Dr. Dre

Dr. Dre is an unexpected person to wind up on this blog for obvious reasons.  However on “2001” his second studio album the last song is called “The Message” it has a great beat that is all the way through the album but the subject matter of the lyrics are far different.  It is written by another famous rapper Royce D’59 and performed by Dr. Dre.  It is just a prayer about a Friend that Dre had lost and talking about his grieving proses over the tragedy in his life.  We may not all be able to relate to the pain that he has but it is a powerful song and should be on everyone’s iPod. Great song.  

Dyme Def

Dyme Def is a pretty unknown rap group but they have a lot of religious ideas in their songs.  “Let it be” uses the Beatles song as a sample.  It shows the way that God is with us here on earth and it shows the struggles of this life and we can mostly all relate in some way to some of the struggles and how we should get through them.  “For the World” is a song more about the relationships that we have with people the love that we share with our friends and family.  It also taps into how God is with in the bond that we have as humans.

Public Enemy

Public Enemy is a great example of a rap group that influenced a lot rappers through the years.  They were a very influential group and are known for having very intelligent lyrics and “HE got Game” is the perfect religious rap song if there ever was one.  The way that they describe life in this song is both hauntingly beautiful and as real as it gets.  Asking where is Christ in all this crisis in a poetic way that shows perfectly how people should see and live life.  It is a wonderful song that I would recommend for everyone as a song right before you pray.  It is very worshipful and thought provoking and is from one of the first hip-hop groups.           

Watch the Throne 2

These two artists at this point are so comfortable with this idea of religion in hip-hop that they bring up a lot of kind of far out ideas about religion.  It could be as modest as “Made it in America” thanking sweat baby Jesus for their live or “Why I Love You” saying Lord forgive them for they not know what they do.  And as radical as no church in the wild which brings the idea that a god is pretty powerless over a nonbeliever.  We all know that God has way more power than any human but our God is one that doesn’t interfere too much in our lives if a person were to go against God, God would not kill them right there that is what they mean when they say that if you have any more question that come up listening shoot me a comment.         

Watch the Throne

“Watch the Throne” has a lot of religious lyrics as I said in the last post.  It is a Duo album between Kanye West and Jay-z.  The Throne is hands down one of the greatest rap albums ever, and it is just great.  Religious parts are everywhere and not in the same fashion of most other rapper do.  They have put trust in us as listener that we will understand what they are trying to say with some of their versus.  I would recommend that when you listen to some of the songs on this album you would really think about what they are trying to say because you could interpret it wrong and I will try to explain some of it in my next post.   

Jay-z

Jay-z has been mentioned in this blog before in the Kanye West post.  He also has some religious ideas in his songs one of the most notable is Lucifer.  If you listen to this and say that it is anti-religious because it’s all about killing your enemies just read the bible it is full of war and murder.  Specifically Psalm 35, Lucifer is a modern day version of Psalm 35.  Saying that God will help you take out any “devil” or enemy you have if you are with God.  Jay-z also brings up a great point about it being the devil who makes you sin which is partially true in the end.  He was also on the duo album with Kanye West “Watch the Throne” which has a lot religiousness in it.