Lecrae Bet Make America Great Again

Lecrae Freestyles Good News for Blackness Lives

Anyone who has been following Lecrae on Twitter since the Ferguson riots, will notice that he has increasingly spotlighted racial injustice, peculiarly, in regards to the police shootings of African-American men, women and children.

Most recently, on September 19th, he tweeted about Colin Kaepernick's National Anthem protestation: "Accept a human knee…people riot. Have a bullet…people quiet." Tweets such as this and Lecrae's July 4th tweet of a blackness slave family unit in a cotton field with the caption, "My family on July 4th 1776", have angered some evangelicals, who think Lecrae's public platform and music should be use to preach the gospel, and non rally behind social justices causes.

But it is considering of Lecrae'due south deep-rooted organized religion in the gospel that he is driven to speak against racial injustices ; his 2016 BET Hip Hop Awards spoken word performance is no exception. In that night'south performance, he engages with a complex web of systemic racism and hip hop materialism, only with a want to proclaim a gospel hope.

Framing the vocal effectually Donald Trump's campaign slogan, "Brand America Great Once again", Lecrae asks, "When was America corking?" When blackness families were separated, "'Cause we was taken from Africa/ Sold and treated similar animals" or when there was silence later Philando Castille was killed? Was America not bad and then? And lest the hip hop community thinks it is immune to this type of oppression, Lecrae speaks of the connection of the rap industry to systemic racism:

Look at us from sellin' dope to our ain kind
To a dope rhyme
Radio and so played it more times
Paid in more dimes
To some manufacture exec
Getting checks
From a private prison
With the rap money he invest

This is both an indictment of the system that holds up the oppression of African-Americans and the types of unhelpful messages that hip hop delivers to that aforementioned community. Furthermore, Lecrae points out that "We're besides content with the gold and the cars" as cheap materialist replacements for real freedom, a liberty grounded in Jesus' annunciation in Nazareth proclaiming, "liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to fix at liberty those who are oppressed" (Luke 4:xviii ).

Lecrae connects this announcement to himself, "Now, I know y'all're similar is this rap or is this gospel/ Look, all you demand to know is that I was blind/ Now I'1000 not though." It is on this hope and desire to impart to a black community facing oppression, fear, and death, which leads him to say, "I pray to God he make you a better you." And while Lecrae acknowledges the ongoing struggle for the dignity and worth of blackness bodies in America, he ends his freestyle by jubilant black resilience in the face of oppression, "But somehow we made it this far/ And stood firm/ With nappy hairs and perms/ And led for two terms."

Lecrae, in performances like the hip hop awards, shows usa that defending black lives is at the heart of the gospel. If the kickoff of Jesus' earthly ministry building is a proclamation of skillful news for the oppressed, shouldn't those of united states of america who follow Christ view justice for black lives as an integral function of the gospel too? Lecrae, in speaking up for blackness lives, is brushing up against the blazon of Christianity that Howard Thurman indicted in Jesus and the Disinherited:

Too often, the price exacted by a society for security and respectability is that the Christian movement in its formal expression must be on the side of the strong confronting the weak. This is a matter of tremendous significance, for it reveals to what extent a religion that was born of a people acquainted with persecution and suffering has become the cornerstone of civilization and of nations whose very position in modern life has too oft been secured by a ruthless use of power applied to weak and defenseless peoples.

Likewise often, American evangelicalism has positioned itself as a broker of ability instead of the ability which strengthens the weak, oppressed and marginalized. Similar Lecrae, I hope as Christians we can all say, "Allow me be quiet/ Nah/ 'Cause being silent is pitiful/ It'due south something I never do," — especially considering of the practiced liberating news of Jesus, nosotros must speak on behalf of the oppressed. When we don't, our gospel witness suffers; and instead of proclaiming freedom for the oppressed now and eternally, our God appears unconcerned with the suffering of African-Americans and the hope of sky becomes just a hustle. May we instead announce a gospel that is skilful news and liberty for the poor, persecuted and powerless.

Matthew Linder

Matt is a music professor at National University and writes on the intersection of faith and hip hop. He too dances horribly to Selena Gomez, just his wife and daughter nevertheless beloved him anyways.

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Source: https://thewitnessbcc.com/lecrae-freestyles-good-news-black-lives/