Hip Hop is set to get a big exposure within the Christian music world

AFTER MORE than two decades as an underground ignored by American Christian radio, Christian rap and hip hop are poised to get widespread exposure and sales in the Christian music world. Said CCI11 magazine, "With the evolving success of the genre in the general marketplace, a handful of Christian labels have turned attention to the music hoping to ride the ware of popularity. Along with staple hip hop labels like Grapetree and Gotee, others, including Squint Entertainment, Essential and new Tooth 5 Rail upstart Uprok Records, are releasing a barrage of urban artists this year. So far this spring rap and hip hop releases include albums from MG The Visionary [Uprok], Tonex [Verity], RJ-52 [Essential), as well as May releases from DJ Maj (Gotee] and John Rueben (Gotee] with LA Symphony [Squint] coming in the autumn.

Said rapper MG The Visionary, "The record execs are finally seeing that hip hop is not about to go away. The stuff is beginning to break out. Hip-hop is only growing, it's not slowing down, it's not retreating. Hip hop sells, and people dig it." RUG says it has everything to do with the growing acceptance of younger, more diverse generations. "The audience has changed. Look around; now-a-days people want to shake their booties. You can't deny it. Yes, it sounds funny, but it's the truth. You can mosh, you can slam and rock out. But what music just lets you, and actually calls you, to groove and feel the soul, feel the natural rhythm God has given us? (Hip hop.)"