CCM x CHH

Why didn't hip hop take over the CCM charts in rap's golden age?

I hope everyone reading this newsletter has heard our second episode of season two by now. It was a lot of fun putting this episode together. From the remixed theme music, to the very thorough research of Dr. Jonathan Calvillo, to the unvarnished stories of scraping by on tour from Soup The Chemist, there was a lot to love. But my favorite part was even simpler than that. It was going back and listening to old holy hip hop tracks that I didn’t know I still remembered (like “Bible Break” and “R-r-r-rock It Right”). The good rhythms and rhymes still hit the pleasure centers of the brain the same way decades later.

I did have a moment of pause while listening to some of the lyrics of these old school Christian hip hop tracks. There are a lot of ideas I don’t subscribe to around spiritual warfare, prosperity gospel, purity culture, proselytizing, homophobia and more. I was thinking- maybe this is harmful and should be avoided. Then this afternoon the weather was nice, our kid was away on a playdate, and my wife wanted to listen to some classic Jay-Z. Of course, you don’t need me to tell you the music was good. But listening to the lyrics, I picked up on a lot of ideas I ALSO don’t subscribe to around misogyny, sexual assault, violent crime and more. I guess if I can appreciate the music while compartmentalizing the lyrics for Jay-Z, couldn’t I do the same for Soup The Chemist?

Anyhow, I hope you liked the episode. I’d love to hear your thoughts on how hip hop fits or doesn’t fit into the world of CCM.

Episode three will be out on Wednesday- and sooner for our Patreon supporters. It’s the first of two episodes on purity culture- one focused on girls and one focused on guys, just like the would do it in youth group. Nikki Leonti is our main guest. Perhaps you saw her on America’s Got Talent? Or maybe you saw when Prince jumped on stage with her to play guitar? Even if you don’t know who she is, you’ll be moved by her story- and by the story of a Christian music fan who tried to tell the truth about sex happening on her Christian college campus in the school newspaper and caught hell for it.

I hope you listen- and tell ten friends about it!

Thanks,

Andrew

PS- Our guest in Episode 1 of Season 2, Jennifer Knapp, has released her new version of her old album, Kansas 25.