CHH artist Jaylafé recently wrote an article tackeling color in CHH. Check it out:

Is Race an Issue in Christian Hip Hop?  A White Rapper’s Perspective.

As a Christian hip hop artist, I’ve often asked myself this question: If my content, delivery and music were exactly the same, but I were African American (or Hispanic, or…), would things be different?  If I weren’t white, would people listen to my music with different ears, with different filters?  Would they view me differently?  The idealist in me says, “No, they wouldn’t; the truth you talk about would overcome any differences.”  But the realist in me knows otherwise.  There’s no doubt that people would listen to my music differently if I weren’t white.  With the endless histories and associations fixed to different ethnicities in America, I wouldn’t doubt for a second that an African American version of me would be received differently than the current version of me (check the picture above for reference).  And I’m not necessarily saying this is a bad thing.  I’m saying that race is an issue in Christian hip hop, and it’s hardly talked about because of its sensitivity and complexity.  There are so many layers to the issue, and I hope I can help bring some of them to light. 

First, let’s telescope out from the issue of race in Christian hip hop and talk about hip hop in general.  In hip hop, the white rapper has always been a sort of odd phenomenon, a privileged “other” figure never truly finding an niche in a movement borne out of dealing with societal ills.  And I definitely fit that category.  I would be considered “Anglo-Saxon,” meaning that much of my ancestry is English and German.  I also have some French and Irish in there somewhere, helping round out my Western European Variety Pack status.  Needless to say, I come from a radically different past than most of those who helped originate the hip hop culture in the Bronx during the late 70s.  Hip hop’s original voices were almost exclusively African American, and rightfully so. 

Over time, the white rappers who did rise into hip hop prominence never seemed to do so with the same seriousness and weight of the first voices which spoke from places of social inequity.  The door for the white rapper’s acceptance in hip hop, in the earlier days, was the goofy, party door.  Meaning, the idea that there could be a white Tupac, with the same message and cultural relevance, would have been nearly inconceivable at the time; hip hop didn’t have the cultural infrastructure for such an idea.  No white person will ever truly understand what our African American brothers and sisters go through, much less what their ancestors have gone through.  For this reason and many others, the highest-profile white rappers in hip hop’s history have had to enter through other doors for acceptance, and these have tended to be the goofy/party, hardcore or rock-rap fusion doors.  These stereotypes thus have become the typical boxes and expectations for the white rapper.  Granted, some white rappers are able to either transform those stigmas or make their own, but it’s hard, especially as the exposure is greater.  And as hip hop has created these stereotypes for the white rapper, Christian hip hop tends to adopt them.

One unfortunate stigma is this: if you are a white rapper, don’t have a ghetto accent, and are more “lyrical”, you will almost certainly be compared to Eminem.  I can’t begin to tell you how many times I have gotten Eminem comparisons from people who’ve listened to my music.  Granted, he is one of my influences.  And I wouldn’t exactly call a comparison to the best-selling and most numerically influential rapper of all time an insult.  But I’m also very influenced by Nas, Pac, Jay-Z… the list goes on.  I certainly hope I haven’t committed the Christian hip hop sin of overly emulating another artist, and I hope my listeners can come away from my music saying that I have a unique message and personality.  And of course, I’ve asked myself: if my music were exactly the same but I were African American, would I still get those comparisons?  I’m sure my physical appearance influences perceptions of my music, and I’m sure there’s a temptation to expect a certain sound and personality when someone looks at my CD cover.  We tend to carry certain expectations and pre-set lenses before listening to artists.  An open mind is rare.      

Beyond the ways hip hop in general shapes our perception of race, Christian hip hop carries another underpinning.  The issues in Christian hip hop (and Christian music as a whole) tend to be trickle-down reflections of the issues in the church in general.  The American church is one of the most racially polarized institutions on earth.  Some have said that Sunday morning is the most racially segregated time of the week.  There are decades of fear and mistrust built up between cultural and ethnic groups in the church, and this gets reflected in Christian hip hop.  And though these topics are well beyond the scope of this article, the Southern Baptist Convention (which is essentially the birthplace of Christian Contemporary movement) has deep roots in a culture of racial tension in the American south.  Granted, the SBC is helping demolish past ills by soon electing its first African American president, Fred Leuter Jr.  And the CCM movement has made huge strides in cultural diversity. 

A huge nod goes to the Reach Records camp, and to several CCM artists, for their hard work in bridging gaps between CHH and CCM.  Nonetheless, there is doubtless an ethnic/cultural component to the CHH/CCM divide, manifested in part through Christian radio’s incessant fear of Christian hip hop, with roots as deep as pre-Emancipation church culture.  So when a white person who comes from a suburban culture having grown up in a CCM atmosphere (in other words, me) comes into Christian hip hop and wants to have a voice there as well, I can understand how that could be hard to swallow.  Needless to say, the American church in general has a massive amount of work left to do in terms of racial reconciliation (it’s a two-way street).  As a product of not only hip hop but the American church, Christian hip hop thus adopts the stigmas of the American church’s handling of race relations.  As the church is called to reconcile the layers of mistrust and tension among various cultures, Christian hip hop is called to do the same.  Seeing some of the layers yet?

The irony of this post is, it’s not really about race.  This is a Gospel issue.  And race is just one more division between people we create when we fail to put the Gospel at the forefront.  When we lose sight of the very thing that makes us Christians, the Gospel message of reconciliation to God through Christ, we start to build up identities elsewhere.  We find our primary identities in cultures and subcultures.  In certain music genres.  In certain ministry models.  In certain… you get the point.  When the Gospel is not at the top, the door is blown wide open for divisions and factions.  And race, and the associated cultures and subcultures, becomes just one more division we crafty sinners create.  So, the foundation of reconciliation is recovering a robust Gospel-centeredness. 

When I can come before my African American brother knowing that my ancestors may very well have oppressed his, knowing that he may not have had a fair shot at certain privileges I had, knowing that his America is, sadly, quite different from my America, and we can say the Gospel is what we have most in common, something profoundly beautiful has happened.   When I make the Gospel the core joy of my heart, and my brother does as well, our strong ties and cultural affiliations fade down the list of priorities and our hope in Heaven binds us.  The layers start to melt under the great unifier that is the Gospel.  And we see that our souls are exactly the same color: red, Jesus’-blood red.  And then, just maybe, I’ll be able to say with confidence that my brother would hear my music the same if I looked like him. 

You can follow Jaylafé on Twitter: @jaylafe

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http://www.jaylafe.com/

Debut album (produced by Tony Stone) on iTunes