Redeeming Battle Rap

Earlier I posted a couple blogs about some Christian rappers that I was listening to, and over the past year or so, I've continued to listen and get more encouraged by their ministries. Many of these guys live in Philly, and many of them go to, and preach at Epiphany Fellowship, which is one of the churches that I podcast every week.

Recently I came across a video that just blew my mind away. For many of those who are reading this, you might need some background explanation. First, in the title, I used the term battle rap. Basically, battle rapping is when two rappers go against each other in a freestyle contest (meaning they are making up their lyrics on the spot, no preparation). Now I have to admit, that I've seen many battle raps on TV, and actually one in person in Philly once, and they are pretty impressive. These guys can just come up with really incredible, intelligent lyrics on the spot. They've got some incredible gifts and talents. Unfortunately, the problem with battle rapping is that it's almost always used to insult the other rapper in often a very degrading way. So most of the battle rapping I've seen has not been glorifying to God. But, as any good cultural analyst would point out, you can't say that just because medium isn't used correctly, that we should just throw it out.

And those are the same feelings of these Christian rappers in Philly. They saw the ligitimacy of battle rap, and redeemed it for Christ. What you will see in this video is "Christian battle rapping." Basically what they do is keep the format exactly the same, even the insult part of it. It's two rappers competing against each other, seeing who can say the better line to shut down the other person. It's almost like a lyrical debate in a sense. But the premise is that one rapper is "Christian" (like in Pilgrim's Progress), and the other rapper is "Sin." So the rapper playing "Sin" talks the way sin would talk, and basically trying to bring the Christian down (similar to CS Lewis' Screwtape), and the other rapper playing "Christian" heaps on all of the victory of Christ against sin.

You have to watch this video, it's amazing, and so awesome to see these guys redeeming culture where they're at. I love and respect these guys so much, they are totally on mission! This clip is only part one of 4 parts, so if you want to check out more, you can go to youtube to check out the other parts.


The guy wearing the Phillies jersey is named Shai Linne. I've actually posted a video about him before, but I can't stop giving him props, he's just the man!

He's so reformed and unashamed of it, and he preaches difficult, high level catachism in his lyrics. If kids were listening to these guys more, they'd have a better understanding of biblical theology than most people in the church these days I think. Check out the lyrics to one of Shai Linne's songs, they're on this video. He uses some big words here that I still get mixed up on sometimes. You have to go to the youtube site to watch it because my blog cuts off part of the screen, so you can't read all of the lyrics.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7RUciHVpCbw