What do think of Christian rap?

[chris1000bc]

@Crankenpants

That is the video I almost linked too. That's a good one.

[Historian]

In the whole "is rap music?" question, did you know the Chinese have a type of rap they've been doing for a thousand years or more?

It's called a "clapper ballad." One or two men perform a poem in a style very much like rap. They hold wooden clappers in their hands and beat the time with them. It's a method of storytelling using what they call "rhyme-singing." The keys are strong rhyming and a seven word antithetical couplet (though it doesn't have to always conform to that). It can be interspersed with just plain talk, and it usually tells a story.

If you took away the clappers and added a heavy back-beat you'd have modern rap. It takes a lot of skill to become a clapper ballad singer. While I do think their clapper playing requires more skill than simply turning on a machine in the recording studio that will pound out a beat and following it, the concept is the same.

You can see it here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BpWkL74Vt...re=related

In Chinese, many words are homophones because there are so many single syllables and the tones are so important. So, for example, the sound "ma" can mean horse, mother, sesame, mahjong, numb and rough. It can also be combined with other sounds to create even more words, such as "ma fan" which means "trouble." It all depends in writing on which character is written. In speech, the context and tone choice tells you which meaning is being used. So plays on words are very common. The word for the number 4 is the same sound as death, even though a different tone. For this reason, many Chinese buildings don't have 4th or 14th floors. No one wants to say "death" when they talk about where they live.

In the video above, basically it's a word play about a husband and wife. The husband loves to drink. Whenever his wife says "jiu" (which means alcohol, and is pronounced like the name Joe) he goes and drinks. She wants him to stop drinking, so he tells her to stop saying "jiu." (Which also can mean old, the number nine, move close to something, already, take an opportunity, etc, etc, etc and is combined with many other sounds to make dozens of other words. It's a word that comes up often in daily conversation.) So she tries to avoid ever saying it, and the story is about him trying to find ways to trick her into saying jiu.

Music?

[chris1000bc]

(02-24-2011 11:01 PM)Historian Wrote:  In the whole "is rap music?" question, did you know the Chinese have a type of rap they've been doing for a thousand years or more?

I did not know. Thanks for posting the video. The man in it appears to be very talented. Like you say, it does seem to require more skill than rhyming alone.

[alm517]

]I Love the 116 Clique and Shai Linne! I've met Lecrae and he a nice, genuine guy! he gave my husband and I free tickets to his show because we said we wanted to come but couldn't because of the job loss. When we got down there he gave me a hug and said "yeah, we family!", offered us a ride home , dinner if we needed it, and gave us t shirts for our kids. I've talked to Sho Baraka too because we both have children with Autism. I love their work, it's good quality and like my husband always says "In their music Christ is their Lord, not their girlfriend". I only listen to their rap, people like John Reuben and KJ-52 are just awful.

These guys don't get as much recognition as Lecrae does typically but they are good too!
Trip Lee
[video=youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K7piEIaJvIo[/video

Tedashii

[alm517]

Oops! The other vid didn't post. Sorry!
Trip Lee

[LMcC]

(02-24-2011 11:01 PM)Historian Wrote:  In the whole "is rap music?" question, did you know the Chinese have a type of rap they've been doing for a thousand years or more?

*clip*
You can see it here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BpWkL74Vt...re=related

Oh, wow, thanks for posting this! Very cool

[Tikatu]

I don't know that any IFB would agree, but rap seems to be the "cool thing" to do in some Baptist churches. Both Ed Young Jr. (SBC) and Stovall Weems (ARC--Association of Related Churches) have done rap videos for various reasons.

Links to the videos and commentary provided here and here.