We received this email from Moe Lynch of RighteousEnt and were very encouraged by it and we hope the Christian rap community is too! The rest of this post is everything he wrote.
*Edited to fix a few punctuations
Open Letter to Rapzilla and CHH artists.
Back in 2005, I got hipped to Holy Culture Radio and a plethora of emcees that took the art form to an entirely whole new level. Everyone knows that Christian Hip Hop was looked upon as extra corny in the 90s when you put it up against the likes of Nas, Biggie, Jay, Snoop, and Pac. In ’05 when I got a taste of Sivion, Braille, Todd Bangz, Mahogany Jones, theBREAX, and Cookbook & Uno Mas, I ate it up as if I was at the dopest buffet restaurant where I could eat all I wanted and not get sick. The raps were raw, the beats were bangin’, and finally, in my opinion, it rivaled the best secular emcees at that time in 2005. As a filmmaker, I was so inspired by this new crop of emcees that I created a documentary called “Blaze: The Truth Through Hip Hop.” I was ecstatic to share this CHH movement at film festivals in 2006 and ultimately ended up with a distribution deal.
Fast forward 17 years later and a lot of emcees have put down the mic and a few outlets such as Sphere of Hip Hop (*they are still around*) and Da South have closed shop due to financial issues, lack of coverage, personal beef within the industry, or even issues with Christianity itself. For those that persevered I just want to say thank you from a fan’s standpoint. Thank you, Rapzilla, for your immense work in keeping the fans up to date with who’s poppin’ and who to check out on our streaming platforms. To me, Rapzilla is my personal version of The Source magazine, and it takes me back to that teenager in 1995 flipping through pages to see who’s the latest and greatest in the industry. Without your dedication to keeping your ear to the street, I wouldn’t know who Mission was. I would’ve never heard about nobigdyl., Datin, 1K Phew, F.L.O.G.I.C., and Kidd Lee to name a few.
To the artists who feel like their streaming numbers are low or their sales aren’t where they should be, just know that you have a fan that is constantly checking for you. You may not have Drake numbers but just know that you have a fan here in Atlanta bumpin’ your music down the street proudly. Your talents are not unrecognized nor in vain. God is making an impact with your music in my life. When you feel like giving up just know that there’s a fan here in Atlanta waiting for you to drop that next single, EP, or album. Keep doing what you’re doing and don’t ever, ever, ever give up. Even if you never blow up to the status that you’re striving for just know when you reach Heaven God is still gonna say, “Well done my good and faithful servant.”
Thank you, Rapzilla. Thank you to the CHH community. Keep doing what you do.
Sincerely,
Moe Lynch
