Leaven in the hood, or well... 50 Cent's Youtube channel.

Following on from last month, I wanted to continue on the same theme, of “Roaring on the rooftops”, vs “Living like leaven”. If you didn't catch last months blog, I suggest you read it here first. I wanted to start off with a little video that features a hip hop artist called Trip Lee. Even if you're not big into hip hop, it's still worth watching... Trip Lee (definitely a Christ-follower) is interviewed by some dude who's running rapper 50 Cents Youtube channel, connecting the rapper with a whole new audience. Check out the 6 minute interview below.

Given his cultural context, I believe Trip handles this interview beautifully. He's not the only artist who's working to avoid the “Christian rapper” label, Lecrae is another one – he put it simply in an interview (on the same Youtubechannel) “If I'm a Christian rapper, then Lupe Fiasco's a Muslim rapper”. That's it – case closed right there. These artists, and many others, are connecting well with an audience that's wider than the Christian bubble. Even if you dislike hip hop music, there's a lesson in there for you if you're an artist, or if you're involved with the media in some way. Just because you're a disciple of Jesus, doesn't mean that you have to bring a message through everything you do. There's a lot more to the kingdom than transforming all that we do in our life into a gospel tract. Of course the gospel is important, and we should never deny what we believe - but if you know your calling is to bring music to a large audience, or if you know you've got a vision and a message that the world needs to hear, then there's nothing wrong with working not to be pigeon-holed.