Christian Rap: The Confusion, the Truth

In a car riding home from a few hours of door to door work with other Roskam interns, we were on the topic of music and I brought up the fact that I like Christian rap. The reaction from my non-Christian audience was quite comical. “What?”, “There’s such thing as that?” and other statements of confusion were immediately uttered.
As a Christian, a lot of the music I listen to is Christian. Not all of it, but most. And so it’s interesting to explore different genres of Christian music in places that might be unexpected. For example, Christian rap. Now, to some, that may seem like an oxymoron. Many Christians in society have a knee-jerk bad reaction to any forms of rap, which has been given a bad name by many secular rappers, whose music is admittedly disgusting. However, this doesn’t mean that all rap is bad, and actually, when one really listens to the lyrics, they’re as Christian as that of Michael W. Smith, Hillsong, and all the other worship bands and artist out there.
Another reason why I like Christian rap is that it’s creative. What I mean is, some worship songs are really really simple and really really repetitive. Now, let me emphasize here that there is a spiritual and Biblical benefit to repetition, as it can really have someone focus on the lyrics of the song that put them in a position of better worship to Christ. However, as one who is not as spiritually “turned on” so to speak by music, it’s nice to have people singing lyrics about how God has changed their lives and actually producing full trains of thought. Sometimes I think that anyone can make a worship song, you just have to get a chorus and a verse or two and just repeat it to death for 4 minutes. Again, for some people, that might really help them focus on Christ, but for me, I can appreciate all the thought and creativity that has to be put into a Christian rap song, simply because it requires  more lyrics and often a rhyme scheme.
So essentially, I think Christian rap is massively misunderstood and has been given a bad name, yet in reality, it is an awesome way to not only worship, but to hear the testimonies of so many people who God worked incredible miracles in.