Lest you think I’m picking on hip-hop, I’ve written plenty on the Contemporary Christian Rock movement and the charismatic movement as well. But there is a particular grievance with hip-hop culture that appears to have carried over and is inexcusable. It’s the fact that the “gangsta” lifestyle that hip-hop was born out of doesn’t seem to be removed from the “Christian” version of it. In fact, with the majority of these “Christian” hip-hop artists, the only difference in their life and music is that they throw in a “Jesus” here and there.

Arguably the most well-known Christian rap artist is Lecrae. Lecrae, who recently slammed Voddie Baucham in one of his new songs, Deconstruction, has taken a sharp turn in the last several years to align himself with the Pagan culture rather than the Kingdom of Christ. Over the last few years, Lecrae has made himself at home outside of the Church doors with Pagan rap artists who use regularly use foul language, degrade women, and make racial slurs in their lyrics. Lecrae is a staunch supporter of pro-choice Democrats, one radical pro-abortion Democrat, in particular, Stacy Abrams, and has downplayed the sinfulness of abortion and elevated what he perceives to be “racial injustice” above this murderous sin.

Another popular Christian rapper who has been featured on John Piper’s Desiring God Ministry as well as many other Evangelical outlets is Sho Baraka. Sho Baraka, who is associated with the 116 Clique and Lecrae, cusses and drops racial slurs in his music and in his regular life. But he also endorses the recreational use of marijuana, a pastime favored among Pagan hip-hop culture.

In the audio below, you can hear Sho Baraka complain that he’s no longer in LA because he regrets not being able to “partake in the herbals.”

“To bring the Christian aspect into it…there are certain things Christians should totally abstain from, but then there are things like marijuana, where there’s liberty to engage, especially if it’s legal…”

Then we have another popular Christian rap artist, Bizzle, who drops the n-bomb constantly. Holy Culture reported in 2016:

A little over a year ago rapper Bizzle dropped “You got some explaining to do” a song aimed at Jay-Z in which he repeatedly used “nigga” in referring to Jay. In response to this song he received a huge backlash from the Christian community in which he responded, “The world flipped when I said Nigga but when Jay said what’s my motherf’n name they just said Jigga.” He also explained in an interview that the reason he had used the word in the song was because it was a regular word in his vocabulary and for him not to use it would be fake.

Earlier this year, we reported that Lecrae came out of a nightclub wearing a t-shirt featuring a rapper who is known for objectifying women, Wu-Tang, to rebuke an Evangelist for sharing the gospel outside the club.

And then, of course, there is Kirk Franklin whose doctrine is so bad that he recently rapped about how Jesus would bow down to Satan. Franklin made headlines in 2019 after winning TBN’s version of the “Christian Grammys” called the Dove Awards in the Gospel genre. Franklin is known for his “gospel music” that features cursing and foul language. Franklin was intimately involved in the production of Kanye West’s new “gospel” music at the time and stated that “God Wrote” his first curse-filled album.

Franklin is also, like the rest of these rappers, pro-abortion:

Rappers like LeCrae and those who affirm their lifestyle are no different than the Pagan rappers. The lifestyle is all about “babes” and “bling.” You can’t tell the difference by looking at them or talking with them. For the most part, their lives revolve around the same cultural and social causes as the world and do little to nothing to advance the gospel. This picture below speaks a thousand words.