I work at Family Christian Store and one of the main types of products that we sell in the store are CDs. It is mostly contemporary Christian music (CCM), gospel, and praise & worship, but there are also some hip-hop and other genres in there as well.
There are usually 30-40 different Christian hip-hop CDs in the store. Some of them sell regularly. Or maybe I should say one of them. There is probably at least one customer who purchases Lecrae’s Anomaly in the store every day. The most recent albums of the other Reach Records artists also sell well. What disappoints me is seeing a large amount of Christian hip-hop albums in there that have been there for a long time; some may have been there for over six months, some may have been there for years.
Honestly, most people who come in to get music already have an idea of what they want, and it is usually not hip-hop. That is no fault of theirs. It is not a bad thing that most of the visitors to the store are not interested in Christian hip-hop; it simply is what it is.
Though most Christian hip-hop artists’ CDs don’t sell well at this store I am often amazed at the distribution of products from Reach Records. One day we got a shipment of over fifteen DVDs of music videos from Reach Records artists. I don’t know if anyone will ever buy them; very few people come in there for music videos. There are also many Anomaly CDs coming in. I remember that last summer we had a box full of Church Clothes 2 CDs. We still have about ten of them left after over six months. I hear that the majority of people at Christian hip-hop concerts are suburban white people of a high school/college age, but that doesn’t mean that they grew up listening to CCM.
One interesting thing that came as a pleasant surprise is that there are a few Christian hip-hop artists on the store’s music playlist that play in the background. Lecrae’s “Tell the World” featuring Mali Music, Tenth Avenue North’s “For Those Who Can’t Speak” featuring KB and Derek Minor, and for King And Country’s “Run Wild,” featuring Andy Mineo, just to name a few. Notice that all of those artists are from Reach Records, and though Derek Minor is no longer on Reach Records, it is where he gained a large amount of his popularity and support. Lecrae has been featured on songs by several popular CCM and praise & worship artists, but outside of Reach Records, I honestly don’t think that Christian hip-hop as a whole is becoming popular among listeners of contemporary Christian music, which is what the majority of the music in the store is categorized as.
From a standpoint of people that I personally know at school, not a single one of them is into Christian hip-hop. They are mostly white and grew up in suburban or rural areas. If I tell them that I listen to Christian hip-hop, I usually hear “Oh yeah, I’ve heard of Lecrae” or maybe they mention one of the other Reach Records artists. There has been one person I met here at college who does listen to Christian hip-hop, but when I asked them if they liked Swoope, this person had never heard of him.
CCM makes up almost the entirety of what my friends who listen to “Christian” music listen to, and honestly, it’s disappointing because there is a lot of awesome music out there that I would love for my friends and everybody to listen to.
What do you think about the popularity of Christian hip-hop among listeners of CCM music? Let us know in the comments below!
RELATED: Why I Deleted Over 850 CHH Songs
Totally understand how you think of it. I only go to Family Christian for all my physical copies. What is sad is how the records I are not as diverse as they could be. Which bothers me a lot.
Thanks for the feedback! I think the reason that most of the CDs are from big time artists is that physical distribution of CDs is very expensive for artists, it’s often not worth it financially to do that. I like getting albums there cause I can get good discounts, often making it cheaper than iTunes.
That is pretty much my life. Haha I live in North Idaho and just graduated high school last year, and no one else here listens to chh avidly like I do. Not even people my age in the church. Like you said, when I say I listen to it, everyone is like “oh yeah I’ve listened to lecrae before”. Both Christians and non Christians say that, but when I say I love Social Club or Alex Faith or something like that, even those who listen to CCM aren’t familiar with those artists. One guy in my church even told me “really? There aren’t even that many good Christian hip hop artists though!” I almost laughed at him.
You should tune them into our app so they can listen 24/7 and see the wide variety!
Typically, the young adult/teen who is most likely listening to these records are probably getting them from iTunes or just streaming the singles from YouTube, SoundCloud or Spotify. Just my thoughts!
Good read tho!
Totally get that too. I also feel like having the physical copy gives it more meaning. I know this is not what the article wrote about but like I still have so much love for Trip Lee’s Between Two Worlds. But like I said totally different topic.
Well I know I fall into this category and use Spotify/iTunes instead, because there’s not really a reason to go out and get a physical copy most of the time.
I program a Christian radio station in San Diego, where we play Christian hits, rock, and some CHH. In an attempt to expose Christian Hip Hop to those Christian music listeners you’ve described, I have added 3 hours of CHH on Saturday nights. I promote it throughout the day, and hope that more people show an interest. Young adults in particular who listen to Christian music (or secular Hip Hip) are really missing out on some great music. I would encourage other Christian music station to feature CHH as well. -Mark Blackwell, The Crossing
Hopefully you’re airing our syndicated show, if you aren’t already 😉
I think hearing hip-hop and rap just turns people off because of its bad rep, but Reach and a lot of guys like NF and indies are doing great things for CHH. It’ll just take time
Agreed!