Becoming A Renaissance Man – Episode 3: #GrowthInProgress – To Be or Not to be A Christian Emcee
“Seriously?!?!?!? You’re going to beat that dead horse again?”
Okay, I get it. The thought of rehashing the whole ‘how to label yourself’ debate is not a very popular one. Stay with me, though. I promise that it’s not my intent to keep this debate alive; rather, my intent is to share with you my personal growth.
In this episode of Becoming A Renaissance Man, I’ll be giving you a little personal insight into how I view and live my artistry. How you choose to classify/categorize my music after that is entirely up to you. My hope is that, regardless of the label, my music will speak to you in some way, shape or form.
So the question at hand: Am I a Christian emcee; or, am I an emcee that also happens to be Christian? The answer is really simple. So much so, that I probably don’t really need an entire blog post to give it to you. Nevertheless, I’m going to try to fill your screen anyway: First and foremost, I am a Christian. My identity is in Christ. Everything else is secondary. I echo the words of Paul as he wrote his letter to the Galatians, “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me . . .” ~Gal 2:20. So being in Christ, everything I do is for His glory (Col 3:17).
In the world, I am using my gift of lyricism to be an emcee – that is, I write rhyme and verse which is then set over music for your consumption. Although you may be entertained by my efforts, it is not my effort to entertain you. At the same time, it is not necessarily my goal to exegete scripture in every song I write/release. My goal , as an emcee, is to honor God through the use of my musical talents (Psalm 104:33).
So there you have it: I am a Christian who happens to be an emcee. The genre through which I choose to express my gifting is hip-hop; but, the purpose is still the same – “I will sing to the Lord as long as I live…”