Artists and Style
See also: List of Christian hip hop and rap artistsSometimes faith may be evident in part of a song or other times an entire song or album may focus on Christian beliefs. Examples include MC Hammer's No. 2 single "Pray"; Richie Rich and his first single "Don't Do It"; many of Tupac's lyrics and his first posthumous record, The Don Killuminati: The 7 Day Theory, the image of Tupac nailed to a cross pinned him as a hip hop martyr; and even recent hip hop/rap artists like Jay-Z with Kingdom Come, DMX with "Walk With Me Now and You'll Fly With Me Later", Nas with God's Son and Kanye West with "Jesus Walks". However, these artists, although they may profess to be Christians, are not generally considered to be part of the Christian hip hop movement.
Others, such as Lecrae, BB Jay, KJ-52, Trip Lee, Tunnel Rats, LPG, Brethren, Manafest, GRITS and Skribbal, choose to be simply hip hop artists who are expressing themselves since they are Christian. This also relates to the argument similar in Christian rock and other Christian music genres where some artists welcome being called Christian artists while others would not want it to be labeled as "Christian music" so to not tie them down to the Christian music market. Others see themselves somewhere in the middle, who may constantly acknowledge their faith in songs but are not typically considered Christian hip hop artists and see themselves as both preachers and entertainers and welcome acceptance in both the Christian music market as well as crossing over into secular markets.
While many notable studios and artists share influence in holy hip hop, no one style dominates. Christian hip hop features all conventional hip hop styles, such as Midwest, West Coast (T-Bone) and East Coast (BB Jay), and Dirty South (Pettidee) and King Wes.
Christian hip hop is also embraced and performed by UK artists such as Melvillous, and Simply Andy & Just C. The GL Live music event 2010, held in the UK saw a fusion of Christian rappers both American and British celebrate their faith together whilst demonstrating their own unique styles.
Read more about this topic: Christian Hip Hop
Famous quotes containing the words artists and/or style:
“Few artists can afford artistic temperament.”
—Mason Cooley (b. 1927)
“The authoritarian child-rearing style so often found in working-class families stems in part from the fact that parents see around them so many young people whose lives are touched by the pain and delinquency that so often accompanies a life of poverty. Therefore, these parents live in fear for their children’s future—fear that they’ll lose control, that the children will wind up on the streets or, worse yet, in jail.”
—Lillian Breslow Rubin (20th century)