Gettin' Crunk for Jesus! Wait, Can You Do That?

The Christian rap concert that took place at Siegfred Hall Saturday looked and sounded a lot like any other rap concert, but with people spitting about their love for God and a lack of the sexually liberal, scantily-clad women. This was definitely a kid-friendly show, but the energy was about as grown as the college kids who put it on. Plus, the lyricism these emcees had were far beyond basic.

Only 1 Way opened up the show. They were a pretty energetic trio, did a lot of dancing on stage and were very charming. They even threw in a full dance routine for one of their songs, which no one was ready for!

Then Defender of the Arts, aka Michael Stover, a freshman from OU came on stage. His message was about being a college student and a Christian, a message that was pretty relevant for the OU students in attendance. He totally ripped an Atmosphere joint, a straight hip-hop record, which definitely surprised me. All and all through his lengthy rambling between songs he was humble and down to earth. You could definitely tell it was his very first performance.

D-MAUB, which stands for Dedicated to Making All Underestimaters Believers, performed next. He was awesome during the sound check as he spit a quick freestyle testing the mics, so I knew before the show started that his set would be dope. He had a mean, slick flow and aggressive lyrics. He was very comedic and sounded nothing like a contemporary Christian. My favorite line out of his set was "and its all because He picked me like a nice fro." But his set, unlike the other artists who performed, wasn't all "God is good all the time" and "Praise the Lord". D-MAUB came with a crunk joint called "Keep My Name Out Your Mouth," a song about backstabbers. This song had the crowd hopping around like they were ready to fight... all this for Jesus? That's what it felt like. However, there were no violent lyrics in the entire song.

A female emcee named Candance Evans also performed. She instantly shot down the popular "Jesus is my Homeboy" tees, spitting an anti-homeboy freestyle. Then she came with a highly female/hetero-fabulous rap about being married to Christ. I mean, you don't hear about men saying they are married to Jesus Christ, do you? It's pretty rare.

With all of these gritty beats being played and crunk-esque lyrics, I almost forgot I was at a Christian rap concert put on by Divine Covering, an organization that creates programs for the Christians in the Black community. I had a good time being here, and it let me know gospel music has become more than just hand-clapping, foot-stomping, call-and-response spirituals. It's developing into something almost anyone can find themselves listening to.

-Star Watson, Blogger