Rap Music

Back in high school, there were four choices in regard to music:
1) Guns 'n Roses (a majority fell into this camp);
2) Country (growing up in Iowa, this bitterly shameful genre was ubiquitous);
3) Steve Miller Band/Eagles/et al;
4) Rap
Yeah. Amazingly, rap was on the radar, if only because of the mass appeal of such acts as Run DMC and (later) MC Hammer.
I developed a taste for thoughtful, literate, old-school rap: Eric B. & Rakim, KRS-One, MC Shan, and Big Daddy Kane, just to name a few. It wasn't long before the story-telling alliteration and social commentary of such artists was replaced by first "pop" rap (think MC Hammer, Vanilla Ice, the Fat Boys) and then the misogynistic, violent, X-rated, and "realism"-inspired cult of "gangsta" rap (N.W.A., Too Short, Too Live Crew). The latter was, for me, the end of rap music.
Thus my extraordinary surprise that the most catechetical, reformed, and Christ-centered music today can be found...in hip-hop.
Thanks to Luke Abbinante for sharing the art of Shai Linne...I invite you to listen.