Jesus, Jocks, and the Jukebox

I've always had a love for hip-hop. I love everything about it. I love the style, the production, the lyrics, the rhythm, and the culture that surrounds it. It's to the point where it's not just about listening to the music anymore, but it's actually become subject of study.

As a white, Christian, male from the suburbs, people don't quite know what to think about my unorthodox passion. I have people shake their heads at me while saying something like, "You know you're white, right?" There are people who just politely nod their heads and pretend to enjoy the music playing in the background of my car. But sometimes there are people who are genuinely interested in my ramblings, and want to know more about this crazy thing we call hip-hop. I guess I'm writing this in the hopes that those people actually exist an are not a figment of my imagination.

The world of hip-hop is changing. Rappers don't need to say something controversial just to get noticed in the mainstream. Their music doesn't need to shock people anymore. No longer can you only listen to hip-hop if you can relate to NWA's Straight Outta Compton. Rappers no longer make headlines because they were involved in the lastest club shooting, but they're in the headlines for winning awards, starring in movies, and getting a shout-out from the President during a show.

Is rap perfect? Nope. There is still intolerance towards certain people and ideas, there is still the glorifying of violence and misogyny in some of the lyrics, and there's still just a lot of bad hip-hop out there. But every genre of music has it's own set of problems, and the encouraging thing is that there is now diversity in the world of hip-hop to a degree we've absolutely never seen before.

In the next few weeks, I'm going to be touching on these changes here on the blog. I may not change your minds on hip-hop, but I hope to at least unscrunch the look on your face when I tell you that about 80 percent of the music on my ipod is some form of rap or R&B.

I'll leave you with a song off a rapper named Lecrae's newest album, Gravity, which dropped earlier this week. This song is performed with up-and-coming mainstream rap star Big K.R.I.T, who lends his talents for a verse on the track. Do you notice anything different about this song? Hmm...