I just turned 31 on August 3. It wasn’t as scary of a feeling as when I turned 30, but I realized something. I’m closer to 40 than I was before. That means I’m statistically getting close to point where my generated income from a paycheck would start to go down. This means retirement, let alone passing something along to my descendants or church family, will be harder if I don’t get on the ball now and plan. I’ve known these realities since I was 21, but they faded to the background. Conversely, one of the loudest and most thought-provoking voices in my life is Christian Hip Hop.
Let’s have a real honest conversation about age, money, and hip-hop. I think it is the thing that has been a big undercurrent of our reality without us actually talking about the core issues of it. I’m not talking about tithing, seed faith, or even poverty. Each element is a big deal in our genre and I’ve heard few albums even come close to maturely talking on the issue. This isn’t a point-fingers-at-people article, but I do want to focus to some key songs and concepts that are the invisible hand shaping our economic lenses.
Let’s be honest – being a hip-hop artist is a young, single man’s game. It is easier to be a young, male hip-hop artist than a middle aged female one. If you are married or have children, the road is a lot tougher because to make money you have to be away from your family. To be a good steward of your family you have to be involved and have a measure of personal presence. A Christian hip-hop artist on average does worse off economically than his secular counter part. Because of this reality, more travel and more time away may be needed for economic stability. “Big time” on the scale of a Christian hip-hop artist is about mid or the bottom of top tier for a secular artist. So where does the home/away balance come in? Can we ever say to an artist that they need to sit down because they travel too much? Can we say to an artist that they need to sit down because they are not being responsible or not making enough money preforming? Currently I don’t have an answer to that.
