By Jordan Jerry |Staff Writer|
The trend that begun in the ’90s has made a comeback, Recently the use of Church terminology, God, or gospel in hip-hop music has grown tremendously.
Artist like Kanye West, Chance the Rapper, Drake, Meek Mill and many others have used some kind of Gospel or referred back to God in their music at the cost of the respect of a few listeners that believe this is wrong.
The first track from West’s album “The Life of Pablo,” “Ultra Light Beam” featuring Chance the Rapper, The Dream, and Kirk Franklin, begins with “We don’t want no devils in the house/ We want the Lord/ that’s it/ hallelujah.. This is a God Dream.”
He also references to stories of the bible throughout the album, but puts a certain spin on tracks and adds profanity.
West tries to keep a holy mind, but Chance’s hypocritical raps “Treat the demons just like Pam/ I f**k with your friends, but d***n, Gina.”
In the last minute of “Ultra Light Beam” Franklin & Choir preach of people not being worthy of God and ends with “That’s why I need…/ Faith, more, safe, war.”
Student Jared Browning spoke on the controversy of Franklin being on secular artist songs.
“I don’t think it’s a problem because Kirk Franklin can use the platform to share the gospel but it is weird, I don’t see the track or album being a gospel because it doesn’t represent Christ,” stated Browning.
Chance constantly referees to God in “Coloring Book,” having a song called “Blessings” actually seems like a praise message to God with no cursing, but the mixtape is filled with profanity.
Drake’s song “Views” that samples The Winans, a ’80s Gospel group and their track “The Question is,” starting off, “The question is will I ever leave you? The answer is no (15x).”
The song is explaining that they will never leave God’s side, but in “Views” I believe the track is a testament to his city Toronto, will he ever forget or abandon his city?, the answer is no.
Meek Mill dropped a song called “Amen” featuring Drake in 2012.
As Mill raps he clearly is making church references on a track of profanity.
He starts off “Now there’s a couple bad b****s in the building amen (amen)…” and continues to say, “She wanna f**k and I say Church (preach).”
Mill continues to disrespect the church and crosses the line when he says, “Pull up in a phantom, watch these b****s catch the Holy Ghost.”
Mill is showing giving blasphemous signs, but maybe not with the same intentions as you may think.
Kirk Franklin has made Gospel tracks, with secular beats and has made hits, but now we have him on “The Life of Pablo” (a secular album) preaching on a track that has profanity delivered by Chance.
According to an article in The Fader magazine, “Franklin revolutionized Gospel and made Hip-Hop a spiritual place.”
Student Abigail Earle is confused, when speaking on Kirk Franklin being on Coloring book.
“It really makes me question is Chance trying to send a Christian message? Or is Kirk just flirting with the secular genre?,” said Earle.
Franklin understands that what he did was a risk and states, “The message of the song is clear, My job is to just win people to God,” according to his interview with Hip Hollywood.
As for Cassandra Butcher she states, “I was caught off guard, but I do hope God is using Kirk to get to others.”
Gospel music and hip-hop are clashing, should there be a drawn line or is everything where it is suppose to be?
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