Tagged as: Christianity, Music
Oct
29
Music is a wonderful thing. Throughout the ages, it has been created and enjoyed by man. It has ranged from the beat of the drum to the clang of the cymbal to the strings of the violin.
In and of itself, music is innocuous. It is the words, lyrics, and association that we attach to these series of notes that give them their meaning. That brings me to the point where I wonder at the derision of specific genres of music. While I’m not a fan of every type of music (hardcore rock comes to mind), I do wonder sometimes at the motivation that people have for judgment.
Over the years, I’ve often heard both Christians and non-Christians deride so-called Christian rap (aka Gospel Rap, Holy Hip Hop, and so on and so on). Basically it’s music that identifies itself as hip hop with lyrics that could in someway be identified as Christian. It seems that people mock it because they think that the combination of a culture of sex, drugs, and money that is often associated with the hip hop culture cannot be combined with what they perceive as stodgy, conservative Christianity. Since they cannot go hand in hand, it’s worthy of derision.
And yet I can pretty readily admit that I listen to and enjoy some of the music in this genre. While I’m most definitely a fan of a wide variety of music (classic pop, r&b, show tunes, alternative, trance, and more), some of my favorite artists might very well be clumped into this group.
Why I enjoy Christian rap:
- Like-mindedness – While a lot of the groups and artists that I listen to don’t constantly mention the name of Jesus Christ, I enjoy listening to them because I know that we come from the same place. We’re more alike than different because we are more fundamentally similar than to someone who does not share the faith.
- Lyrics – Hardly anybody on the radio even has interesting lyrics. It’s the same old game of sex, money, and women. Soulja boy? Hardly stimulating.
- Creativity – So granted, I don’t listen to a lot of underground secular rappers. But in my experience it seems that Christian groups that I listen to are much more wiling to try new things than the factory-pressed tracks heard on the radio.
- Keeping It Real – This might seem extremely strange in a genre that many people think of as utterly fake, but I think that they’re being more real when they create their works. They’re using their entire being, from their background in the ‘hood all of the way to their conversion because of Christ. They’re not trying to hide these things, and I can respect that.
So I don’t enjoy ever single Christian rapper that I listen to. Far from it. But the same is true across the board for all musical genres. Personally I enjoy those Christian rappers that like to talk about life, just like how I like to talk about life here on this blog. But that is my own taste.
Even though it’s been popular in society to mock the Jesus that I believe in (Jesus is my homeboy anyone?), I won’t be party to it. I rather wonder why people act that way. Is it because (in the case of Christians) they’re insecure about being so in-your-face about the faith? Or perhaps it’s because (in the case of non-Christians) they haven’t experienced the same change?
Whatever it is, I might not ever know.
If you want to check out some free songs:
List of free (and legal) Christian hip hop mp3s
Some of my favorites are:
- 4th Avenue Jones (which have disbanded)
- L.A. Symphony
- Pigeon John (formerly of L.A. Symphony)
- Grits
Tagged as: Entertainment, Music
Sep
14
Can I just say after watching the music videos for Usher’s songs Love In This Club and Moving Mountains that I think that he is like R. Kelly (aka certifiably crazy)? Please, does anyone remember R. Kelly’s Trapped In The Closet series?
On the one hand, I’m laughing hysterically. But on the other this is just out of hand.
Edit: Must be because of their collaboration on Same Girl
Tagged as: Internet, Life, Music, Rant, Software
Apr
23
Alright so I don’t actually know any ninjas. Pirates, though? Perhaps.
Not the pirates that say, “Arggh me matey” or have a peg leg or even have a parrot on their shoulder. That would be cool, but I actually only know pirates in the modern day sense. You know the ones that illegally consume things like music, videos, software, pictures, or any of a whole range of things. Haha I can hear the groans already.
The digital age has made it infinitely more easy to exactly duplicate other content (which is related to why digital things are superior in quality to analog). With this, people have degenerated to outright stealing while not even understanding what they’re doing. Well I hate to break it to you, but wrongs committed unintentionally are still wrong.
While I have written that I think that Music Piracy Makes People Stupid, this issue is far larger than just music. Music is the best known, probably because it’s the area that’s most often violated. It is so much more widespread, though. So let’s get down to the real issue.
Breaking Down Piracy
- Someone creates something for a purpose
- Somehow it’s made available to other people (whether stolen, hacked, copied, or what) outside of the realm of the original purpose
- You (or a “friend” of yours) gets a copy of said good and utilize it
Is that pretty much how it breaks down? Seems to me like the real issue is that the creator/writer/actor/musician/whatever did not intend for those in step 3 to make use of their creation. If I were a computer programmer and wrote a program to sell. And then if someone had illegally hacked my program that I worked to create to sell and gave it away for free, I’d be piping mad. If you were a photographer and had taken a picture for someone, but someone else had taken it and used it for a totally different purpose, you’d be up in arms. If you provided services (law, medicine, therapy, teaching, what have you) and someone took your service without providing payment, you’d see that something was immediately wrong.
So basically, since the creator didn’t want it (and who hopefully created a bulletproof license or end user agreement), you’re undermining what they’re doing. It doesn’t matter that you could create a digital copy of their song without paying for it and they’ll be none the wiser. Because in actuality, it does affect them. You should have paid them for that song. And you are now a pirate. But you don’t have to be!
Dealing With This New Ninja World
Is all lost? Far from it. Once you understand what it’s like to be the one being defrauded, you’ll see that something needs to change. And there is a solution! There are all kinds of answers! Maybe watch things that are actually released by the studios (try out Hulu), actually buy music (if you’re listening to music you can probably afford to pay for it) or try Amie Street for the whole indie scene, and possibly even catch up on some of my Favorite Open Source Apps.
Or you could just become a real ninja and then you’d care about arrows, ninja stars, and ninjato rather than swiping versions of old TV shows, Adobe Photoshop, and/or the remix version of Justin Timberlake’s latest single. 
Tagged as: Life, Music
Dec
19
Everyone has to perform menial tasks. Well I guess not everyone, but those of us who actually have to clean our own house, iron our own clothes, and wash our own dishes do. They’re not fun. That’s why they’re deemed menial tasks! But for myself, I’ve found that music is making them much more tolerable.
I think that I was finding that having these tasks to do (not necessarily everyday, but very often) was causing me to start doing them rather begrudgingly. It’s not that I hate the idea of doing work, but I just don’t like having multiple completely lacking in fun tasks queued up for me to do. They’re often monotonous and sometimes even physically tiring! Nobody considers them fun. But there’s hope!
Music washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life.
-Berthold Auerbach
People have known for so long that music speaks to us in ways that are indescribable. And I’ve found that simply listening to music while performing tasks that I would not otherwise prefer to do makes them all the more bearable. Now whether that’s because I can dance around, hum, or bob my head, who’s to say? All I know is that it’s there, and it’s good.
From John Mayer to DJ Maj to Al Green to Frank Sinatra to Deitrick Haddon & Unity Praise to Norah Jones to Bleach, and so on and so forth, I like me some music. No point in letting those 100s of CDs worth of music stay silenced.