What do John Piper, C.J. Maheny, Ludacris, and Lupe Fiasco have in common?

Lecrae is one of the most recognized faces in the Reformed Hip Hop Movement.  Lecrae, Trip Lee, KB, Tedashii, Pro, and Andy Mineo are all apart of the 116 Clique, which is taken from the passage in Romans 1:16 that says, “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek” (ESV)  Lecrae confessed that the 116 Clique, all members of Reach Records, is a movement.  He said in an interview, “…we’re a movement.  This isn’t some fly-by-night group of dudes rapping to sell records.  We really are a literal movement.  If we weren’t doing music, we’d still be trying to change communities and change people’s world by communicating who Jesus is.”

This “movement” has been praised by people like John Piper, C.J. Maheny, Ludacris, and Lupe Fiasco.  It has received acclaim not only from Reformed circles, but also from accomplished secular hip hop artist.  What Lecrae and his fellow artists are expressing is a biblical systematic worldview by means of hip hop, its medium.  These guys are modern day apologists of the faith.  I define an apologists as anyone who applies a biblical worldview systematically to all areas of life as Lacrae said it himself in an interview with Pastor Tim, the worship pastor at Mars Hill Church in Seattle.  He calls it lyrical theology, a phrase coined by Shai Linne, another reformed rapper.

I truly believe that without a systematic biblical worldview, evangelism suffers.  Everyone has a systematic presupposition that governs their life.  Before one can accept Jesus Christ, one must declare him as Lord and God.  One cannot reach this realization until one’s worldview about God, life, man, and nature are addressed.  Many people believe in Jesus, but they don’t believe that He is God.  If Jesus isn’t God, then all revelation from God is suspect.  The corollary affects are devastating.  Man and God are on par with each other.  God no longer becomes the all sovereign one.  His power is limited, and therefore unable to have dominion over a totally sin depraved humanity. 

We can all learn from Lecrae’s method, in terms of apologetically reaching the culture around us.   Since we as Christians claim to have a biblical world view, then we should not shy away from opportunities to make God’s glory known, particularly in the realm of the arts as expressed through hip hop.  I conclude with a final quote from Lecrae…

“I’m authentically Hip Hop.  I’m part of the culture.  It’s what I know.  It’s what I was raised in, but I’m authentically Christian too…so I’m not gone shy away from that.  I’m just talking about what goes on in real life…like the devastation that happened in Haiti, how I feel about it and God’s perspective on it.”