And the Crunks (is that really a word?) are Starting to Come Out of the Woodwork

I recently received this letter in response to my article on so-called Christian rap music:

Dr. Svendsen,

I originally was not going to send this comment do you because most of the time it's not worth trying to change a mind that is set in its ways. I hope that this will not be the case with you. Regarding your blog, "Yo , Get Crunk and Reprasent," I would like to encourage you to be more careful before passing judgments on entire genres of music. In your analysis of "Christian" Rap, you attacked the lyrics of a "Christian" group called "Organized Rhyme" somehow associated with the "Christian" Rapper "T-Bone." I was unfamiliar with this group, so I did a Google search and within 3 minutes had come across something I would have hoped you would have also come across in your preparation for this blog, but somehow did not. Wikipedia identifies "Organized Rhyme” as a “short lived Canadian hip-hop group based out of Ottawa.” I cannot find anywhere on the internet claiming this group is in any way, shape, or form “Christian”. Again, 2 minutes on Google and I discovered that the group T-Bone is referring to is called “Organized Rhyme Crew”. Clearly you have confused the two groups, an easy mistake to make. Such a mistake would normally not bother me, but this shows that you were either unable or unwilling to thoroughly research this topic before passing down judgment. I would hope that in the future you will give more care to make certain that your opinions are based on facts, especially before attacking the character of others.

Thank you,
Jeff Burns

I originally thought Jeff's letter was intended to be a sincere, helpful critique of my article--that is until I received a second letter from him shortly thereafter in which it became clear that Jeff's true intent was to get "christian rap music" off the biblical examination table. Nevertheless, what follows is the response I composed after his first letter and before I received his second:

Thanks for your letter, Jeff, and your desire to hold my feet to the flames, as it were. Let me take your letter point by point:

I originally was not going to send this comment do you because most of the time it's not worth trying to change a mind that is set in its ways. I hope that this will not be the case with you.

I’m always willing to be corrected, if I’m wrong. I don’t claim to be an expert on rap music, so I have nothing at stake in this. My expertise is in evaluating it from a biblical worldview.

Regarding your blog, "Yo , Get Crunk and Reprasent," I would like to encourage you to be more careful before passing judgments on entire genres of music

I’ll go one step further; I think the entire Christian Music industry is corrupt to varying degrees, not just the rap genre. For that matter so is the Christian Book Publishing industry (but that’s another topic—or rather, one I have already addressed in the past). Both of these industries have prostituted themselves and the gospel on the bed of being “accepted” and “liked” by the world. I also think the “Christian bumper sticker and t-shirt” industry is corrupt because it trivializes the gospel. Here’s another one—the entire “church industry” is corrupt as well. Just because exceptions might be found in all of these does not mean my comments directed toward the industry as a whole are somehow misplaced—any more than the fact that 7,000 have not bowed the knee to Baal somehow disproves the prophet’s condemnation of Israel as a nation. Do you deny the subjects of this genre of music, by and large, exhibit the characteristics I outlined in my article? Do you deny that the problem is pandemic?

In your analysis of "Christian" Rap, you attacked the lyrics of a "Christian" group called "Organized Rhyme" somehow associated with the "Christian" Rapper "T-Bone." I was unfamiliar with this group, so I did a Google search and within 3 minutes had come across something I would have hoped you would have also come across in your preparation for this blog, but somehow did not. Wikipedia identifies "Organized Rhyme” as a “short lived Canadian hip-hop group based out of Ottawa. I cannot find anywhere on the internet claiming this group is in any way, shape, or form “Christian”. Again, 2 minutes on Google and I discovered that the group T-Bone is referring to is called “Organized Rhyme Crew”.

You jump too quickly here. Yes, you discovered that the group T-Bone is referring to is called the Organized Rhyme Crew, but what you fail to mention is that in the very song I posted by T-Bone, he calls his group (alternately) Organized Rhyme Crew, Organized Rhyme, Organized Rhyme bambinos, Organized Rhyme representers, Organized Rhyme (ORC), Organized Rhyme clique—and in fact the heading of this song on lyrics.com is . . . you guessed it . . . “T-Bone Organized Rhyme lyrics” (not “Organized Rhyme Crew lyrics”). And I discovered all this after only one minute on Google ; ) The evidence I was working with (and I really doubt you found something I did not) suggested it is one and the same. So, you probably should have stuck with your first instinct on this (that it was an easy mistake to make) and refrained from your further comment that I am “either unable or unwilling to thoroughly research this topic before passing down judgment.” Neither of those is true.

You may very well be correct that they are different groups. But why should a wiki article somehow have tipped me off to it? So what that the group was from Canada? How do you know the other group isn't? So what that it was a short-lived group? It still recorded songs, did it not? I didn’t claim that any of the music was recent. It still could have been the very same group since the wiki indicates that the former existed in the early nineties, and the T-Bone lyrics I posted indicates they too were around in the early nineties: “hate to hit you with a blast from the past LP without the LORD, man it wouldnt sell 3 most brothas be like, ‘man don't I know you ?’ and its true 91, 92, where were you ?, I'm bangin with the Organized Rhyme Crew” (indeed, T-Bone’s wiki article indicates he was “active” during those years). Moreover, you mentioned you found “Organized Rhyme” on the wiki, but I noticed you didn’t happen to mention that the wiki says absolutely nothing about the “Organized Rhyme Crew.” So why would I assume on the basis of the wiki that these must be two different groups? Once again, I really doubt you found anything that I did not find and consider when I researched this.

Now, was I careful in my research on this? About as careful as I care to be on a passing reference in a blog entry. This is not a book I am writing; nor is the article about the Organized Rhyme Crew. The section in which I make mention of them is very short (my research was on a far broader point), and the same points could have been made (and in fact were made) about “T-Bone” and the “Organized Rhyme Crew” (found just below the YouTube example and lyrics from Organized Rhyme). For that reason, I'll give you the benefit of the doubt and remove that short portion from my article. However, as both parts to my article clearly indicate, my critique of this genre of “music” is not so much about the words (that was a very small part), but about the unchristian behaviors and attitudes of its “artists” (look at a few pictures of “T-Bone” on the Internet and see if you can find one that doesn’t portray him as a street thug—something he has proudly admitted in interviews). Just because someone happens to sprinkle a song with the words “Jesus” and “God” does not mean it magically becomes Christian music.

Now, if the intent of your letter is to rescue T-Bone (which your final statement seems to indicate; to wit: “I would hope that in the future you will give more care to make certain that your opinions are based on facts, especially before attacking the character of others”) then let me add some information about that particular rapper that reinforces my points about this culture as a whole.

“Christian rapper T-Bone wears the bling and even owns a Benz. He says it's no act, but just a part of who he is—a street dude, hip-hop personified,” announces an interview in Christianity Today. Here are a few excerpts:

CT: Now because hip-hop often has a lot to do with image and lifestyle, do you ever feel the pressure to conform to that and make that a focus in your music?

T-Bone: Here's the funny thing, there's a lot of gospel rappers where hip-hop is living out their fantasy, and they kind of dress up to be the part, ya know? I am hip-hop. Hip-hop is what I grew up around. I wear the ice. I wear the bling. I don't see anything wrong with that. When God has blessed you, why can't you get something nice? Drug dealers and pimps shouldn't be the only ones driving a Mercedes. I got a Benz. For me it's not about something that I try to be or try to conform to. I'm just who I am. I was raised in the streets, so for me I have the same dress, I have the same appeal, I talk the same way that they do. I'm a product of the streets. I'm a product of hip-hop. This is the real deal. It isn't a make-up deal for me.

In other words, T-Bone is proud to be a street thug (we’re not talking about a socio-economic group, mind you, but rather a culture that is specifically opposed to righteousness). T-Bone takes pride in its shame. To him, it’s perfectly acceptable as a “Christian” to continue presenting yourself as a street thug, pursuing riches and symbols of wealth (the “benz” and the “bling”), flaunting that wealth (“I wear the bling”), because after all if it’s a good enough goal for a drug dealer, well then it should be good enough for a Christian.

Contrary to Mr. T-Bone’s fantasy, the Christian life is not about “getting something nice” and flaunting it in street-thug fashion. But, for him, that’s “the real deal.” That’s who he is. He’s a product of that culture, as he himself admits: “It isn't a make-up deal for me.”

Even his evangelism can’t be done openly, but must be done in such a way that it “sneaks up” on people:

I don't like the label "Christian hip-hop" or "gospel hip-hop" because I feel like you alienate a lot of people. Or people have preconceived notions of what they think it is—especially with the kind of music this is. It's street music. Say you're going up to some thugs, and you say "Christian hip-hop" and think that sounds corny, ya know?

Yeah, I know. And we certainly wouldn’t want to appear "corny," or to embarrass ourselves with the gospel in front of street thugs and drug dealers by openly preaching repentance (in a biblical way, not in a punk way)--because the gospel is something to be ashamed of, after all.

If anyone doubts that the unbiblical characteristics I identified for this culture are intentional, then the following quote from T-Bone should clear it up once and for all. In the same CT interview T-Bone goes on to say:

Once I was filled with anger and madness. Now I'm full of love, peace and joy. Hip Hop is the language of the streets [anger and madness]. God is the language of love [peace and joy]. I mix the two together to see amazing results!"

In other words, the “blend” that the apostle Paul insists should not exist (“What do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness?”) are intentionally mixed together in T-Bone’s music for “amazing results.”

The article goes on to mention that T-Bone’s album, Bone-A-Fide, not only sports the image of Marxist revolutionist Che Guevara (who T-Bone "respects" and even bears a tattoo of him), but includes contributions by “gangsta” rapper Mack 10. For a sample of Mack 10 lyrics see this link (viewer discretion is HIGHLY advised). Suffice it to say that the description from Sing365 seems to sum it up: "The word 'ballin' conjures up images of a world filled with life's pleasures, like big bank, dope gear, and fly women. In the thick of this lifestyle lies Mack 10, one who represents ballin' to the fullest."

I’ll post a few more lyrics by T-Bone from this album to re-emphasize the unbiblical nature of this kind of music:

I’m so dope I’m impressing myself
Challenging rappers of my status dogg is bad for your health
It’s like swallowing rat poison straight of the shelf
Or slitting your wrist then changing ya mind
But ain’t no one around to help, dudes hear spit they like holy Toledo
Cuz when it comes to this rapping, I’m the one like Neo
I’m Jackie Chan, bet a hundred grand I could take out five
of ya man’s with one wave of my hand
Your whole caravan get smacked right in front of ya fans
I’ll have screaming “No Mas” like Roberto Duran holla
They call me Boney Soprano, Young Luchiano, Bone Guevara
Raps Sammy the bull Gervano, I’m sick wit tha flow
Lyrical tactics and back flips, spitting ridiculous mathematics
Like it’s gymnastics, when I die, be sure to place in my mic in my casket
And tell the world that I was fantastic, and that’s it!
(T-Bone; Bone-A-Fide; "Y’all Can’t Win")

Where is the Christian character in this song? The song not only is completely absent of Christian character, but is in fact filled with nothing but self-glorifying, self-aggrandizing nonsense. Here is another example from that same album:

Life is good when ya blessed wit all the finer things
Got piece of mind, from the grind, plus em diamond rings!
Shake ya body like ya got the holy ghost now
Shake ya body like your shivering cuz it’s cold out
Shake ya body got the wiggle in your soul now
Shake ya body what, shake ya body what
(T-Bone; Bone-A-Fide; "Shake Ya Body")

So, the Christian life is reduced to pursuing “em diamond rings,” and the Holy Spirit is trivialized (blasphemed, really) as a personified rap dance.

May I suggest that it is a demonstration of worldly naivety (or, perhaps naïve worldliness) that the modern evangelical church--like no other generation in the history of the church--seeks to find some redeeming value in a trash heap? We may today be “innocent as doves” in regard to our outlook on these issues; but where in the world is there evidence we have remained “shrewd as snakes”?

ES