Rawsrvnt cast on Donald Trump/Omarosa reality dating show - Premiers Thus, June 17

In a move that was bound to have message boards buzzing, Florida worship-hop star Rawsrvnt has been cast on the Donald Trump-produced Omarosa reality dating show called The Ultimate Merger that premiers on the TV One network at 9pm ET on Thursday, June 17.

I caught up with Raw recently to ask about the show and worked our conversation into an article that appeared in the Belief section of the Houston Chronicle last Friday.

Here's your teaser and link to the rest:

A Donald Trump-produced reality dating show with previous The Apprentice villain Omarosa as its focus doesn't seem like a place where you'd find a Christian rapper as a contestant.

Then again, it's probably the exact reason one was added to the cast. We're talking about it here, aren't we?

Yes indeed, 30-year-old Christian “worship-hop” artist Eddy Puyol, who raps under the name Rawsrvnt (pronounced raw servant), is one of 12 eligible bachelors looking to win Omarosa's heart in The Ultimate Merger, which begins airing Thursday on TV One Network.

The show also will feature 90's platinum R&B artist Al B. Sure and Akon protégé Ray Lavender.

Puyol was approached by the show's producers, who searched the Internet and contacted Christian hip-hop media outlet Rapzilla.com to suggest possible participants.

After initial hesitation, Puyol began to view the show as an opportunity to present a more accurate image of what it means to be a follower of Jesus than the one he believes is portrayed in mass media.

Read the rest and leave at comment here.

And here's the promo vid:

Worship-hop

As heard on Episode #79 of the Wade-O Radio Show:

The other night I had a conversation with my good friend s/ave that sparked me to both thought and action.

You need to know about s/ave.

He’s the dude from Heaven’s Hip Hop Magazine that used to write the “Real Criticisms” page that really took cats to task about the quality of their Christian rap. He later started ONEMIND Magazine which begat om95.com which eventually turned into DaSouth.com.

All of that to say, he’s a guy that LIVED and BREATHED holy hip hop.

Now, he doesn’t even listen. Instead, he’s found his heart in modern praise and worship music.

But back to our convo the other night - as usual, I tried to get our talk to at least touch on gospel rap. I asked if he had even tuned in to anything lately and he said no.

A major reason: not enough worship in those rhymes.

Which got me to thinking, surely he’s missing out. I know for a FACT that guys ARE putting holy praise on their albums…. Right?

So I had an idea. I was going to make slave a mixtape of some of the best worship rap joints I’ve got in my iTunes library.

But my search came up with several surprises.

To be honest, it proved a little more challenging than I expected. You see, once I started to apply a standard of pure worship to my list, it kept getting smaller and smaller.

It’s a definition I got from blog written by shai linne a while back. In it, he noted there’s a difference between lyrics that say we’re going to praise God and actually praise God. It’s like bragging to my friends about how often I tell my wife I love her and then never actually speaking those words to her face.

Unfortunately, a lot of our gospel rap is the former instead of the latter.

I also noted that in the worship-type tracks I DID find, several names, camps, and labels came up multiple times. Trip Lee’s last project had several vertically-focused songs. Ambassador’s got a list too. I encourage you to check your own digital library to see what you can find.

So, am I advocating a wholesale switch from topical, evangelistic, or social issue-based lyrics from Christian MCs? Absolutely…. Not.

But, I am saying my soul could sure use another “Sinner’s Prayer” project from MG! the Visionary, “In Rare Form” from Rawsrvnt, or simply a few more worship joints from my favorite artists to balance out their albums.

“…Out of the mouth the heart speaks,” right?

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Wanna joint this conversation in greater depth?

Check out s/ave's Worship-hop Blog.