Tuesday, February 28th, 2023.
Hey, it’s TJ Miller, “you want some game?” Let's #tipundathehat!
For the best indie music from indie artists, click, and follow Indie Artist Of The Week Unda The Hat. This week, VICTOR VC CALDWELL. Be sure to hit the like button and follow this amazing group of indie artists. They will be big time soon.
Gospel Hybrid #GospelHipHop - Let’s go -
Sometimes called Christian Rap, Gospel Rap, or Christian Hip Hop (and I’ll use all of these ok…ok), it all started in the late 80s when some rappers would reference bible verses in their music. Ok, cool, no harm no foul. Then more and more rappers became Christians and their music reflected. When I think of “ When God Comes “ by Craig Mack, I think of it as a possible hit record, but he was far from being a “Gospel Rapper.” Even though it was a song about God coming back, there was cursing in it, which in the 90s was like woah. He and Hammer back in the day would usually put a song on their projects that referenced God. And remember when Salt laced Kirk Franklin & The Family on Stomp? Both were good songs. The reality is, like Gospel/Jazz, Gospel Rap is a subculture that has the same experience that Gospel/Jazz has. But with this genre, it can be too Gospel for Hip Hop and too Hip Hop for Gospel. The thing about both sub-genres is that to be authentic requires a relationship with God. Some of the first recordings were limited to singles and include M.C. Sweet’s Jesus Christ (The Gospel Beat) [Lection/Polygram, 1982] and Stephen Wiley’s Bible Break [Brentwood Records, 1985]. Both selections were heavy on the Sunday School lesson lyrics and extremely dated, Kurtis Blow-influenced beats and delivery. Now let’s face it tool When Gospel Rap came out, the beats always seemed to be two years behind what mainstream hip hop was doing beats-wise, so it always sounded a bit dated especially in the past. It was like Gospel Rap had to wait to see what mainstream hip hop was going to do, then copy it and through in God and Jesus, which made it seem disingenuous. Many of the early Christian rappers like The Grits, Gospel Gangstaz, TobyMac, Pettidee, T-Bone, KJ-52, Shai Linne, Canton Jones, struggled to a degree to get past some of the backlash of “church folks” saying God don’t need Rap music to reach His people. But as far as long as youth ministries were bring young folks to God, helping to save Souls, the end-result was being achieved and being done so with a pure heart. I think, and this is my opinion, Gospel or Christian Rap or Hip Hop (whichever you want to call it) has a harder threshold than Gospel/Jazz because the audience is older and more mature. And Gospel and Jazz are already kindred spirits connected by the blues, so not as much backlash as hip hop. Because Hip Hop itself has such a tainted past with so many sub-genres like Gangsta Rap, Back Pack, Boom Bap, Trap, Mumble…ugh it gets exhausting sometimes, it’s hard for it to catch hold. At least until now. One reason I believe it is getting better is that music is so independently driven. These rappers don’t have to wait on some label to tell them that it needs more Gospel or it needs more hip hop. And more and more collabs are being done by artists and producers that are just at the top of their game. When you think of artists like Mali Music (though I would label him a hip hop singer) and his collabs with Lecrae, feature songs from Kanye, Snoop, and Nikki Minaj (none, of course, are Gospel Rappers), help to expand the genre and open the ears of people and minds of people listening. Additionally, when you bring in top A-list talent you have to look at production, state-of-the-art equipment, producers, sound engineers, etc. has made the music get much better. It’s no longer off to the side done in the basement of the church when nobody else is in there. It can also be said that creativity, writing, and lyricism have in some ways gotten better. And the biggest part, dare we say it, is the ability to reach the masses with the advancement of technology which is considered way better than back in the day.
This week's #IAOTW - Independent Artists Of The Week for the second week in a row is - Victor VC Caldwell. Originally from Chatanooga Tennessee, VC has either played on or produced the likes of Joe Sample, Whitney Houston's "Jesus Loves Me" on The Bodyguard movie soundtrack, CeCe Winans' gold Grammy-winning album "Alone In His Presence" Click on his name link, scroll down to his picture, then click and support. You won’t believe how much you will dig this.
For more information on this or to hire Unda The Hat as your brand or label consultant send a message via undathehat.com. See you next week!!