January is behind us. At this rate, it will be Advent season again before I can blink. Before that happens, here are 15 things I’d love to see in the CHH movement in 2015. Some fun. Some serious. Some personal. I hope all of them come true.
- More artists embracing Swoope’s theme of unity from “Same Team.”
- Along the same vein, I would love to see the CHH movement have a more active voice in helping to heal America’s racially divided church. As artist’s whose fan base tends to cross different cultures, I believe we can serve the church universal in that capacity.
- Artists putting out more resources than just music, i.e. Trip Lee’s Rise book
- Json’s #NoMoreSecrets campaign beginning the healing for a lot of people.
- More maturity in the necessary discussions about our different ministry approaches.
- Established artists following Lecrae’s footsteps of dropping high-quality mixtapes. I work with a lot of teens as a Young Life leader and loved being able to burn these and give them away.
- A CHH conference in the mid-Atlantic, perhaps in Washington D.C. or Liberty University in Lynchburg, VA. The CHH fans in my area always have to travel so far to attend the major conferences, which tend to be in Atlanta, Chicago, and Tampa, etc.
- A healthy Canon returning to the stage.
- For the Reach Records artists – Trip, Andy, Lecrae and Tedashii – to remake the Cross Movement classic My Life Cypha.
- A song featuring both MikeREAL and JGivens. These are two of the newer artists that I love.
- A group that fills a void that the Cross Movement left; a commitment to that old rugged east coast hip-hop style that is both Christ-saturated and doctrinally weighty. Lamp Mode is sort of like that, but they don’t typically do group albums and it’s not always rugged east coast hip-hop.
- More Christ promotion than self-promotion.
- Producers returning to more samples. I may be alone in this, but I really love when producers bring back to life a classic sample out of an old gospel song. S.O.’s sampling “More Than I Can Bear” and Sho Baraka’s “Mahalia” are examples.
- Someone to make a mini-documentary on the making of Ambassador’s Christology: In Laymen’s Terms – a classic, genre-changing CHH album – like a smaller scale version of the Time Is Illmatic
- A movement-wide return to the emphasis on the music as ministry.
Jam The Hype wants to hear from you. What number do you most agree with? What do you want to see happen in 2015?
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Dope list. 1. Gotta give you fam props. I’m a Young Life leader in South-Eastern PA. 2. Being from the Philly area, I’m with you on the CHH Conference deal coming to the region. That’s one of my desires as someone who plans on going into event production/concert promotion/etc. 3. Cross Movement is to date my favorite group and created some of my favorite tracks. Their sound has absolutely been absent. I feel you. Those are my big 3, if you will. But I’m all in with this list. Glad to see it isn’t just a big list of upcoming projects. Oh, and you might have forgotten to throw KB into that Reach list.
What about another 116 clique album?
More relating to Cross Movement if I’m not mistaken.
12 realy hits it on the nail 4 me
Would definitely love another Cross Movement type group! I still listen to Heaven’s Mentality!
Female Christian rappers being accepted as equals and acknowledged as viable in the industry as well as more acceptance and acknowledgment of singers that fit into the Christian rap genre besides being on a rappers hook.
I can get with them all but #2, 6, 8, 11, 13 are my favorites. As for # 7, I am from the ATL, so I am biased.
As much as I loved Cross Movement and they impacted my life, that rugged East Coast sound is D.E.A.D! Doesn’t need to come back, lol!
Seeing that you’re a host of one of the biggest CHH radio shows, this comment is actually shocking, in that East Coast HAS been coming back especially in the mainstream industry. o_0 I listen to all types, but East Coast is never dead, that’s crazy lol!
I feel ya homie, I would love for the sound to come back. I grew up on the Wu, NAS and Biggie!
Joey Bada$$ is dope and could def put the sound/style back on the map among others. But we are far from it making any kind of noise in the CHH world… DEAD for now.
It’s sad that you think that it’s dead, for the youth group crowd, yes it is dead and that is probably your market group, but labels like Illect is STILL holding it down. emcees like Playdough and Sean P, Manchild has a new album coming. It’s not DEAD it’s just not supported by the mainstream. Typical. But it’s alive and well.
Those are dope artist and I love them. Good to hear that Manchild is dropping a new project! But you are right, the sound is def not supported by majority of new CHH fans. Yes sad but true. It is alive but “well” is an over statement. When they start selling albums we can say it is “well”.
Yeah Chris, it’s crazy. It exactly why we can’t get a decent “house” music genre off the ground. No appreciation for the roots! This club musicEDM is a far cry from House.
Chris, I think you’re statement that “when they start selling albums we can say it is ‘well'” is a interesting. You’re proving Chris Lassiter’s point # 15 with that statement…it’s all business. I believe the focus of CHH has moved so far away from ministry that now there’s only one measure of success…selling albums. I don’t believe that to be true.
I’ve echoed John Wells’ statement, a statement he made wayyyy back in the 90’s, (I hope that it’s still valid even though it was said so long ago) that every ministry/rapper/mc/group in CHH has to figure out what their own measure of success is. I worry when the media says it’s album sales. I worry when the media says it’s ANY one thing. I believe like the calling on our lives, like the calling we get to even come to a saving knowledge of Christ…the measure of success for CHH artists should be personal as well. Where one might be called to mainstream ministry (that’s how I choose to look at it and hope for it), another may be called to rock in freestyle shows or battle raps or in local clubs or, DARE I SAY IT??? the CHURCH!!! lol. As long as someone is called and they answer that call, then it’s all good. However, according to your stated measure of success here, the backpack rapper that spits fiya in a small, smoke-filled club on a weekly basis and reps Christ…he’s not successful.
I just can’t agree with that at all. Not everyone can be a Lecrae. And not everyone can be a Freestyle Fam. And not everyone can be a K-Drama…I can go on and on.
Sorry if this is too long or offensive. My post was meant to be neither.
Really good feedback everyone. And Marcus, we’ll have to get up and swap Young Life stories one day. I’m hoping to be near Philly at the end of July.
Great article bro!
More diversity in CHH in sound, not just dirty south “turn up” music. Also diversity in ethnicity of our artist.
AMEN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Preach!!!!!!!!!!!!
Yes please!
Number 11!!!!!! is really needed for the “seasoned” saints. I wish that they would just come back and drop two albums for us though, since hardly anyone is doing the type of music they produced anymore.
11, 13, and 14. and MORE females/better females. Labels really should look into them.
Excellent List. I can personally say I (3PFD) and my team are working on #3 Artists putting out more resources than just music, i.e. Trip Lee’s Rise book. We launched a concept rap battle league that uses the medium of battle rap to confront real life issues and struggles from a Christ Centered perspective. I also plan on teaching some hip-hop classes through my local church to grow the talent and ministry of the next generation.
More upper echelon Christian rappers taking the effort to recognize, collaborate with, and generally give shine to the emcees who came before, who, because of the lack of internet access during their day, did their thing in relative obscurity.
HINT: If you only think I’m talking about The Cross Movement guys, then it’s obvious how much this is needed.
A to the MEN!!!
#8 Because a miracle resurrected Canon makes a statement about the God who we serve and it turns any evil thoughts about why did it happen to him? Let a Romans 8:28 It turned for his good like Joseph Genesis 50 :20 God met it for good to save many more souls
:presses like button:
Great list. 12, 8,7,1 and my favorites. How about: more business-minded people running CHH behind the scenes, more artists learning the business side of the industry, improved artist-DJ relationships, and TRUE mixtapes coming back. Enough of this putting 12 songs together, giving it out for free with no DJ putting it together (see: blends , scratches, etc.) and calling it a mixtape. Also enough of this us vs them re: dealing with other areas of Christian music (traditional, contemporary, CCM, etc.)
I agree with #1 most. Unity needs to take place ASAP. 2-15 will fall into place with the start of #1
Another reach records collab album …its been 4 years
A welcome to
another RMG welcome to the family project ..its been 3 years and they have added 2 and possibly 3 artist with nobigdyl
Wow. This is profound. Thank you JamThe Hype for addressing so many bullets. I want to see more Christocentric music (which you probably mentioned). #Salute
Someone to make a mini-documentary on the making of LPG’s Earthworm – a classic, genre-changing CHH album – like a smaller scale version of the Time Is Illmatic