Christian Hip-Hop is Taking Over

Owen Strachan:

The rappers have taken over.

Rap has been mainstream in America for a while now: Jay-Z plays Carnegie Hall; Pitbull sells, well, everything; Kanye wears skinny jeans and changes fashion overnight. In evangelicalism, however, it has taken longer for it to break into the cultural center. That is the result of numerous factors---race (with some racism sprinkled in), the bipolar nature of much popular rap (either embarrassingly hedonistic or frighteningly nihilistic), and a lack of familiarity with the genre, among other reasons.

In 2012, though, everything has changed. Rappers motivated by the gospel are accomplishing the following: crashing the Billboard album sales charts, touring internationally, freestyling before millions at secular awards shows, sampling John Piper sermons, interning for Mark Dever, shooting around with NBA stars before games, getting shout-outs from Jeremy Lin, and much, much more.

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