Growing up in a Christian home meant certain types of music wouldn’t be found within the vicinity of the house. This of course wasn’t always the case because, in a typical Nigerian home, you’ll most likely find older cousins, uncles, and aunties who had “forbidden” music in their CDs or cassette tapes. I still grew up listening to a lot of Christian music of varying forms in the early 2000s.
The first time I probably heard a rap verse on a recording of a Christian song was on Kirk Franklin’s “Revolution” off The Nu Nation Project. I said recording because I had heard a couple of rap verses performed at my local church. There was a Christian youth group boom in the early 2000s in my city, a number of them were already getting inspired by music from artists such as the legendary Cross Movement. Beyond just my city though, Christian youths spread across the country, especially on university campuses had started taking into the genre little by little. This sub-genre of HipHop provided a sense of identity and community with a message that will shape a generation of church youths.
T-Bone and Lil Zane rapping on “To da River” from the movie ‘The Fighting Temptations’ which was quite popular in Christian cycles, was an eye-opener to what could be achieved with rap infused with Christian lyrics. A friend of mine had T-Bone’s Boneyard Box Set and we spent a lot of our free time in secondary school (high school equivalent) listening to 45 songs spread across three CDs.
Delving deeper we discovered a bigger community of artists with The Cross Movement, Da’ T.R.U.T.H., Flame, and Lecrae being the popular artists we could lay our hands on. Christian rap started becoming much more than a cool way to introduce a rap twist to Christian songs, it also introduced a culture and community to us.
Towards the tail-end of the 2000s, we discovered a plethora of artists. Albums such as Lecrae’s Rebel and The Big Picture by Da’ T.R.U.T.H. were some of the influential albums on us as young teenagers. The music was helping us understand our faith better and also deepened our theology. The music was also inspiring a fresh wave of CHH artists that were emerging from Nigeria.
Christian rap artists in Nigeria were already springing up since the early and mid-2000s but both the Internet and social media penetration from the early 2010s made these little pockets of communities something bigger. The music that was usually shared from device to device started reaching a wider audience. Collaborations between artists from different parts of the country started happening and this led to an expansion in the community. Media channels such as churchboiz, rapfuture, praiseworldradio, and so many more sprung up to tell the stories of these emerging artists and to also share the music with a much broader community.
Artists such as Charlz Dogo of blessed memory, Nolly, Nutty Josh, RymstaRay, Spokesman, Gamie, TB1, Samjamz, 5minutes, DaBoomsha, Soul Flame, and a whole host of artists were at the forefront of this new wave of Christian rap in Nigeria. The biggest CHH artists from this era and probably the only artists to have attained some sort of mainstream success in the Nigerian music scene from this era were the dynamic duo referred to as Rooftop MCs and a phenomenal female rapper known as B.O.U.Q.U.I. These artists had a couple of mainstream hits and were regulars on the radio and tv channels.
Despite the growing popularity of Christian Hip-Hop among communities of Christian youths, the church in general did not really welcome the music. Of course, there were a few anomalies like I mentioned earlier, one of the first places I heard Christian rap was inside my church. This hostility towards CHH still exists to this day although it has evolved into a seeming form of acceptance while being classified as less spiritual or edifying compared to other genres of music. This has discouraged a lot of the artists but has also propelled the artists to look beyond the church walls and take the music to the streets and beyond while building a solid fanbase, especially through social media.
Over the years, CHH heavyweights have made Nigeria part of their tour stops. In 2013, The Ambassador, Da’ T.R.U.T.H., and Jahaziel visited the cities of Lagos and Abuja during the Xist Music tour. This led to a collaboration between B.O.U.Q.U.I and Da’ T.R.U.T.H with conversations about starting Xist Africa which never really took off.
Sho Baraka and S.O. visited the cities of Lagos, Abuja, Kaduna, and Jos in 2015. Da’ T.R.U.T.H alongside Jackie Hill Perry, Preston Perry, and a couple of poets visited some cities in Nigeria as part of their tour stops in 2016. And most recently, Lecrae was in the city of Lagos in the December of 2022.
These various tour stops have brought together the community of fans, musicians, and media outlets to experience on a more intimate level this subgenre that has impacted their lives so well.
CHH is still influencing and birthing a new generation of artists from Nigeria. Afrogospel artist Limoblaze is an example of such an artist. Now signed to Reach Records, the versatile musician who started off as a rapper but now expresses himself using Afrogospel always talks about how Lecrae’s Rehab changed his life. Now, something of an international star, Limoblaze alongside artists such as Rehmahz, Amose, Obareengy, and many more are examples of how CHH is inspiring a new generation of artists from Nigeria that do not necessarily express themselves primarily using the medium of rap.
On the flip side, CHH is still inspiring a number of Nigerian youths who express themselves primarily through rap. Artists such as Eazy Bob Wizzy, Phrv, Pillar YRR, Vblaiz, Baron Jay, Day3, Ryt Path Co, and many more are examples of artists who are building something of a cult following through this genre of music.
Christian Rap over the years has helped shape the faith, identity, and culture of a number of Nigerian Christian youths in unique ways. This subgenre of Hip-Hop despite the controversies and kickbacks that it has suffered is still growing gradually and influencing a new generation of Nigerian youths that are unashamed of the gospel and living for His glory alone.
Listen to Our Christian Rap Africa Playlist Below:
