A bit of the past lives today

I have often stated that many ingredients combine to make up the rancid stew of racism. Ignorance is the biggest one. The recipe of racism also includes sins of ommission, hate, greed, lust and just about anything else that can be rung up under the banner of humanity.

I will never go so far as to say that racism is the cause of Christian radio's slow embracing of the hip-hop culture. But I will loudly state that ignorance and sins of ommission are. People are going to program what they will, but the urban formats have long been ignored by the Christian music industrial complex because of it's predominate thrust toward protecting the formats which will pay the bills. AC, Inspo, CHR.......Eventhough there are many pioneers and great people within CCM, when it comes to taking a risk on something culturally relevant, that might be a different road than that of a current support base, CCM would rather follow than lead. And to be honest, I ask myself the question, "Why DOES hip-hop NEED CCM any way?" Urban music is already culturally connected to the gospel in a way that AC only wishes it was. It really doesn't matter what people think about 50 Cent or the judgement they put on DMX for including Christian oriented songs on their albums, because these people aren't caught up in a complex of irrational beliefs that segregate us. Urban and hip-hop music are huge. They aren't going away. I remember back in the early 90's when DC Talk was predominately a rap group, a record executive at their label seemed to think that rap could only last a few years. Hmmmm. For DC Talk, maybe, but the important thing to realize is that a whole other thing was going on a long time ago, and it has now replaced what rock n roll spawned in the 50's as the dominant cultural musical style for at least the next 3 decades to come.