Music can be a really touchy topic, if not a proverbial “third rail.” At times I am asked whether Christians can listen to “secular” music. After wrestling with the question, I’ve come to a firm, unshakeable conclusion:  it depends. A blanket “yes” or “no” is surely not wise; most people would not take issue with classical music or tame hits such as John Denver’s “Country Roads.” 

Rather than toss such a blanket condemnation or endorsement over any music genre or style, Christians should pose a series of questions: 

• Does the music in question have an anti-Christian message? If it is saturated with sexual innuendos or explicit lyrics, blasphemes the name of Christ or contradicts Christian doctrine, it is definitely “off-limits.” To quote Luther, music tends to “stick to the soul.” So if music is unspiritual, blasphemous, heretical or insulting to our loving and wonderful God, why would we want to listen to it?
• Does this music take me back to unhealthy places reminiscent of days prior to conversion or times of backsliding? For example, every time the song “How Bizarre,” I remember 9th-grade Algebra when a friend and I would sing its chorus and practically die laughing. Memories like that are just fun and not sinful. But we need to steer clear of music that causes us to revisit places of sinful behavior and habits. 

I believe one sub-genre these questions would generally exclude under a Christian worldview is "gangsta" rap, because nearly all its lyrics are misogynistic, vulgar, violent, sexually explicit, and anti-authority. How do I know? Because the hip hop world took my generation by storm, and as soon as I obtained my driver’s license and my own listening “space,” gangsta rap became my music of choice. Even as a white boy from North Carolina, I was first intrigued by and then fell in love with this style of music that sought to articulate what life on the streets of South-Central California was actually like.

Although I haven’t listened to this style of music in 20 years, I can share some things we could all learn from it. 

First, gangsta rap reveals the total depravity of humanity. Sons of the 90s will remember with pride buying albums labeled “Parental Advisory: Explicit Lyrics.” And oh my, how explicit and vulgar they were, celebrating all manner of degeneracy from murder to rape to drugs – basically everything about today’s society that now as a parent and pastor I recognize to be destructive for my kids and culture.  

I have learned that hip-hop was not necessarily written (at every point) to glorify life on the streets in Compton or the Bronx, but rather to explain it to outsiders. However, this does not excuse such behavior! Even if listeners didn’t desire to engage in the debauched behaviors expressed, our deceitful and desperately wicked hearts nonetheless identified with the content– because sinners love sin. And in my unconverted days, I preferred reveling in the filth of this world than the glory of Jesus Christ as reflected in Chrisian music. I was like the rest of mankind  described by Paul in Ephesians 2. I was a son of disobedience, dead in the trespasses and sins in which I then walked, following the course of this world and the prince of the power of the air.

A second lesson brought out by a look back at gangsta rap is music’s attraction to hurting people seeking a substitute for Christ. Nirvana lead singer Kurt Cobain was practically a prophet to 1990s Generation Xers. His “angst-fueled songwriting and anti-establishment persona,” as described on Wikipedia, mournful guitar music and screaming lyrics reflecting a heart of rage ironically served as a soothing balm for teens suffering the intense internal agony and loneliness of those often-brutal years. I recall his theme of fury at a broken world system that I have since come to recognize as the heart cry not just of teens who don’t know Christ, but of every lost sinner who needs Him. Gangsta’s own expression of anger at society similarly resonated with me because as a youth I was filled with resentment and the desire to do things my way and distance myself from the God of my parents. 

And a third, perhaps surprising lesson from my reflections on my past entertainment consumption is that rap as an overall genre can and must be redeemed. Rap music is simply an art form, created by truly talented performers, which can be used for sinful expression or the glory of God through the redemption found in Christ. Rembrandt was renowned as the painter of the Reformation and Bach as a Christian composer, and Christian musicians, artists, actors and even comedians today use their talents to glorify God. What is different about those who are gifted to rap?

Many brothers and sisters have in fact succeeded in redeeming rap music by infusing it with the Gospel. While some may doubt that is possible, and I personally don’t think Christian rap is suited for congregational worship, I believe it can be used for personal edification. Songs by artists like Shai Linne, Beautiful Eulogy, Trip Lee and others often contain more theology and gospel than many classic hymns. 

At a conference featuring a great deal of Christian rappers, including one track from a Shai Linne album that especially stuck in my mind, evangelist Paul Washer observed that what God has done with the music of Christian hip-hop-artists is what He has done to every sinner: taken us from a state of vulgarity, vileness, and sin and recreated us into the image of His Son. 

Praise be to King Jesus! This truly is my firm, and possibly unexpected, conviction from my look back at gangsta rap music: if you enjoy the style, the right Christian hip-hop is chocked full of theological insight as the gospel-centered catechisms of old. It can for sure help fuel your discipleship.  

Soli Deo Gloria!