Christian Rap is only going to get you in trouble at an atheist's convention. (I mean, why anyone would want all this jargon taking up space in their heads is beyond us. Then again, why anyone would want all this jargon taking up space in their heads - so they can knowledgeably comment on it - is also a pickle we'd be better off tackling at another time.) Anywhere else, I guarantee you, this Q + A will get you pats on the back - no problem.
People listen to bad messages in music because they lack imagination. It's not their fault. They don't live in a stimulating environment (Even animals prefer being hit to no stimulation at all). Crate Diggers are driven by a desire for understanding the world of music's contours. Being exposed to everything destroys the hype. There's only two kinds of music - good and bad. The subject matter is up to you.
This isn't an unembarrassing Rap record, but Elvis Costello hooking up with The Roots' (and Late Night with Jimmy Fallon's) ?uest Love - who seems as determined as Elvis to hook up with everybody. Together they came up with this threadbare, oh I don't know, authentic fake I Am The Walrus rebellion, from Jamaica, for the masses. Or something. It's hard to tell because it just kinda lays there. I poked it with a stick and found it's not a bad song, if a bit under-produced. In the suburbs, on decks across the country, it has a shot at defining cool for a while. Everywhere else, it will be put out of it's misery quickly, except for the memory it happened. And that, too, will go soon enough. I can see why these two might share long phone calls, but not this.
Both this Rap and it's beat are throwbacks to the 70's tribal style of Gil Scott Heron and The Last Poets. Let's call it the sound of Rap's Community Organizer Contingent. The place where Obama feels deep, NewAgers start dancing (but not listening) and unarmed conservatives nervously start eyeing each other, remembering tales of cannibalism and old Tarzan movies. Not to fear. It's just a beat. Plus Democrats feed on themselves, which is why this guy's talking. You want to hear a message of self-reliance? Well here it is, twisted, on a Monday morning:
