Christian hip hop

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Christianity and contemporary music
Stylistic origins:	Gospel - Hymns - Country music - Folk music - Popular music - Rock and Roll - Alternative music: Punk music - Hip Hop – Heavy metal music
Cultural origins:	early 1970s - Jesus Movement - Popular culture - Evangelicalism North America
Typical instruments:	Guitar - Bass - Drums
Mainstream popularity:	Limited until recently depending on genre, has gained much popularity in recent years
Derivative forms:	Contemporary Christian music
Subgenres

Fusion genres
Christian rock - Christian alternative music: Christian hip hop - Christian metal - Christian punk - Christian hardcore
Regional scenes

Other topics
Lists of artist: Non-CCM Hip hop & rap - Metal & CCM artists: alpha, decade & sub-genre

Christian hip hop, originally Gospel rap, but also known as Holy hip hop, or Christian rap is a form of hip hop music that uses Christian-themed lyrics to express the songwriter's faith.

Only during the 90's did the term Christian hip hop become descriptive of this type of music.

Many mainstream hip hop artists include acknowledgements of faith, artists such as DMX, Nas and Tupac Shakur are not typically considered Christian hip hop, as the themes their of lyrics do not reflect religious faith.

The audience is typically Christian, but can be used in mission to reach those considered unsaved or lost souls.

Christian hip hop and rap artists tend to be professed Christians, and use the fact that they are urban or suburban as a positive issue used to spread their religion, and like all religious music, it can be experienced as Christian worship.

1 History
2 Reaction
3 Christian hip hop and rap artists
4 External links

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History

Stephen Wiley was the first artist with a commercially released and distributed gospel rap cassette with his 1985 tape called Bible Break [Rap on the Road video, (C) & (P) 1991 StarSong Communications, Nashville TN].

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Reaction

Christian hip hop has a history of being dismissed by churches worldwide as sacrilegious, or devil music, likewise the secular hip hop community has also at times persecuted Christian hip hop artists and followers.

No money, no support, and no funded albums were the experience of many artists, but similar to contemporary Christian music many see it as being on the brink of mainstream success.

There has also been increased church acceptance with some congregations having hip hop themed worship.

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