Rapper Jaylafe wrote an article about Lecrae's new album. Check it out:

Well, we’re almost there. September 4^th is a few days off (if you’re counting in cyber time, that equals a few hours away), and the Christian hip hop community has come together in an unprecedented way to celebrate an unprecedented album. Lecrae’s Gravity is going where no Christian hip hop album has gone before, copping advertisements on MTV, XXL magazine and other major media venues. Building on the well-crafted infrastructure at Reach Records and guided by the sovereign hand of God, Gravity has been perfectly positioned to make a splash. The two promo videos, the well-timed single releases, the advertisements…

it’s all been done well. Like Lecrae himself, God has designed Gravity to go wide. It’s the best-marketed, most-influential Christian hip hop album to date, and it hasn’t even been released (officially, anyway…). In Christian hip hop, we have a way of supporting an artist who serves as a representative for our movement to a critical but willing-to-listen hip hop audience: we stand behind him or her, we buy albums, we wear the gear, we hit the venues. We go hard. We pass out music to unbelieving friends. All these things are great, but we need to be careful in how we do them. How should we get ready for Gravity, and for any larger-scale Christian hip hop release for that matter?

We have to keep in mind that Gravity, although it’s the biggest, most ambitious project Christian hip hop has ever seen, is still a means and not an end. Gravity isn’t even about Gravity; it’s about the Kingdom of Christ being advanced. It’s a means toward the same end the obscure missionary in Taiwan you’ll never hear about is equally working toward: the transformation of lives through the Gospel. Our primary goal for Gravity shouldn’t be that it goes gold or platinum, nor that Lecrae becomes celebrated as a premier MC in hip hop, nor that Christian hip hop gains a new level of credibility as a result. I want each of these things to happen, don't get me wrong!  I truly do. But we can’t exalt these things above the greater work Gravity serves to do: the proclamation of the Gospel and the transformation of souls. Of course, some might say that being excited about Gravity spreading and being hopeful about the transformation of souls are two sides of the same coin, but I’d beg to differ.

The enemy Satan is a master of deception. He can make us turn anything (and I mean anything) into an idol to draw our heart away from the Gospel  We can idolize ministry itself, being more focused on the respectability, legitimacy and influence of a ministry than the core mission of that ministry. We can be more focused on people respecting Lecrae than on people respecting the Christ Lecrae serves. We can focus on becoming a respectable sub-movement (pun intended) within the greater hip hop community without focusing on the Gospel message going forth and changing lives. And the problem is, we never truly intend to ignore the Gospel and the Great Commission as we go about building up this movement. We just take these things for granted; they’re implicit. We see them as the clouds and sun constantly over us as we go about Christian hip hopping. They’re truths that are always there, and we agree with them. But to make the Gospel implicit is to make the Gospel nothing. And when’s the last time you stopped to gaze at the clouds or sun?

In our idol-making hearts, it’s very possible to take the Gospel and the Great Commission for granted and move them into a sort of implicit background (pun intended there, too) while we celebrate ministries, people and albums, and we can trick ourselves into thinking we're doing something very good and healthy.  But ministries, people and albums are not the end. They don’t transform people in and of themselves. They’re designed to point to the source of life and transformation, Jesus Christ. Only Christ stands between Heaven and Hell ready to forgive sins and present people righteous before God. Lecrae cannot do this.  Gravity cannot do this. So, if your goal when you give your copy of Gravity to your unbelieving friend is that your friend will respect Lecrae as an MC and consider Christian hip hop a legitimate movement, that probably will happen. And… that’s it. Great, that’s all. But if your primary goal (and I promise, Lecrae would share this goal with you) is that your friend be confronted with the issue of his or her sin, see the preciousness of Christ and run to Him for salvation, your goal is infinitely more noble.   

I want to see Gravity flourish and pierce the hip hop and larger entertainment industry with force. I’ve heard much of the album, and Lecrae didn’t hold back the Gospel. I want to see people transformed. I want to see God do great things through this album. Pray for this project, not so much that Lecrae or Christian hip hop would gain legitimacy, but that the Gospel would go forth and rock peoples’ worlds. Pray for Lecrae, that he would vigorously fight the temptations toward pride and break himself as he serves as a messenger to the truth of the Cross. Don’t mess up the release of Gravity by making it about anything less than Christ and His Kingdom. And Lecrae, if you're reading this, I'm 100% behind the position you're in and the mission God has put you on in the entertainment industry. I am praying for you brother.

And start celebrating the sun because it’s the source of your light.

You can follow JayLafé on Twitter @JayLafe