Editorial Hip Hop Hurray! Editor's Note: December 11, 2001 has been proclaimed the first annual Christian Hip Hop Day. We encourage you to buy Gospel hip hop music, and on that day in particular. And ask your local retailer to stock more of it. For far too long, the Gospel hip hop sector of the Christian music market has been misunderstood, misrepresented, and misinterpreted. Let's take a minute to understand why. As most things in its embryonic stages, Christian hip-hop has been faced with amazing challenges. Cutting edge leaders saw this avenue as a new way to reach young people and witness to those on the streets. Initially however, the genre wasn't able to compete with its secular counterpart due to poor production and inadequate lyrical flow. However, the Lord has obviously seen the potential and has raised up a nation of emcees that could skillfully present His word with enticing flow, reaching the previously unreachable. Click For Reviews Artists like GRITS, Prime Minister, Lil' Raskull, Nuwine, Cross Movement and others have become trailblazers, each of them embodying the design of hip-hop music. This music is revolutionary in that it really has the forum to address difficult and often controversial issues. It was hip-hop that first directly addressed subjects that other areas of Gospel music had often deemed taboo. It was also this genre that taught us true street evangelism through music. Hip-hop concerts were far different than any other Gospel-related concerts. That's primarily because of the culture difference between what we've traditionally called "Gospel" and hip-hop. Indeed, Christian hip-hop takes all that is ‘cool’ from the hip-hop culture and blends it with all that is relevant from the Gospel world. That unique mixture, while difficult for some to both define and accept, has fed a generation starved for a musical Answer to the world's ills. It's refreshing to know that there is a very real alternative to what the world musically has to offer. For every B.I.G we have B.B Jay. There's Cross Movement to counteract Wu-Tang. Pettidee and Nuwine for Mystikal....FTF for Three 6 Mafia, Gospel Gangstaz for Ruff Ryderz, CampQuest for D12 and John Reuben for Eminem. Perhaps that's the real story of Christian hip-hop. Though still not receiving its just acclaim, God has used it to accomplish His goal of saving lives through the message of Jesus Christ. Certainly that alone is deserving of a day of recognition. With that, I congratulate my brothers and sisters who've stayed true to the game. The road has been hard, and bumpy at times. Yet it has been rewarding. After all, the reward is not in the Grammys, Stellars, Doves, or in the Billboard charts. Rather, it's in the lives that are changed and permanently smeared with the Gospel of Christ that has come through these lyrical flows. I've been blessed to speak with many of these bold soldiers, and I know that their words and hearts reflect the purity of the Spirit who God has placed in them. It is with Christian love and celebration that I salute them on a day that is long overdue. Christian World, let's celebrate Christian Hip-Hop Day. (for a related article, check out Does Hip Hop Belong?) — editorial opinion by Gerard Bonner — November, 2001 All content in GospelFlava © copyright 1997 - 2001. No information to be reprinted or re-broadcast from this site without the expressed written consent of GospelFlava.com. All rights reserved.