MICHAEL TRAN/FILMMAGIC
THE COOL CHRISTIAN
rae has been trying to break out of
what he calls the “Christian ghetto,” to some success. He was part
of last year’s Rock the Bells tour
with Wu-Tang Clan, Common,
Black Hippy and J Cole; has become a regular guest on BET’s 106
& Park and has recorded songs
with artists such as Pete Rock, Big
Krit and Chaka Khan. One BET
executive compared his first listen to Lecrae to the first time he
heard Kanye West.
Lecrae’s attempt to infiltrate
popular culture while retaining a
clearly Christian message is a difficult task, but he embodies a larger
HUFFINGTON
03.09.14
trend inside Western Christianity. Lecrae is one of many modern
evangelicals who have rejected the
path set by the combative “Moral
Majority” culture warriors of the
1980s, and instead embraced an
assimilation into the mainstream
and its formative institutions, hoping to shape it from within.
Lecrae doesn’t want to forsake
his beliefs. He wants to take his
message with him. But some of
Lecrae’s fans have already accused
him of selling out, because he appears on stage with other rappers
who are non-Christians, or records songs with them.
As Lecrae said last summer, a
few hours before he took the stage
at the Creation Festival, one of the
Lecrae
Moore at
the Grammy
Awards in
2013, after
winning
best Gospel
album for his
2012 record
Gravity.