It’s the age-old debate within the Christian music community, should Christian artists and bands preach and glorify God intensely in their lyrics ‘116’ style or should they water down their message a bit to try and reach more people who need to hear the gospel in the secular music scene. This issue reared its head again recently as ThaKid Jopp released the song “My letter To Lecrae” questioning the direction that his music, message and ministry is going. Thanks to the backlash from Lecrae fans, some of which was disrespectful to ThaKid Jopp, he released a follow up song “Letter To Lecrae Fans”. This whole issue has been swirling around in my mind for a while now and lately I’ve been unable to think about anything else which is the catalyst behind this article. This is my response to ThaKid Jopp...
Dear ThaKidd Jopp,
Upon my first few listens to “My letter to Lecrae” I found
myself agreeing 100% with everything you said in your well
crafted, heartfelt lyrics and became convinced that I’d finally
picked a side of this heavily debated subject. There’s no
question that Lecrae’s music has undergone a drastic
change since his “Rebel” album, his lyrical content is
majorly watered down (with the odd exception – “Tell The
World” comes to mind), and he doesn’t want to be called a
Christian rapper but simply a hip-hop artist who approaches
things from a Christian stand point. Shortly after hearing
your song, I shared it on facebook along with a long spiel
including the following, “I'm fully behind what Lecrae's
trying to do but I've always felt a little uneasy about it for
some reason. That being said, this ridiculously deep song
sums up perfectly how I feel about Lecrae's music now. The
whole reason I fell in love with Christian Contemporary
music is that it's today's music with blatant Christian lyrics
praising our Lord and Saviour and Lecrae's earlier albums
‘Real Talk’, ‘After The Music Stops’ & especially ‘Rebel’ sum
that premise up perfectly.” I have since changed my mind,
realised why I’ve always felt a little uneasy about it all and have finally picked a side of this issue, hopefully I’ll be able to explain below...
First, let me share a little about myself so you understand the viewpoint I’m coming from. Despite having been brought up in the church, it was in 2001 when my best friend invited me to a concert by The World Wide Message Tribe that my life was changed forever as that was the night I fell in love with Christian music. Without Christian music to help me through the toughest times of my life that followed, I’m not sure where I’d be now and I highly suspect Christian music may have saved my life. That, combined with the previously mentioned reasoning behind my love for Christian music, caused me to believe that artists should preach and glorify God as much as possible in their music and watering down their lyrics to reach more people was an absolute no-no in my book. Lecrae’s music is the perfect example of that. From a musical and lyrical point of view, I’ll always prefer his earlier albums and will always crave for him to return to that style but that’s just me being a selfish fan, thus the uneasy feeling.
n 2010 a social media campaign was launched to get the single “History Makers” by the famous Christian band Delirious? to the top of the UK mainstream charts for Easter. It finished in the Number 4 spot...
We, as Christians, are called to share the great news and love of Jesus Christ to those who are unsaved. If we were to say that all Christian bands and artists must overtly preach and minister in their music all we’re doing is creating a bubble around us and the secular/sacred divide will continue to grow. We need to break down the barrier between Christians and non-Christians, not recede into our own bubble where, admittedly, we may feel comfortable and safe but ultimately we’re not serving God. In Isaiah 6:8 it says “Here am I. Send me!” and in Matthew 5:16 it states “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.” This may require us to step out of our comfort zone and for us to try something terrifyingly new but, as the lyrics in Chris Tomlin’s song “Our God” state, “And if our God is for us, then who could ever stop us, And if our God is with us, then what could stand against?”.
Lecrae is trying to do exactly that, he’s stepping out in faith to try and reach the lost by being a much more relateable and ‘real’ artist. He’s still the same “116 Unashamed” person that he was in the earlier days of his music career and he still shines his light continuously, he’s just trying to do that into the dark areas of the globe. His lyrical content may not be as Gospel heavy as it was in his earlier albums but his lyrics are still laced with the Gospel, he’s just attempting to do it in a way that’s more attractive to those who need it most. Lecrae addressed the watered down lyrics issue in his verse on Json’s track “2human”,
"First it starts with "You ain't really real no more/
My Letter To ThaKid Jopp
PG. 5