It must be a frustrating time for CHH or Christians doing hip hop, it just must be. Why? Because once again someone has dropped an album using elements and themes of “Christian” music and it is getting praise from mainstream media outlets. For those blissfully unaware, Chance the Rapper dropped a mixtape Coloring Book on May 13th. Before that he was on Jimmy Fallon’s show where he performed his song “Blessing” and the hook “blessings keep falling in my lap” is nothing short of infectious. Chance had a choir with him (this will definitely be a theme you experience on the tape), and had some rocks meant to symbolize the walls of Jericho falling down. Chance seems to really be doing something different and is receiving accolades, but the only problem is, people have been doing it for years.
Armond Wakeup summarizes the plight up quite nicely with this line: “They demonstrate the Bible it’s alluring, we do it and it’s corny.” Chance’s Coloring Book has been called by Rolling Stone and slate.com a “Gospel-Rap Masterpiece” and Slate went on to call it the “first” of such. To be fair and give them the benefit of the doubt, perhaps they are referencing Chance’s tape in light of Kanye West’s The Life of Pablo. If you remember, Kanye said his album was “a Gospel album with a whole lot of cursing on it” and most people were unconvinced. So Chance, commonly referred to as Kanye’s protégé, did him one better and actually delivered something Gospel-esque, depending on who you ask. If one means “Gospel” in terms of musical style, then he absolutely delivered. However, if you mean “Gospel” in terms of preaching the Good News of Jesus Christ, then Chance may leave you disappointed. What is crazy is all this praise these artists are getting praise for infusing Gospel and positive messages in their music, as if there wasn’t an entire subgenre of artists that have been doing this for some decades. That would have to be frustrating to CHH artists who have been grinding it out for some time now.
This isn’t the first time Chance has mentioned God or his relationship. Many may remember when he tweeted one Sunday that he was going to church to give up cigarettes and then quoted Philippians 4:13. Chance The Rapper’s tape has interesting lines like “ they want four minute songs/you need a four hour praise dance performed every morn” and had a choir sing “how Great is our God” for about three minutes before he and Jay Electronica rapped about how great God is. Chance is really fleshing out life and his relationship with God on a few of these tracks and that is to be commended. Depending on where your convictions lie, you may want to check it out; it seems as if God may really be doing some things in the mainstream. When you see things like this, it could be a good litmus test of artists’ motivation and reason for making music. You have to realize when Christians do stuff we are over the top, but when those not necessarily tied to the Kingdom do “Gospel” it’s romanticized. It seems like it will be that way for the foreseeable future, but that’s all good. All we can do is continue to churn out great music, don’t get envious, and build up the Kingdom. We may not understand what is happening, but we have to trust that it is part of God’s plan and continue to be faithful with what he has given us to do. After all, we are all living examples of “blessings keep falling in my lap.”
