“Eventually it just became overwhelming,” Kyllonen said. “So we sat down with our leadership team and said ‘Man, wouldn’t it be great to just have everyone here at one time where we could provide training and they could see a youth service, a Sunday service, and several all-out Christian hip hop concerts with lights and media done in excellence so they could go back and do that themselves?’ Flavor Fest really just emerged out of that need.”

The conference boasts five separate workshop tracks geared toward church planters, youth workers, outreach coordinators, and artists. Presenters will include the likes of the aforementioned Rick Warren, Efrem Smith, and DC Curry (a Houston-native and former NFL star who is now the Director of Student Ministry at Granger Community Church in Indiana.) Hip hop artists such as Lecrae, KJ-52, and Houston’s Tre-9 will also be conducting panel discussions and training sessions related to their craft and areas of expertise. Kyllonen said he has approximately 400 pre-registrants and expects over 1,500 people at each of the evening’s multi-artist, festival-like concerts.

An added stress to this year’s Flavor Fest planning and organizing was Crossover Church’s move to a new, larger location. There were the expected headaches of construction and decoration and unplanned complications like uninstalled Internet service and minor car accidents involving Kyllonen’s wife Lucy.

“Thankfully she’s is fine and our communication lines appear like they’ll be up and running and allow us to stream everything online at DaSouth.com. We also have over 200 volunteers from our church that are willing to serve and carry much of the burden,” Kyllonen said. “Our God always protects and provides.”

Flavor Fest is taking advantage of their “Decade of Purpose” anniversary theme and holding the event over the weekend of 10/10/10 at Crossover Community Church in Tampa, Florida. Details can be found online at www.flavorfest.org.

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.

More remix videos from DJ Primo

DJ Primo is killing it with more remixes. Clips and details below from his post on DaSouth.com message board. My fave out of these three is the Lecrae "Praying for You" remix.

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I highly suggest that you join the Holy Culture Record Pool, that's where I get most of my acapellas and instrumentals from. If you are serious about DJin' you must consider joining, it's worth the $$$ plus you get stuff that you will not get ANYWHERE else.

OK enough on the record pool check out the videos.

Urban D. - UnOrthodox "Subelo" Reggaeton

Here I mixed UnOrthodox Acapella with Funky's (a Christian Reggaeton Artist)Instrumental "Subelo". The acapella I got from Urban D's UnOrthodox EP and the instrumental came on Funky's CD "Corriendo Para Ganar" Both songs are about the same Beats Per Minute (BPM)



Urban D. - UnOrthodox DJ Primo Reggaeton Remix from DJ Primo on Vimeo.

Urban D. - UnOrthodox "Where You From "

Same thing as the previous video, but this time I mixed the acapella with Oppose's "Where You From" Instrumental (Check out Where You From Part 2 on DJ Morph's International Album it's hot)



Urban D - Un-Orthodox DJ Primo (Where U From) Remix from DJ Primo on Vimeo.

Lecrae - Praying For You "Hands Up"

I got "Praying For You" Acapella from HC record pool, then I mixed it with Kierra "KiKi" Sheard's Instrumental of Hands Up. I believe one of the DJ's at the 1 Accord DJ alliance hooked me up with that. I'm going to say it was DJ LACE.


Lecrae - Praying For You DJ Primo (Hands Up) Remix from DJ Primo on Vimeo.

Vidz: Urban D's "Peter"

Nice story video with footage from "The Passion of the Christ." There also appears to be scenes I don't recognize from that film. If you know the title hit me up.

Betta Photos from the Awards

More photos from the 6th Annual Texas Holy Hip Hop Achievement Awards.

These are courtesy of Scott Alan Photography in Longview, TX.

As you can tell, he's much more talented than me so hit him up at http://www.scottalanphoto.com/ when you need some professional shots for your portfolio.


CY's Circus World Event


B.L.U.E's a Holy Soulja


Killer CY montage


Bless't, Enock, & Gangsta Loc before the music died


S.O.C.O.M. takes it to the dance floor


CY's circus goes wild


Tre9 & BB Jay rise to the top


Sway presents


Ras is the King of the Block


Urban D points to his power source


Gangsta Loc gets gritty


Havikoro breaks it down


It's I-C-E-C-E, 6'3" flowin'....


This chick broke it down


S.O.M. in front of the judge. I hope someone tells me the verdict.


Unknown. (Really, that's his stage name.)


DJ D-Lite takes home one of his many awards