Ancient Christian Witness

Sidenote: I am against all modern music in any christian liturgy. Let's keep christian liturgies ancient, and free from corruption. I believe that modern gospel music should be viewed in the same mannor that ""secular" music is viewed. I see it as secular with just God in it. So it should be played wherever so called secular music is played at." For those that don't know, the word secular didn't always mean what it does now. some 4 hundred years ago, it just meant people from "different religious bodies working together" And this was mainly in the area of trade. Protestant countries trading with Roman Catholic countries.....and vice versa. Also, in a Roman Catholic context, it just meant a missionary who wasn't affilaited with an order. So with that said, I feel that this stuff should be on TV, and the radio, just like all the other stuff is. So I guess what I am trying to say is, if you are going to listen to country, then you mind as well listen to country with a positive reference of Jesus in. If you are going to listen to Rock, then you mind as well listen to Rock with a possitve reference with Jesus in it. And if you are going to listen to rap, then you mind as well listen to rap with a positive reference of Jesus in it. One of the dangers is heresy, and heretodoxy, but I will save that topic for another time.

ok, with that said, let us begin.


In the christian rap overground(underground) there are 4 different types of approaches, and this is mostly from a Protestant context, Roman Catholics have branched off in 2003 to do their own thing, and this mostly happened because of the rise of (hardcore doctrine) in protestant christian rap, but I will talk about this in a different bullitin.

The lingo we(christians that are in the inspirational/possitive rap overground sub-culture) use are:

1.) Street (almost thuggish, something that alot of people from the street are more likely to gravitate too) christian rappers that go with this approach are mostly those who use to be thuggish themself. Those in this group are a mixed bag. You will find Word of Faith, Pentecostal, Calvery chappel, and some others.


2.) Churchy (heavy doctrine, something alot of church goers are most likely to gravitate to and give their kids. Most of it has alot of references to God, Jesus, and various doctrinal statements....which will vary, dependant on what church they go to. Some pretty much rap about certain verses of the Bible, books, of the Bible, church doctrine......ect.) Alot of the christian rappers that go with this approach are varied, some were once thuggish, while others were just raised in the various churches. Many in this group have a nack for Bible schools and Seminary training. There are a good handfull in this category that have degrees in Theology, Ministry, or something else that is related.
Most of those in this group tend to be Baptist, Prespyterian, Clavery chappel, Roman Catholic, and some others.


3.) Possitive (something that anyone can listen to, is mostly clean possitive rap with little to no mention of God or Jesus in it) This is where alot of the Roman Catholics and Some Orthodox christian rappers hung out at. That is until group number 2(churchy) rose in power. Eversince the dominance of group number 2 ruling the show. Group number 3 (possitive) have gone down in popularity. At one time Possitive rap along with # 1 ruled christian rap in the 1990's. This changed in the late 1990's to about 2003 when # 2 took over. Most of the people in this group are suburbanites. kids that grew up in the suburbs, but love the style and art form of rap. It's kind of Ironic because as some of the Roman Catholic christians branched out to do their own thing. They too have become (churchy) ....dogmatic, and heavy in doctrine. Some of these people are Word of Faith Protestants, Roman Catholic, Orthodox, charismatics, and some others.


and the last group is:

4.) Other (those in the middle between street & Churchy or Churchy & Possitive, or Street & possitive) now most of this is from a protestant context sense, they are mostly the ones that run the show. This group is gaining in popularity due to boredom & staleness with # 2. as well as other denominational groups not feeling comfortable with the heavy Reformed doctrine being spit over on wax by many of those in group # 2. And the Roman Catholic and Orthodox would see it as undesirable as well. Most of those in this group would be many of the ones mentioned above in other categories. They are mostly a hypbrid type of approach, where they grab chunks of each others styles. Not only do they talk about some doctrine, they also, talk about everything else. Politics, their life, the joy of life,.......ect. It's more well rounded than the others.


The focus of this bullitin is going to be of group # 1 fame ...."street".


This is a youtube of Camp 8. They are "westcoast street". There have been alot of controversy & arguments over their name "Gospel Gangsters". Over the years they changed it to 2 G's, and now "Camp 8".







They are former(nonactive) crips and bloods that became christian back in the late 80's or early 90's.(as seen from the youtube clip above).....I forgot which. There's 3 in the group, but one slipped back in the gang culture. So he's in jail doing time. Some say he died, but who knows.......the other two are still persevering away from the ganglife..

This one came from an album back in 1999 or 2000. I think Bootsy(an old funk dude from the 1970's. He was a fan of theirs and agreed to do some tracks/beats) did some of the cuts on that album







There very first album came out in 1993/1994 and after T-Bone, I was really into them....back in the mid 1990's





Outside of the christian rap subculture, they were mostly known for this video

I forgot what year this came out. It was the album before the one in the second youtube clip.


my bad......no clip.



This is the DVD they are putting out: called "street Disciple"





In the christian hiphop World, we have two deaths........ one is a dude named "Street Disciple". He's from New York, and he died some years ago. I forgot how he died. I think someone killed him.

And the first was D-Boy. He's from Texas and a Texas Gang killed him back in the early to mid 1990's.

They killed him because he was rapping against the gang culture and he was taking alot of youth away from the ganglife. So they killed him.

I don't know what Camp 8 "Gospel Gangaters" are gonna show on their DVD, but the crips and bloods in LA seem to like them.


Well this is the end of this class lecteur.


I guess many are asking why am I into christian rap? Well, I listened to rap when I was little. My parents wouldn't allow it, but I listened to it anyway behind there backs. Later in highschool was when I was introduced to christian rap, and I must say, that it helped keep me away from sleeping around, smoking drugs, and going into the gang and thug culture in my highschool and college years.

And in those years, I use to rap. I broke up with my highschool rap group, because they wanted to rap about things I no longer could. So I started doing christian rap in highschool. And in college, I made alot of beats and I stayed in the christian rap culture. I still know alot who are in the culture. And many of them know that I converted to Eastern Orthodoxy.

I still have good relations with alot of them. So in short......it's part of what I grew up with. It's part of my sub-culture.




JNORM888