I am going to try to make this a short one and I am probably going to fail but I will try.

Ok this has been a very interesting year for Lecrae. His journey has been very interesting and inspiring to watch.

If you are familiar with Lecrae and his moves in the music biz I don't have to repeat the story, all I will say is a shift has happened with Lecrae and personally I find the shift and growth encouraging, I know there are those who will not agree with that but to each their own. 

So now for the 2nd time Lecrae is up for a Grammy, last time around he was in Best Rock Gospel Album (that was in 2011) and he didn't win it. The rock group Switchfoot took it (I like Switchfoot because I like how the lead singer Jon Foreman thinks, it is Jon who said "we are Christian by faith not by genre" but I digress), now the Grammys have discontinued that award category and now we have Best Contemporary Christian Album and Best Gospel Album.

Lecrae has been nominated in the gospel album award for his latest album "Gravity" which has been his most commercially successful album, as of September 23 it has sold 103,000 copies. For an independent Christian rap artist that is huge. So everything should be lovely and sweet. Well for some it isn't.

I saw a post on Rapzilla announcing lecrae's award nomination and when I got to the comments section I saw some fans expressing their dissatisfaction with him being nominated in this category (go and have a look at it HERE read the comments section) They said they would have preferred he was nominated in the best rap album category. Which has:

Drake: Take Care

Lupe Fiasco: Food & Liquor II: The Great American Rap Album, Pt 1

Nas: Life is Good

The Roots: Undun

Rick Ross: God Forgives, I don't

2 Chainz: Based on a T.R.U. Story

Looking at the nominees for that category I can honestly say "Gravity" by Lecrae deserves to be there but unfortunately it isn't the case and until Lecrae is able to fully break out of the Christian/Gospel genre/market box of perception he is stuck in, it is not gonna happen. In this industry he is branded as a Christian/Gospel artist. This is how he came up as an independent Christian rapper from the sub-genre called Christian Hip Hop. He might personally be trying to change this branding and even to an extent be succeeding in shifting perception but the fact he got nominated in the gospel album category and not best rap album category shows that he is still in that box as far as the industry is concerned. Even if he was nominated in the rap album category I don't think he would win, I think that award is between "take care" by Drake and "life is good" by Nas.

This is just the problem with defining a genre primarily by it's lyrical content and not it's musical style. Lecrae has been working hard to break out of this box and be seen as a Hip Hop/Rap artist this year and not just relegated and stuck in the niche of the Christian/Gospel market but it has been a hard fight for him. Perception is everything. Let's look at this a bit closer. 

Lecrae decided to drop defining himself as a "Christian rapper" as well as pushing the idea of "Christian Hip Hop" this year. He is not saying he is not a Christian anymore or even slighting the community of Christian Hip Hop Fans either but just saying that like Mos Def and Lupe Fiasco who are muslims but are regarded as Hip Hop artists and therefore have a place in the wider hip hop community/marketplace, he wants to be similar. One who is authenically a Hip Hop artist but one who is authentically a Christian reflecting a Christian worldview in his songs and lyrics to a wider audience. It is really simple but he has faced a severe backlash from some fans of Christian Hip Hop who think he is "selling out" and "watering down" Of course such comments are silly because listening to his "Church Clothes" mixtape and his album "Gravity" it is clear he isn't doing any of that. If he has changed at all it is for the better as far as I can see.

I think the main reason Lecrae got this backlash is because some christians are so invested in Christian rap/Hip Hop as a genre that they quite possibly define themselves by their attachment to it. Doing that is actually not the best because as a Christian your identity is defined by faith in Christ and not by your involvement in a genre even if it is labelled "Christian" like I say in a line "Don't get it twisted I'm defined by my faith not a genre/it's not a subculture that makes me more than conqueor"

The business of selling music in the niche market of Christian music depends on this labelling of music as "Christian" or "Gospel" so those who own "Christian" labels NEED to call what they sell Christian because it seems that is the fastest and easiest way to tap into the "Christian" market. It doesn't mean everyone who does it this way will be successful but it sure does help labeling things this way when it comes to the marketing side of things to a Christian audience and that cannot be denied. It's just the way it is, even if in some cases it makes things a bit weird. I guess the word Christian isn't always a good adjective (is it ever a good adjective?) and is a better noun.

So now we have Lecrae nominated in the best gospel album category. For most of us in the UK we would have no problem with that at all. Over here if you are a Christian and you are black and you talk about your faith in Christ in your music you are called a gospel artist period no matter what style of music you do. Even if you make the most amazing Hip Hop album or grime album or R&B album, there is no other option it seems unless you abandon calling yourself a gospel artist altogether but that might not even work, if you are "gospel by association" once you emerge from the "gospel scene" as it is called, it seems you are labelled as a gospel artist for life. In the UK we don't even use definitions like Christian Hip Hop or have a CHH community even though there are are Christians that rap. Sometimes it is hard for folks in the UK to understand how Christian Hip Hop/Rap isn't seen as part of the gospel genre by the fans in America.

The fact that some American Christian rap/hip hop fans are not happy with lecrae being nominated in the gospel category just highlights what I always tell UK folks, Christian Rap/Hip Hop isn't regarded as part of the gospel genre by the fans of the music in America but as far as industry definitions go, Gospel music is Christian music by black people and Christian rap/Hip Hop falls under that. It seems Lecrae even with his efforts to be regarded as an authentic hip hop artist will not be able to escape this. No matter how many BET Hip Hop cyphers he's in, no matter how many mainstream rap artists he features on his projects or how many mainstream hip hop co-signs he gets.

Ok I have gone on for too long, I knew it would be long one lol. What is the bottom line of all this? I dunno. I guess awareness of how genre definitions can be limiting is something I wanted to highlight. Sometimes an artist just wants to be free from all this but marketing depends on labeling and some fans seem to depend on this labeling of music genres for their identity which is not a healthy thing if you ask me. So congrats to Lecrae for being nominated for a Grammy maybe one day you might be able to be in the best rap album category and if you are a fan of Christian rap/Hip Hop or Gospel Music try to understand how industry/genre definitions work, it is hard to explain if you are not actually involved in the music industry and are just a fan. Anyway here are the full nominations for "best gospel music album" the category Lecrae is in:

Identity: James Fortune & FIYA

Jesus At The Centre Live: Israel & New Breed

I Win: Marvin Sapp

Worship Soul: Anita Wilson

Gravity: Lecrae

Oh yeah I have to add this before somebody throws it out there, we know that it is not about awards and the accolades of men but God's reward. Yeah I know this BUT I only wrote this blog because of some comments I saw in the comments section of the Rapzilla Post about this. Hehehe

UPDATE: This blog entry was written way before the Grammy awards happened. I would like to say congratulations to Lecrae and Reach Records for his Grammy win. I have to say I was surprised but it was well deserved. This further makes me wonder how the Christian Hip Hop community will take this if some were not happy with his nomination in this category in the first place?

So my homie Icie asked a question this question on twitter:

HOW DOES AN ARTIST MAINTAIN RELEVANCE IN TODAY's MUSIC MARKET?

This blog is my attempt to give my opinion and also to try to challenge myself to write a blog because I have not been in the mood to write recently.

First of all let's look at the word relevant because what it means in terms of the music biz might not be the same as what it means in the dictionary. In the dictionary it means:

"having significant and demonstrable bearing on the matter at hand"

O.k that just might sound a bit too wordy for some haha, in music biz terms the word relevant seems to mean, current, popular, marketable, something or someone that is in right now and the current trend, it is something or someome the majority is buying into and therefore willing to invest their money in, whether it is paying for downloads, concert tickets, merchandise or even just attention etc etc

Personally I don't like the word relevant and how it is used in music today, it makes you realise that the first concern of most people is not the music, the first concern is business, image, branding, being popular, clocking a huge following and large youtube views. If that is your first concern as an artist and not being authentic and true to yourself then it can cause what you create to suffer in the long run. That's just my opinion. Of course it can bring you attention in the short run and maybe in those freaky Susan Boyle, Soulja Boy occurences it can make you a lot of money.

On the otherhand if one is naive and not thinking of how they are going to sell their music then they might as well just keep music as a hobby and do it for the art of it and not even bother themselves with things like creating a product for sale. Just make music and perform music for fun, go and busk on the underground, go to open mic nights and perform for the love of music or make music to show your friends and family and there is nothing wrong with all that.

So how does one maintain revelance? Well the first thing would be to be relevant in the first place. This is the part where my opinion might go off track from a lot of people's opinions. To me being relevant means finding a way to stay true to myself and my path and being consistent in creating quality music that I feel and like and letting that music find a core audience that appreciates what I create and growing from there. If the music isn't relevant to my own life and personal unfolding story then it's just not relevant to me. (If only the whole world were exactly like me but that is the problem haha)

It however gets more complicated if you are from a fringe, underground scene like the gospel scene that I have my roots in. It was easier when my crew GK Real were still active before we went on a break from January 2010. We defined ourselves as a gospel group and made that church gospel music. We sang that praise and worship/traditional gospel music with some "urban" flavour and we were strong in our content being all about Jesus. Basically we made church music and mainly performed in churches, christian events, christian concerts etc, even though we did "secular" venues once in a blue moon. We made the music that was "relevant" to our core audience which were Christians. To me that is what gospel music is, music for the Christian market mainly (that once in a while gains an audience with people who are not christians who are able to digest it in the "choir" format they are used to)

Everything was perfect for me as long as GK Real were around because we also functioned as a group of people with individual things going on, so I could do my own Hip Hop/Rapping thing and experiment and push boundaries as long as I had the credibility of GK Real doing the gospel thing and a ready christian audience for what we were offering. As an individual I saw myself more as a Hip Hop mc that happened to be a Christian, in the group I saw us as a gospel group period which didn't do anything else apart from sing about Jesus. On my own I could touch on other issues of life and not feel like I had to be a superhero evangelist rapper trying to save the world with my lyrical super powers (haha!). I could just be. In GK Real however, I saw our main mission and vision to be a gospel group and I was totally for it and we all agreed on it with no problems at all. We had some amazing times and really achieved a lot, more than I could have ever dreamed of in the beginning.

It broke my heart when a break was called for because to me in terms of branding and marketing that can spell the end in capital letters for all you have worked for. Things change so quickly in any market and once you don't consistenly put yourself out there and maintain by touring, producing new music as well as presenting a united front (if you are in a group) it can be a hard job coming back and maintaining. People just simply move on to the next "happening" thing. A market doesn't tolerate vacuums. Something will always fill an empty space if you don't play your position. Markets also don't respond well to change, especially underground specialist markets that are small. If you are known for A, became big for A and all of a sudden you come out doing B? Forget you. You will be given the cold shoulder, unless you are so groundbreaking that you change the game which is highly unlikely but however possible in rare cases.

So how does one stay relevant in a market? You have to know who you are as a brand, decide what market you are targeting and stay consistent with catering to that market and core audience once you find and connect with it. In a market there is always a demand, you have to find that demand, meet that demand and continue to supply that demand. People don't just want music, they want hits, they don't just want hits, they want a whole package, they want to feel part of a movement of greatness that is visual and is perceived as significant because that's what people want. They want to feel like they are part of something bigger than themselves. As you become a brand i.e someone who has people buying into them and the image and lifestyle they represent, then you can continue to maintain or decide to take a risk and expand hopefully without neglecting your core audience which is hard because your audience can get protective and even selfish and not allow you as an artist to grow or experiment. Some don't even like outsiders to come in and share in what they are enjoying or they develop a superior aititude towards people who discover what they've already known before.

People are always looking for music that they want to be the soundtrack for their lives, they are always looking for what affirms their chosen lifestyle, beliefs, feelings, thoughts and on-going stories. They are always looking for people who embody their ideals and aspirations and it seems to be the job of artists to tap into that part of people in general. It also seems those who make the most money and are the most popular are people who have tapped the hardest into a particular ideal or embody certain aspirations the most. Just check the most popular artists in any genre and you will see it for yourself.

I don't necessarily like all of the above but as far as I can see, it seems to just be the way it is. Have I achieved relevance myself? I don't think so because I am from a scene that doesn't like people who try to experiment and be different. I guess I have to become an evangelical superhero and take over the world for Christ then if I want to be relevant (I hope you detect the slight saracasm there hehehe) One thing that is for sure, my music is relevant to me because it is the soundtrack to my ongoing and unfolding story and that is what matters to me the most.

"For us, it’s a faith, not a genre. We’ve always been very open and honest about where the songs are coming from. For us, these songs are for everyone. Calling us ‘Christian rock’ tends to be a box that closes some people out and excludes them. And that’s not what we’re trying to do. Music has always opened my mind — and that’s what we want.”

“My faith, I mean, that’s such a personal aspect that a lot of times, of course it’s going to come out through the song. But at the same time, I’m not a religious salesman. I feel like God doesn’t really need a salesman, and what these songs are simply my interactions with this life and learning. I guess the bottom line is the songs are really honest, you know what I mean. That faith is going to come through. If the listener is looking for it, that’s definitely a part of it.”

“You’re boxing it in. I would like to think that the music that I make is best with claws and teeth, instead of being locked up in a cage. As a band we’ve always been very deliberate in making music for everyone. And we’ve never changed that. If we’re going to define our music it would just be honest music for thinking people. We’ve always called ourselves a rock band and tried to stay away from anything that would limit our audience. For me, my faith is a really personal, important part of my life, and it’s much bigger to me than a musical genre”

— Jon Foreman, lead vocalist of Switchfoot

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.

The heart of every matter is a matter of the heart. This is one of the deepest lessons I am learning as I make my journey of faith through life. It is written, “The Lord does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks on the outward appearance but God looks on the heart” (1 Sam 16:7) This fact poses a problem because we as people only see the outward and don’t have the ability to see as deeply or as far as God sees.

Yes I know that “a tree is known by its fruit”, yes I know that “out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks” Yes I know that you can “tell what a man is by his actions” but Jesus really did switch it up when he taught folks in Matthew 5 that the kind of thing God is after is more than just right action and right speech.

We must learn to act right and speak right as people who are walking by faith in God but God is after something deeper, God wants my heart and motives to be right. I found out as one who wants to serve God that your heart can become more attached to work of the Master than the Master of the work. You can also do right things with wrong or mixed motives. Jesus said to beware of doing righteous deeds like praying, fasting and giving to impress people (See Matthew 6:1-5)

The thing is I am involved in music which involves you creating songs that you hope will appeal to and touch people. Let’s be real, you hope people will like what you do and if you are selling it, you hope people will like it enough to buy it and rate it as “classic” or “excellent” or something which is of top quality. I mean the music industry has standards right? Not only that, if you are an artist who is a Christian or one who considers themselves a gospel artist that creates music of an “Urban variety” e.g rap, garage etc, the stakes are raised even higher because you already have certain Christians who associate the music you do with people who are “worldly” because the form of music you do is more or less the same in form with them (though different in content and intent, Well at least it is supposed to be! LOL!)

What I found myself doing and what I noticed is that Christian artists of this kind are forced to have to prove that they are all for Christ and God hence we have terms like “holy hip hop” and “gospel funky” which personally I don’t like or subscribe to although I do understand why people make up these titles which is to show people that they are “different” and “set apart” These labels are also for “marketing purposes” Such titles are necessary to classify music in another category so that people don’t get it confused. (Well this is what I have been told and I grudgingly accept it for “business” reasons to an extent)

I once pointed out to a friend one day that “Holy Hip Hop” at least the kind with more Theological leanings contains more scriptural content than most of the gospel songs that are sang e.g the songs of people like Kirk Franklin, Fred Hammond and Donnie McClurkin etc and this is so because rapping in church was rejected and therefore the Christian rappers felt they had to prove that they are different from their “worldly” counterparts to be accepted by the gospel music community. People who sing gospel music don’t have to prove themselves as much. As long as they can hit high notes, use well known gospel chords and throw in a few halleluyahs they get a pass and it’s all good.

What happens is that ever so slightly it affects your creativity and you might become less honest in your music. You start writing in a way that your content is seen by others as Christcentric and gospel oriented and less about who you are as a human who is flawed and is still growing on a journey of faith. There’s nothing wrong with our content being influenced by our faith or explicitly containing the gospel, the problem is the motive. Is it to be “seen by men” as “righteous” and “holy” Is it to be accepted by legalistic folks who have already judged what you do because they see the artform you participate in as “worldly”? Or is it truly to glorify God? This is why there has been a split between those who see themselves as gospel artists and those (like me) who see themselves as artists who are Christians.

What we also face in the UK as artists who create music that originated in the US as well is the unfair comparisons. Gospel music, rap music, r'n'b etc all originated in America and they have been doing it longer than us, also they have been more successful in making music a commodity that is bought. Apart from that America is larger than the UK in size and market which means that those at the top of the food chain will move more units but for us as Christians is it really about how many records you’ve sold? I personally can’t answer that question because I would love to sell loads of albums as well as spread the gospel and I’m still trying to find the balance in my mind as an artist who is a Christian. I don’t feel every song I make has to be for evangelical purposes or directly about God. I think the main thing is as long as I don’t trade in my artistic integrity and sell out, I’m good. I pray that God has my heart in the right place because it’s so easy to have your motives and intentions all wrong and NOT EVEN KNOW IT!

It was from this heart and point of view that I wrote the following song “Love letter” much love! Peace

free download "Love Letter" here: http://bln.kr/2F8~/