I just love this! hahahah! Banksy is mad LOL!

I wrote this 2 years ago and with everything that is still going on I feel like I wrote it this morning



It was the usual early morning Sunday service, a well dressed usher welcomed me with a smile and guided me to a seat. The atmosphere was charged with emotional expressions and outbursts from the people who had already assembled. As the music gathered momentum, the praise and worship leader spoke with such gusto: "He woke you up this morning! Give Him praise!! Praise the Lord somebody!!!"

A few people responded with the same enthusiasm.

"Can I get some worshippers in the house this morning?!!!!! Praise the Looooooorrrrrrrrd!!!!!" He continued.

He spoke in an unknown tongue for a few seconds with such a look of rapture on his face and as if on cue, the music built more momentum, and the people responded with even more outbursts and frenzied shouting.

As I looked around I thought to myself, "Is God really in all of this?"

Before now, I would never have permitted a question like this to cross my mind, but, recently Ive been questioning a lot of things.

Most things dont seem to add up any more. I didnt just want a quick fix, and a simplistic, well rehearsed kind of answer. I had mastered the Christianese and Church lingo and had become very fluent with the Pentecostal language but, I still felt like something was missing. I honestly felt like everything was like a well rehearsed show. I had come too far; I wanted something real not a substitute for a West end show. I guess I wanted God. My conclusion after a while was that everyone gathered for the same reason, hoping that they might perhaps encounter something bigger than them.

The man of God might have a "word of knowledge" for our situation that will solve our problems, we might "sow that seed" and "reap the harvest" we've been longing for, we might one day be blessed and ride that car the man of God drives, we might "fall under the anointing" or be "slain in the Spirit", or maybe "the wealth of the wicked that is laid up for the just" might become ours right after the service. God does move in mysterious ways after all

I guess ministers must be under a lot of pressure to "deliver God" to the people but the truth is God or "His move" cant be manufactured. God responds to something deeper. God responds to faith.

It is written of Moses that he endured as seeing Him who is invisible (Heb 11:27) Human beings however, prefer a more visible God not a God who seems too shy to be more demonstrative of His power. When you point people to the old rugged cross and tell them the cross is the ultimate display of Gods love and power you can almost hear people say, Really?

The saying that Christianity is not a religion but a relationship with God has almost become another cliché. "How do you have a relationship with someone you cant see?" some may ask. If only we were alive during the days of Jesus, at least the Word was flesh then, some others lament. Jesus was accessible, He even spoke with sinners. I guess this is why some people place "men of God" on pedestals. They cant see God but they can see the man. They are the visual representation of what most people in Church aspire to be like. If you are looking for evidence of God they are that evidence most times to devout believers, they are to them living proof, so much so that when its time to worship God, it becomes difficult. True worship is faith in God who though is invisible, is very real.

Have you seen how different the welcoming of a "man of God" is totally different from the welcoming of the God of the man? Its a hard pill to swallow but it is true! You hear the cheers and the applause veering to a point of adulation and adoration. We have, sometimes unknowingly put these men on a pedestal that puts them under undue pressure. We have given them more honour than they are due. We have projected our expectations and unfulfilled desires on to them and in waiting so long for our breakthrough which we normally only understand in material or monetary terms, it looks like the man of God and his gospel of prosperity is the proverbial carrot, held in front of the proverbial donkey.

"Now when the people saw that Moses delayed coming down from the mountain, the people gathered together to Aaron and said to him, come, make us gods that shall go before us; for as for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him" (Ex 32:1)

The Christ we believe in has ascended into glory and will return soon with a shout of triumph (I say soon because thats what the scripture says a thousand years to God is like a day it doesnt feel like soon to us!) He has left us His Spirit until He returns. I confess that like many others, I would love a more visible, more demonstrative God in the world. I would like it to be more obvious to everyone that God is real. When disaster strikes whether it is a natural disaster or one that is man made, I groan within and would love God to be more active in the world. Coming closer to home to my own personal life, I would love God to answer my prayers faster and supply all my needs according to His riches in glory but, like we know it does not always happen like that. The temptation is to try and help God or find a kind of short cut to what you feel is Gods blessing.

The children of Israel had encountered God beyond any shadow of doubt. They had just witnessed God bring them out of Egypt. They had seen miracles, signs and wonders that we will probably never see in this life time. They had seen God part the red sea and they had walked through on dry land. This is the kind of God we all would prefer to witness! A God that demonstrates His power, swallows up His enemies and shows up with mighty manifestations of His glory. But alas, their leader Moses was up on the mountain for too long as far as they were concerned. To them, He delayed coming down from the mountain When we think God is delayed or slow to come through, we feel itchy to do something to make Him feel more real and obvious to us. In this age of instant messages, instant coffee, emails and fast food we cant see why God cant get with the times. The children of Israel demanded a god and Aaron gave them one. They fashioned for themselves an idol made of gold, the same gold God blessed them with when they left Egypt! Such is the pressure on leadership to manufacture God or His move. Aaron gave into that pressure and gave the people what they wanted.

I look at the Church today and I see the same tendencies. We associate Gods blessing primarily in monetary terms. Being blessed equals being rich. If you are not wealthy or well to do you are not living the abundant life Jesus spoke about. We forget things Jesus said like, "a mans life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions" or "It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God" or "woe to you that are rich, for you have received your consolation". These are things Jesus said. We dont want to hear that because we have bills to pay! Buildings to build for God! Most of us are from poverty so the prosperity message is an extremely profitable product for those who propagate it. We want the crown without carrying the cross. Or rather I should say we feel we have carried the cross for too long and we want our crown NOW! Our fascination with material prosperity is almost the same way in hip hop culture young people are fascinated with bling bling.

The way people look up to Jay-Z and 50 cent is the same way people look up to men of God The only difference is that men of God are wealthy because they have, as most believe, tapped into the blessings of God (or maybe they have gotten wealthy off making the people believe that when they sow money into their lives we will reap financial blessings from God) while 50 cent says he will get rich or die trying even if it is through propagating a glamorised negative image to willing consumers and impressionable youth. In both situations people are buying into an image that carries the idea of what it means to be successful and prosperous. These images of success are all about getting rich when you get down to the bottom line.

We give tithes to rebuke the devourer, isnt the blood of Christ enough? The devourer has been rebuked! The blood of Christ, which speaks better things than the blood of Abel, constantly rebukes Satan and silences his accusations. We sow seeds of money into lives of the men of God hoping that the same anointing will rest upon us hmm! I recall in the Bible when a man named Simon offered money to some Apostles to receive the power of the Holy Spirit Peter told him, your money perish with you, because you thought that the gift of God could be purchased with money! You have neither part nor portion in this matter for your heart is not right in the sight of God (Acts 8:20&21) We already have an anointing from the Holy One is that not what the scripture tells us? so what is this making the FREE gift of God into a commodity all about?

Our minds need to be renewed and really know what the New Testament or covenant holds for all those who are now in Christ and for those who we seek to bring into the Kingdom of God. We need to go back to the word and be like the people of Berea who after hearing Apostle Paul preach received the word with readiness and searched the scriptures daily to find out whether these things were so ignorance is inexcusable. If Apostle Paul held a meeting I doubt if any of us would go back and search the scriptures though, we would probably just take his word for it!

The church of Laodecia in the book of Revelation was called lukewarm because they said, they have become wealthy and have need of nothing not knowing that in the Lords eyes they were wretched, miserable, poor, blind and naked (see Rev 3:15-18) many of us are far from being rich and wealthy, having need of nothing but that is what we aspire to be. Dont get me wrong, I believe God wants to bless us financially, but the things we hold in high esteem are abominable to God. He counsels us to buy from Him gold refined in fire that you may be rich. I believe that represents THE FAITH once delivered to the saints. This faith is what will matter in the long term. This faith is what will last past this life into eternity. The genuineness of our faith is more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire (1 Peter 1:7)

I dont think God and faith is missing in the church. I just think the golden calf gets in the way sometimes. The golden calf of the promise of material prosperity is sometimes placed on the altar only God deserves. The "men of God" who embody this and espouse this "prosperity gospel" are propped up on a pedestal and worshipped with such blind devotion that it is digusting. The golden calf needs to be knocked off with the truth of Gods word, written on the tablets of the hearts of believers who keep their eyes and ears open to the truth.

Here is a song I did that goes with the blog above. It was something I released on my "Deleted Scenes Mixtape" that was originally on "just as I AM: The Prequel" but because I sampled Queen's "Let me live" I had to remove it.

I don't think anyone is disputing that the gospel is the most important message we have to give. I don't think anyone is saying positive messages other than the gospel is what will eternally save anyone.

I just don't get how it is an either, or situation. We give the gospel AND positive messages like Jesus healed the sick and fed the hungry while seeking to eternally save their souls by giving his very life. If those things weren't important then Jesus would've gone straight to the cross and wouldn't have bothered to show compassion in that way, I mean why did he heal bodies if he knew that it wouldn't eternally save them?

Positive messages are only positive gas if folks are saying that these positive messages like "silence the violence, increase the peace" or "put it (guns) down" or "help haiti" or "help pakistan" (because of the tragedies there) or whatever positive message other than the gospel is what is going to save them eternally and I don't think anyone is saying that. That would be giving false hope but who really believes that stopping violence saves you from judgement in the after-life? Come on now! Lol! Who preaches that being charitable in a time of tragedy to the less fortunate reconciles one to God? Please show me these people!

Giving the world the gospel message is not the only message we have though it is the most important. We all have different assignments as well as the general mission of giving the world the gospel. So if seeking to impact my community in a positive way means it is positive gas to some then so be it, I stay inhaling that positive gas while giving the gospel because it doesn't have to be either, or.

Let me tell you a secret, giving positive messages and seeking to positively impact your community through action opens hearts and doors to the gospel message that you have for them. You know why? It shows you're human and identify with the common problems of this world that affects us all. It's called being socially relevant. Speaking against social injustice, giving social commentary on current events, encouraging people to be thankful and grateful, comforting hurt people or just showing you're a human and no better than anyone else helps you connect and gives you more credibility when seeking to tell people to repent and believe the gospel.

I don't know why I get the feeling that because some folks are more socially aware and want to positively impact their community that they are sometimes seen as shirking the responsibility of sharing the gospel. Both approaches go hand in hand. If that is positive gas then please pass the gas my way let me inhale it deeply. Lol.

"I met this girl, when I was 10 years old 
And what I loved most, she had so much soul 
She was old school, when I was just a shorty 
Never knew throughout my life she would be there for me 
On the regular, not a church girl, she was secular 
Not about the money, though studs was mic checkin' her" - Common "I used to love H.E.R

I've had a strange relationship with the music I create and perform. I don't actually like addressing it directly. I sort of address it within the lyrics from time to time.

You see I came in the double doors of Hip Hop and gospel music. What a strange entrance. Traditionally one of the doors should be marked entrance and the other exit since it seems you can't do both at the same time. I don't subscribe to terms such as "holy hip hop" (because I think that is corny and something Robin from the old Batman series would say as in "Holy Hip Hop Batman, to the Bat mobile!) and I don't subscribe to or use the terms "gospel rap" "gospel hip hop" "christian rap" "christian hip hop" etc etc because I think the word Christian is a bad adjective and a better noun. Even the term "gospel rap" just doesn't totally feel authentic to me. If I'm real all these terms sound forced and corny. If you subscribe to any of these terms please don't shoot me, I'm not dissing anyone else for doing so. It's just a personal thing to me. Don't mind me with my personal opinions! Lol.

As for gospel music, I'm finding out more and more it is a genre of music in these modern times that doesn't have it's own sound like it did before. They say Christian music is the only genre defined by the lyrics first and not the sound. I don't know if this is a good or bad thing although Christ remains Christ and the message of the gospel remains what it is as defined by The bible. I think the problem is my generation doesn't have a lot of understanding of what has come before them. It does help to know where even the term "gospel music" came from and it wasn't from your bible so trying to impose biblical definitions of what the gospel is on to the music without acknowledging where the term "gospel music" came from is bound to lead to endless debates around issues like positive vs inspirational vs gospel vs message vs style vs genre. I've touched on this elsewhere. All I will repeat is gospel music does not always mean the same thing as the explicit gospel message and when some refer to the phrase "gospel music" they could be referring to a sound and not even the gospel message at all. It all depends on the context of the conversation you're having and who you are talking to at any given time.

When I was coming up in the christian faith I was taught hip hop is the devils music and even some view it as a false religion (which made me only listen to christian praise and worship music for 3 years and nothing else). So when rap and hip hop influenced beats were made popular in gospel music by the likes of Kirk Franklin and others something happened. It made rap and hip hop music fused with that throwback choir gospel sound acceptable and lets face it, the music was beautiful! It also made those who were christians who rapped feel the need to prove themselves harder as real believers to be accepted in the gospel music community/industry. I mean Kirk Franklin got Salt from Salt N Pepa to do the verse on "stomp" and you can't tell me there weren't any christian female rappers then! If I remember one of the members of the gospel rap duo A1-Swift was a female rapper and funny enough she popped up on the remix of "you are the only one" by Kirk Franklin which got a video (YouTube that!) and wasn't on the actual God's Property CD.

I think because young people who are part of this Hip hop generation were being sought after to be part of The Faith and come to church that terms like "holy culture" "holy hip hop" started popping up so that Christians could enjoy hip hop without feeling that they are being associated with the "negative" and "dark side" of hip hop which is what most people seem to link the genre to and define it by (the same can be said about grime here in the UK and any "urban" music). I understand how you can love the artform and want to redefine it for yourself according to how you want to express yourself. The truth is Hip hop always had room for individuality, it used to have a varied representation. It wasn't just ONE thing. The main thing was to represent who you are with style and skill (I mean some MCs were down with Islam or the 5% Nation of Islam and it didn't stop folks who didn't share those beliefs from enjoying the music) although it must be said that in this present time it's more about materialism and gimmicks and less about being authentic and skillful.


The is an actual advert

I remember when Common did a song called "I used to love H.E.R" where he personified Hip Hop as a lady he loved. I think of christians relationship with hip hop the same way. It's like a guy falling in love with a lady of ill repute or to put it blatantly a hooker but he brings her to church and is determined to marry her. He believes he can make a ho' a housewife. He wants to put her in a spotless bridal gown and he wants to put a ring on it so that they can live together forever in holy matrimony. The clergy were opposed to this but over time they can see his love will not be killed because it is stronger than death. Why does that sound like a story in the bible? (Shout out to Hosea and Ezekiel lol read Ezekiel 16 and Hosea 1) They can also see that just as rap music is now mainstream and corporate and has this generation moving to it's beat AND is profitable, then maybe it is wise to back these christians that rap. (Or maybe that's just my wishful thinking)

It sounds sweet but I still feel terms like holy hip hop are corny though. I'm fully aware that the back and forth debates won't end because these are the things that must happen for an identity of a movement or artform to be found especially like the one I've been talking about. Debates happen because different opinions exist and in this case one opinion won't rule every other one as far as art and music is concerned because the interpretation of art is subjective. Even more debates are bound to happen especially in these times where some artists who are Christians are growing and evolving and redefining who they are and how they present themselves. Maybe that's what makes it all exciting and interesting. Maybe.