Week #49 (Dec.3-9, 2018)

Christian vs. Mainstream Industry 😏

 

Week #49 (Dec.3-9, 2018) - Christian vs. Mainstream? Which to choose? MUST you choose?!

If you’ve been following my career for a few years, you will no doubt at this point have noticed that my songs don’t neatly fall into the “Christian/Gospel” category anymore. Concept-wise, my latest project XXY centres around love & romance, while sonically it sits somewhere between R&B, Hip Hop and Afrobeat. The Christian spirit is there, but my recent music doesn’t sound like what we would call traditional Christian/Gospel music. Nowadays I make more life music. So in light of my Christian worldview, here’s how I process heartbreak, love, sex, etc. Admittedly this is a departure from my earlier work that was very vertical or evangelistic in nature (i.e. talking about God, explaining the gospel, calling people to believe etc.).Before releasing XXY, I was concerned that my fans would be upset with the departure. I was expecting some backlash for “watering down the message” or “forsaking my first love” 😂. Interestingly, I got no such comments, at least none to my face. In fact my existing fans leaned more into my music, I regained some lost fans, and have since gained new ones both inside and outside of the Christian world. And whenever I get to talk one-on-one with supporters, they generally express gratitude for my vulnerability and being real. Some ask me, what motivated me to expand my style in this manner. So that’s what I’m going to do this week. I’d like to explain in a little more detail why I’ve made this progression.(Get comfy, this is a lengthy one, but stick with me…..it’s worth it! Or skip down to reason #3 if you can only read one.)1.) Stage of LifeSimply put, the most honest music is a commentary of where you’re currently at in life. In my beginning years of music I was a zealous university student who didn’t have much of a social life. Between school, work and being very active at my church there wasn’t much time for anything else. With the exception of a few dates and one serious relationship, I didn’t go out or date much either (I do NOT regret this). During the beginning years of making music, I didn’t have many personal experiences from which to mine song content. At least at the time, I didn’t think I did. In hindsight, there was plenty. More on this later.As a result during this time my music was sort of a regurgitation of other people’s music. I listened to A LOT of Christian Hip Hop (CHH) artists like; Da’ T.R.U.T.H, Flame, Lecrae, Shai Linne, etc., and parroted a lot of what I heard. That’s not to say I didn’t believe what I was rapping about (I did and still do). My knowledge simply was untested. I hadn’t lived with these truths I was professing. I heard things I believed in, saw people I looked up to, and thought “Man! I want to be like them, so I’ll do what they’re doing!” These artists were probably being sincere, and so was I. The thing is, for me however, it was just a lot of talk. I didn’t have much else to talk about (so I thought), so I just talked about what I was learning.Do I regret this time? No! It was part of my process. It was what I knew. And the fact is, you only know what you know and don’t what you don’t. Simple huh?!Years later, having lived a little more, my breath of experiences are wider. Since those days, I have suffered the death of a loved one, witnessed several friends get divorced, been betrayed, ended friendships I never thought would end, ended a long-term romantic relationship, gotten married, had a child, and many more things. With these Christian truths guiding me, I am more grounded in them now than I was back then. I have lived with these truths and seen the positive impact they’ve had on me. I’m no sage, but neither am I a novice. Thus, I no longer need to scream every opportunity I get that I believe these truths in order to convince others I do. I just need to live as though I believe them.2.) Maturing Theology & PhilosophyEven though I did have experiences to mine musical content from (i.e. relationships, growing up, immigrant struggles, poverty, parents’ marital issues, etc), I didn’t think I could make music about them in those early years.For one, some of these things were still very raw and I wasn’t comfortable talking about them publicly. Second, I actually didn’t think I was allowed to make music about it. Let me explain.Growing up in the CHH community, there was a pervasive ideology that real Christians only make Christian-sounding music. I mean, why else would you want to talk about anything else?! If you say you really love Jesus, and aren’t preaching the gospel in your raps, it must be because you’re ashamed, you’ve compromised your faith, you want worldly acceptance or some other ignorant statement.I now understand that the same God that has given us the beauty of the Gospel message, has also given us the beauty of the rose. Or the beauty of a sunset. There are 2 levels of beauty that reflect God; one being the beauty of natural created things that all humanity gets to enjoy. The second being the Christian message of God reconciling us to himself via Jesus, enjoyed exclusively by Christians. With the former, those things are not sinful in themselves. There is nothing sinful about enjoying the cool ocean breeze on a warm day. Or tasting the various complex layers of flavour as you bite into that warm, juicy, slow seared steak (sorry to vegetarians). These are all good pleasures that God has allowed us to enjoy. And just as we can enjoy these things, we can talk (or sing) about our enjoyment of these things. Furthermore, while no one would argue that the overall message of the Bible is the gospel of Christ, people often forget it has a wide range of genres and tones with which it speaks, when you look at the details. There’s heavy theology in the Pauline letters, there’s poetry in the Psalms, there’s wisdom in Proverbs, there are stories filled with violence, sex, and betrayal in the Old Testament. And let’s not even get into the Songs of Solomon 🙄. Yet, we accept these because first of all, these texts are written in a God-honouring format (even if the immediate context of the passage doesn’t explicitly reference God), and second because taken as a whole, God’s presence and message is beyond evident in the pages of the Bible. No one reads one verse, or chapter and concludes they understand the entire book. Yet we want to listen to one song/album and conclude we know everything about the artist’s life and allegiance to the gospel.I understand and agree that much like the Bible, the thrust of the Christian’s life should in fact be pointing to the deeper beauty of God’s gospel, but to relegate that to the Christian’s vocation is frankly overly simplistic. To say, that you MUST use your job to proclaim the gospel is not only inconsistent, but unbiblical. The Christian writer could only ever write Christian content. WELP! There goes the Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis. The Christian carpenter could only ever build things specifically for Christian use (i.e. pews). The Christian architect could only ever design building for Christian use (i.e. churches). You see where I’m going? It is our overall life (i.e. attitudes, actions, motivations etc.), that points to Christ, not primarily using our vocation exclusively for Christian use. Of course, there is a place for Christian-focused products/services made by Christians, but that isn’t the only category God has created. Christian or not, we all use cellphones, so a Christian can make cellphones for mass consumption. Similarly, Christian or not, we all go through similar experiences (love, heartbreak, pleasure, sunsets, good food, etc) so a Christian can create art for mass consumption. So now I can talk more about my experiences from my Christian worldview without feeling like I MUST give a summary of the gospel message in my songs. There is FREEDOM in Christ, so I’m allowing myself to enjoy that freedom.I’ll add 2 caveats; i.) the art coming from a Christian working in the mainstream cannot espouse things contradictory to the faith. ii.) If the Christian artist is downplaying the Christian message mainly because they are in fact ashamed of it (this can happen), then it is a problem.With that said, my general rule for making music these days is this; Follow the inspiration. Don’t force Jesus into the song. But don’t force Him out either. Write freely and go where the inspiration takes you.3.) Christ vs. CommerceI alluded to this last week, but I’d like to expand a little more on this. My struggle with balancing Christ & commerce has increased over the years as I continue to learn how the industry really works.I have been in enough green room conversations in the Christian music industry to learn that while the discourse on stage is very spiritual in nature the discourse off stage is often very practical.We talk sales strategies, increasing our bottom line, increasing our fanbase, getting more shows, etc. Right before getting on stage we talk about our goals for how much merch we’re hoping to sell at said show. Then a moment later, run up on stage saying something like the following “Does anybody in here love Jesus?!” (CROWD ROARS). We know the right things to say and do that’ll elicit a response and increase the likelihood that you will BUY into Jes(US). We step off stage, regroup, run the numbers, then off to the next show to do the same thing over again. Note that I’m not talking about the hypocrite who’s secretly not a Christian and living a double life. I’m not talking about the person who is willfully using Christ for commerce. I’m talking about even the most earnest Christian artist. We ALL do this! We all want you to buy into us.Music is funny thing. You buy into the person before you buy into the message. We sell ours images, our brands, our products....in the name of Jesus.I’m not saying this is inherently wrong. I’m not saying these artists are sinning for seamlessly transitioning from talking sales, income, growth stats, to “Everybody make some noise if you love Jesus” in almost the same breath. I’m just saying, I PERSONALLY in my conscience, have found this increasingly harder to stomach.It’s much easier for me to be honest about my desire to make lots of money off my music, when the music I’m making isn’t a gospel-laden message. In a weird way it feels like I’d be pimping out the gospel. I personally find it extremely hard in my mind to reconcile a desire for material success -this isn’t a bad thing -with the means of achieving that coming via proclaiming the gospel message. Conversely, if my music although having the Christian DNA in it, has an overall mainstream feel/sound, I can be comfortably honest about my desire of achieving success at my craft, much like a skyscraper architect can aim at rising to the top of his field (pun intended). Of course, I don’t desire success so much that my music would espouse things contrary to my Christian convictions. As with songs like “Come Wid It”, “Stay”, much of XXY and my upcoming catalogue, they are very mainstream sounding, yet have an overall wholesome message - things that God would endorse. Making songs like this, I have no problem aiming at major level success. My conscience is clear.For the record, any Christian artist who says “I don’t care about the money. I just want to preach Christ” is lying 😂. It sounds pious, but frankly is at best naive, and at worst a flatout lie. Everybody who engages in the pursuit of a full time music career by definition desires at least a measure of material success. But I digress. 

So there you go. Those are 3 of the main reasons for the progression in my musical content. That’s to say nothing of the style and my recent incorporation of Afrobeat elements. But that’s for another day. Two more quick points.The nature of life is such that we’re constantly growing and changing. So it’s likely years from now my views on some things might have changed. I don’t claim to know everything now. But so help me God, this Christian message will continue to beat at the core of my heart no matter the green rooms this music takes me into.With all this being said, I continue to have strong Christian brothers who are keeping a close eye on me as I meander in and out of Christian and mainstream music circles. These brothers have the right to challenge me as well as encourage me and I often run major decisions past some (or all) of them. So for my Christian fans, continue to pray for me as I use this God-given gift, in a God-honouring way, in whatever space I find myself.Until next week, #KnowItsRealP.S. What are your views about professed Christians operating in the mainstream music industry (ie. Tori Kelly)?

MUSIC: Classics

I've been making music for more than a few years. So I'm going to starthighlighting some classic records you may or may not know about. These are fan favourites, so enjoy. This week, is the bar heavy and introspective, "4 Walls". If you like heavy rapping filled with emotion layered over a slapping boom bap beat (think J. Cole), you'll love this song and music video.

MUSIC: The Latest

The official remix project to the original "XXY". This project features 6 remixes including 2 of the uber popular "Stay" with production from UK powerhouses, HXLY KXSS, and WYLD, and US-based Quinten Coblentz. The same songs you already know and love, re-imaginged!

SOCIALS

Follow me on your favourite platform. Hint: I'm most active on Instagram 

Reply

or to participate.