Evan Humphrey
I was introduced to hip hop when I was 8 years old. It was my Dad that first showed me Lecrae and I loved it. Especially since it was something other than Jeremy Camp and Toby Mac. Rap stirred something in me that I had never experienced before and I couldn’t get enough of it. Growing up I never really took the time to really pay attention to what I was listening to. I just enjoyed the baseline and the fact that it was way cooler than anything else in Christian music. As I’ve grown older and my musical taste has branched out I’ve been able to separate what music is “good” and what’s just noise. I think a lot of people who not only listen to CHH but rap in general get caught up in the “noise” and don’t actually pay attention to what they’re listening to. It’s like defining the difference between and rapper and a artist. A rapper has one flow that he/she may be good at but they can’t really do much else. A good artist can produce many different types music that all sound great. While it may all fall under that banner of “hip hop” an artist can showcase their versatility within the genre while a rapper can only stick to their one flow. It’s the difference between and artist like Lecrae and a rapper like Bizzle. While both are considered Christian rappers Lecrae has been able to branch out from the specific sound in his first couple albums and create something more dynamic. While Bizzle (and I’m not hating personally I love Bizzle) generally has the same flow and production through all his albums. If we are honest Christian Hip Hop on average is not on par with the rest of Hip Hop. CHH generally lacks originality and has even become repetitive within its own sub genre. My passion is showcase what CHH is different and unique and to maybe inspire future or current artists to produce something unique and special to Hip Hop all while glorifying the Lord.
Nathan Blankemeyer
Similar to Evan, I was never allowed to listen to much music growing up, my favorite artist for a while was tobyMac, mainly because his music was actually catchy compared to the traditional music I was used to. For a long time I didn’t like Rap, my older sister and brother started listening to it on the radio though, and it slowly grew on me. I didn’t really get into it until around 8th grade, even then, I was cautious, I didn’t know much about CHH, but what I heard was corny and weak, so I stuck to mainstream rap. I enjoyed the production and ignored the words. It wasn’t until about 10th Grade that I finally heard some CHH that I liked, it was actually during a couple football games I was playing in, the 2 songs were Andy Mineo’s “The Saints” and KB’s “Undefeated”. I went home and looked them up, with time I looked into more CHH, now it’s a large portion of what I listen to, and it has influenced me quite a bit. Now, I still listened to secular rap because most CHH still wasn’t anywhere near that level, I wanted to find stuff that was, and over time I began to, but it wasn’t easy. In CHH, Lecrae and Andy Mineo have had the most influence on me, as far as Secular Artists, Kendrick is definitely my favorite. I have lots of Christian friends who mainly listen to Secular Rap because they don’t know that there’s a worthwhile alternative, so that’s a large part of my motivation in starting this blog. I hope to benefit my readers in a positive way and to bring exposure to good music that’s worth listening to.