- The Apologist – Catholic Rap – The Apologist is from Chicago. He comes from a background in rap music, performing with the rap group «Black Out» before his conversion to Christianity.
- Brother IG – Come check out this GANGSTA 4 Christ and his debut album «Off The Crooked Path». Site has photos, lyrics page, testimony, interviews, MP3s and reviews.
- Carriers of the Cross – A Christ centered hip hop ministry primarily targeting the urban communities with anointed lyrics and sanctified music sounds.
- Chad Steven – Chad Steven’s Holy Hip-Hop Ministry.
- Chosen By God – Music,artist bio, concert info, & food for your soul.
- CleverMC – CleverMC. Official Site, Christian Hip-Hop, MP3 Downloads.
- Count Bass-D – The official web site of Count Bass-D
- Crown of Thorns Crew – Alberta – biography, music, message board and merchandise.
- daedalus perihelion – Intellectual Kansas hiphop.
- Fab da Eclectic – Underground emcee from Indianapolis, Indiana. He’s dope and girls like him.
- Grits – Grammatical Revolution In The Spirit – audio, tour dates and merchandise.
- G-Wizz – Hip Hop gospel Rapper Realeases new Cd «Goin After God».
- I.D.O.L. KING ministries – Christian hip hop ministry dedicated to evangelism of the lost, edification of the saints, and apologetics.
- JAGO – Christian hiphop from sweden
- Jah Word – Eternal Funk recording artist Jah Word – albums include Heaven or Hell? – Eternal Funk 1999
- Kadenwest Christian Rap – A presentation of South African rap, taking the gospel to the masses through christian rap.
- L.A. Symphony – California – biography, discography, audio/video, photos, tour dates, merchandise.
- Lojique – Washington – bios, photos and mp3s.
- luke geraty – Underground Christian hip hop from Minnesota. Artist information, tour information, b-boys, message board, chat, and contact information.
- Manafest – Official website of canadian hip-hop artist Manafest. Check out samples of his music, concert listings, and watch the music video online.
- Mars ILL – Official site includes message board, show listing, and artist information.
- MYTHMinistries – The M.Y.T.H. (Messenger of Yahweh Transmitting Hope) is a Christian rapper based out of Alexandria, VA.
- Prophecy1 – A Gospel Hip-Hop female artist who is «Spreading Da Gospel» to hot street, house and rhythm and blues gospel flavored tracks.
- Rich Badd – Official site of gospel rap artist Rich Badd.
- Royal Priesthood Ministries – Kansas City, MO – DJ X-sinna’ & Kevin Blanco – Thug and Gang member turned ghetto ministers. Pics, MP3 music samples.
- Sackcloth Fashion – California – audio, short films, message board and merchandise.
- Saj Godson – Latest news, show dates, pictures, booking information and contacts.
- Sons of Jacob – Hip-Hop Rap Gospel straight from the King James Bible!
- STP Crew – Lyrics, poetry, artwork, sound files, and profile.
- T-Bone – T-Bone Ministries website.
- Trigland Ministries – Youth Ministry, specializing in Christian Hip-Hop / Gospel Rap. Resources such as music production, news updates.
- Tunnel Rats – Christian hip hop supercrew consisting of many groups and solo artists.
Christian hip hop (originally gospel rap, but also known as holy hip hop, or Christian rap) is a form of hip hop music that uses Christian-themed lyrics to express the songwriter’s faith. Only during the 90’s did the term «Christian hip hop» become descriptive of this type of music. Many mainstream hip hop artists have made acknowledgements of faith, such as DMX, Kanye West and Will Smith, but are not typically considered Christian hip hop artists, as the themes of their lyrics do not always reflect religious faith. The audience is typically Christian, but it can be used in missions to reach those considered unsaved or lost souls. Christian hip hop and rap artists are almost always professed Christians, and use the fact that they are urban or suburban as a positive issue used to spread their religion, and like all Christian music, it can be experienced as Christian worship.
Many fans consider Christian hip hop music to be more innovative than the secular variety (thus the tagline of Factors of the Seven by Grits, «the most innovative hip hop in the industry»), because Christian hip hop artists generally sample other songs sparingly, and when they do they typically choose songs that aren’t sampled often. John Reuben has friends who play various musical instruments, and uses their assistance as opposed to samples. He is even famous for having a live backing band. Christian hip hop is decidedly more «experimental» than secular hip hop as well, with more usage of acoustic and electric guitars, synthesizers and other instruments that are somewhat uncommon in hip hop. Many artists and bands, however, sample regularly as in mainstream hip hop, and some run into copyright trouble, such as Mars ILL, whose Pro*Pain album was delayed for a long amount of time by Gotee Records due to unlawful use of samples. «It’s not so much that Pro*Pain is any more sample-based than any other project, we were just a little laid back in how we approached it initially,» says band member Dust. [1]
Stephen Wiley was the first artist with a commercially released and distributed gospel rap cassette with his 1985 tape called Bible Break (Rap on the Road video, © 1991 StarSong Communications, Nashville, TN). Also, a young Christian emcee known as D-Boy was killed in 1991 in Texas for taking youth from gangs and converting them to Christianity. Some consider him the first Christian emcee martyr. dc Talk was perhaps the first wide success among Christian hip hop groups with tobyMac later rising to prominence.
KJ-52 is among the most controversial Christian emcees.Christian hip hop has a history of being dismissed by churches worldwide as sacrilegious, or devil music. No money, no support, and no funded albums were the experience of many artists, but similar to contemporary Christian music many see it as being on the brink of mainstream success.
One of the most notable mainstream reactions to Christian hip hop was to KJ-52 and his single «Dear Slim,» which was written to Eminem in an attempt to convert the artist to Christianity. The song became famous and controversial among Eminem fans when it was featured on the hit show Total Request Live. It was then that KJ-52 began to receive hate mail (including death threats) from Eminem’s followers, though the song is not a «diss» according to KJ-52. This also lead to the single being panned on VH1, an issue the artist addressed in his song «Washed Up.»
There has also been increased church acceptance with some congregations having hip hop-themed worship. Much like other forms of mainstream-style Christian music such as Christian metal and punk, it is often accepted by youth pastors and others, as many artists and groups such as LA Symphony create music with quality widely considered to be on par with that of secular hip hop, which often attracts non-believing fans, and many times, converts such audiences to Christianity.
