Jesus Underground, Allah Mainstream

The reason for this article is to bring to light the similarities in hip hop. Why does one expression of hip hop has to be put into a box when the other form of expression can get mainstream love when in fact it all falls under one umbrella...good hip hop music. The idea for this whole discussion came to me after reading about a U.K. emcee by the name of Jahaziel receiving an award for best Gospel during the MOBO Awards which is the U.K.'s version of the BET Awards. What got under my skin is that this dude is an emcee, period. He doesn't sing praise and worship like Donnie McClurkin or Marvin Sapp. Those guys are Gospel singers. Jahaziel spits the same 16 bars that you would hear from any other rapper today. But yet, he has to be put in the gospel category simply because he says the name Jesus. Now why in the world would an emcee be in the same nomination category as a Yolanda Adams or a Kirk Franklin when they don't sing at all? How come this brotha couldn't be in the same category as a Lil' Wayne or Jeezy battling for the best hip hop artist title? You wouldn't dare see Nas or Talib Kweli in the R&B, Gospel or Alternative Rock section of an award show and the reason why is because their music doesn't fall under any of those categories by any means. That would be insane and totally in error. And the reason that would be an error is because these dudes are straight hip hop, plain and simple. There's no if's, and's or butts about it. If Nas, Talib, RZA and Rakim can be recognized as respected emcees in hip hop then how come emcees that proclaim the name of Christ can't be respected and looked at in the same light?

Now I'm not talking about just any old Tom, Dick and Harry Christian that wants to be a rapper because we all know that there's some wack Christian artists out here. I'm talking about true to heart emcees that can hang with the best of anybody that's in the mainstream right now. To me it seems like the artists that express their Christian faith on a bangin' track still get hated on. But when you hear somebody reppin' Allah on a nice beat they're still accepted by the mainstream audience. This whole segregated hip hop thing baffles me for real. When you segregate a group of emcees simply because they express what they feel then to me you violate the common rule of hip hop which is to bring people of all races and backgrounds together and enjoy this music.

I was watching an episode of Kool Moe Dee's "I Am Hip Hop" panel discussion and Grandmaster Caz hit the nail on the head when he said that today you don't have options in hip hop like you did back in the day. If you didn't like X-Clan then you wouldn't listen to X-Clan, plain and simple. But you wouldn't dare say that X-Clan ain't hip hop just because you weren't feeling their music. They brought a style and awareness to their culture that's still a major contribution to hip hop history whether you like them or not. When hip hop stop having options that's when the unity left. Back in the day total strangers would become good friends because of their love for hip hop and one would expose the other to who they're listening to in their headphones. Before Yo MTV Raps or Rap City told you who Cypress Hill was somebody had to expose you to their music. Before you knew about this nine man crew out of Staten Island somebody had to tell you to go get this album called "Enter the 36 Chambers" by the Wu-Tang Clan. Now between the X-Clan, Cypress Hill and the Wu, I would say that hip hop heads all over had options on which artist or group they would spend their money on. Who cares if you weren't as pro black like X-Clan was, you still bumped their music because it was dope to you. Who cares if you didn't smoke weed like Cypress Hill, you still bumped it because they were dope to you. Who cares if you didn't understand how the Wu brought the Chinese culture into hip hop, you still bumped it because you thought RZA was the illest producer to come out of the NY since Pete Rock.

Today we don't have that type of "agree to disagree" standard in hip hop. If you're not sounding like T-Pain or Lil Wayne then you're pretty much slept on. Another way to get slept on is if you profess the name of Christ on your song or throughout your album regardless of how dope you may be lyrically. But if you rep Allah on a track it seems to go over well with the general public and mainstream media. Case and point, on the Wu's current album, "8 Diagrams", the RZA spit a whole song by himself giving praise to Allah called "Sunlight". On Common's previous album, "BE", he had a cut called "Faithful" where he talks about what if God was a female would you still be faithful to him. On Rakim's classic hit, "Move The Crowd", he spits a lyric where he states, "all praise due to Allah and that's a blessing". Now mind you, even if you don't agree with what these artists believe in you still accepted them as dope emcees and bumped their music anyway. All I'm saying is, why can't emcees that happen to be Christian get the same love? What it is about the name Jesus that stirs up so much controversy opposed to Allah?

One person told me that Christian emcees can't get the mainstream attention because it's imposing a religion on the listener. I totally disagree with that to the highest degree. Hip hop is about expressing who you are through a musical art form and that includes what you believe in spiritually. To me Hip hop is a city and within that city you have a whole bunch of different neighborhoods that make up that city. In one neighborhood you may have the militant hip hop which is represented by a group like Public Enemy. In another neighborhood you may have the conscious hip hop that is represented by a Common, Mos Def or Pharoahe Monch. And in another neighborhood you'll have the Christian hip hop that is represented by a Braille, Sivion or Da Truth. What made hip hop fun back in the day is the fact that you had all these different rhyme styles and you accepted it because one; the production was hot and two; the artist could spit. Now if you were tough lyrically that overrode what you rhymed. If you could spit nice then you were accepted and people would talk about you to point you would eventually find an audience for your subject matter. All I'm saying is how come the Christian emcees can't get that same respect like Arrested Development, X-Clan and Public Enemy did back in the day? All three groups were diverse but shared one thing in common...expression through hip hop music. If you're a true hip hop head and you come across someone that is nice lyrically then you have to give respect where respect is due, period. Regardless of what the subject matter is, whether you agree with them or not.

I'm not an artist but I will protect hip hop from being tainted by the segregation that's going on today. Let's get back to respecting emcees that are nice on the mic. Open your heart to receive something different today. Don't you want options when you go shopping? I will fight to protect the unity hip hop brings to those who love it only because I Still Love H.E.R.

Written By
Moeski

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