I was talking to a friend of mine who happens to be really into Christian rap. He showed me a bunch of cool artists who had a cool hip-hop sound, but none of them were from Southern California! He showed me a bunch of artists from the Philadelphia area and Atlanta who had great promos and seemed like their marketing team had it all together. But the more I looked at sites like Rapzilla.com, the more I noticed a lack of representation from my area. That led me to think about how Christian rap was represented in my area.
Then I came to a site about a group who's been in the business for more than 20 years: the Gospel Gangstaz. I saw a few of their videos and it was hard-hitting stuff, but their testimony only made things more meaningful. Apparently the members (Mr. Solo and Chille Baby) had been in gangs when they were younger and had survived some pretty crazy stuff. Mr. Solo almost died in a drive-by shooting incident and from then on out, decided to give his life to Christ. Chille Baby was then convinced to give up gang life and form the Gospel Gangstaz. They see their mission as special because they want to take the Gospel back to where they're from and change lives for God.
Even though they've been around for more than 20 years, they're still making music! In fact, they have a single up on Youtube right now and the album is coming sometime this year. The single is "G'd Up" and the video is below (the video contains scenes depicting gangs, guns and some other things that younger eyes should probably not see):
So now I'm on a quest. I need to find more Christian hip-hop from Southern California! If anyone has any ideas on that, make sure to send me some information if you can.
It seems that there is a lot of synth-heavy club music invading the Christian radio charts! It's interesting with the four-on-the-floor beat pulsing with waves of electronica with a hint (or more) of auto tune. I think it's cool, but it shows how often the Christian music scene mirrors secular music.
These elements in music are nearly 25 to 30 years old but are making a comeback thanks to Lady Gaga, Kanye West and a bunch of others I mentioned in the Examiner article that (might have) led you here. So the Christian artists that are taking this road are:
Beckah Shae -- www.beckahshae.com
Shae is a California musician who has an amazing story of how God provided for her most of her life. You have probably heard her song if you listen to Christian radio. Click the link on the left to buy her CD, Life and check out the video below of the title track off of that album.
I think she says "l'chaim" at one point...
Kerrie Roberts -- www.kerrieroberts.com
Kerrie has a song that's been on Christian radio for quite sometime. The song is called "Outcast" and it's about being yourself despite all of the other crazy things your friends might do and knowing to Whom you belong. Check out the official video below.
I'm pretty sure Magnitude from Community makes an appearance at 2:40!
This is the song that's burning up the Billboard Christian charts right now and the album will be out soon. Click on the left to buy the single and check out his promo video for the album below. It's like he's going to be the Christian Usher or something... dude apparently danced for a lot of big names and his moves are pretty cool, as you'll see in the video.
Shonlock, if you see this, I really want to play guitar for your band. I know you have another dude in the video, but if he gets sick or weird (you know how guitarists are), I'm totally in!
Jake Hamilton and the Jesus Culture crew are playing Club Nokia tonight!
Some of my friends are going and they are really pumped for the worship that will be rocking all throughout L.A. Live. I just bought the album and so I will be doing a review in the coming days, but I wanted to let you all know what was happening in the beautiful city of Los Angeles!
So as far as Jesus Culture goes, I've checked out some of the videos and they are cool. Love the big band sound and the artful songwriting. Backed by a passion for Christ in people's lives and it's a winning combination. Check out the teaser for the album and DVD below and then click on the Amazon.com link to purchase if you dig it:
Welcome to my companion blog for the article I write for Examiner.com!
In this blog, I'm going to write about all facets of Christian music. I am a Christian and God has let me be a part of so much and so many varied aspects of Christian music so I set this up just to share some of the things I've experienced and/or thought about music, worship and everything in between. Let me give you a bit of history with myself and Christian music:
I didn't like it at first. Not at all.
Christian music seemed very uncool when I was growing up probably because my parents were really into it. I mean, if your parents did something when you were a kid, you probably thought it was lame, too. I, for one, had too much of the Amy Grant controversy surrounding her "Baby, Baby" single and whether or not she had offended all church-goers by "going mainstream." She could baby, baby whatever she wanted for all I cared.
In light of that, my first album purchased was indeed Michael W. Smith's "Go West Young Man," which was pretty awesome, musically. The title track and "My Place in This World" (which placed as high as number 6 on the Billboard Hot 100 for 1991 -wikipedia.org) still stick with me to this day. However, it would be my last Christian music purchase for some time as I turned into a heavy listener of blues artists. It was my Blues Period (too easy?).
During that time when my Christian music ear lay dormant, I was listening to old Eric Clapton, B.B. King and Stevie Ray Vaughan records while my fellow Jr. High and High School students were listening to the dawning of gangsta rap, namely, Tupac Shakur, Dr. Dre and Snoop (Doggy, as he was known at that time) Dogg.
Then, in college, where most people branch out and try different things, I started hearing interesting things coming out of the, now, very robust, Christian music industry. I was surprised and encouraged to hear big guitars with a lot of distortion and even weirder noises coming from the songs of David Crowder! Truly, Chris Tomlin and David Crowder Band reignited an interest in Christian music, but what's more: Worship music.
I had played guitar all throughout high school and did okay with my four chords that I knew, but I felt like this new worship music something I could actually invest in because it had a great back-beat and interesting instrumentation. This is not to say that Christian music on the whole does not serve a good purpose, but for once, my guitar-centric ears had perked up. This led me to discover more worship artists: Matt Redman, Paul Baloche and Tommy Walker, just to name a few. True, some of these artists have been around for a long time, but in my defense, I am usually late to latch on to new things. When I finally got into Dave Matthews Band, everyone else was seemingly over it.
In short (which this post has not really been), I'm on a journey that involves music and I'm going to be documenting it here and at the Examiner.com (although my Examiner article will be a little more formal). I lead worship at a church and have many different musician friends who are involved in Christian music in one way or another. I look forward to sharing all of that here through a God-centric lens.
Check out below to see what some of my favorite Christian music artists have been up to lately:
This is David Crowder Band's latest video, although it's been out for a while. But the aesthetic is fantastic! It's been featured in a lot of news outlets and it's an amazing story.
This is one of my favorite songs that has been written by Chris Tomlin.
