Courtney Antipas, has never been one to hold back his
opinion when it comes to gospel Hip Hop. We often times have realised that he
never has any kind words for "prosperity gospel rappers". We once
questioned him in a post whether he would ever name these money spittin' gospel
rappers. We didnt think we would get an answer to that, till this happened a
day ago or so
Now we all know Mudiwa and we also know what he raps about
which is pretty much, "Jesus has gotten me rich.." or “I have car or
this tablet or this phone” Most of his material is centred on amassing and
having a lavish and/or good life because as he says, He is of Christ,
"ndaita Mari, ndina Mwari".
Not to say bash the brother but we also saw his highly publicised online
wrangle with rapper Stunner, where the biggest defense to Stunners accusations
of copying his style of rapping was calling out Stunner on the lack of a head
board in a leaked sex tape. Kinda got us thinking if that’s what award winning
Gospel Hip Hop rappers do in Zim when they get bored of talking money, Scrutinise
sex tapes.
We then checked out GGB because we didn’t have any information on him and we ran across a video called “Set Free_Zvikufaya” which featured Mudiwa and Yung Karville. The video looked like something Birdman would have been proud of! It’s a from rags to riches song which showed a young man GGB eating from bins, begging and selling fruits (why would you sell packaged fruit and go on to eat from bins though, just eat the apple yo! Don’t get high on your own supply maybe I don’t know?). You can view the video here --> SET FREE featuring Mudiwa and Yung Karville
The back story perhaps. The intro of the song was beautifully narrated with Biblical of
verses and the song “God will make a way” Pause, shown head looking up, hands
folded in prayer (we guess) and an unexplained few years later BOOM! Mansion!
Bedroom, Girl in skin revealing dress! Maserati’s, more girls and I am getting
Jesus Money!
Maybe that was the reason Courtney Antipas didn’t want to
perform with them, but then, he released a statement on his Face Book page
which read
Question. When Goliath was publicly blaspheming the name of God was David supposing to go and pull him aside a say "hey bro you shouldn't be doing that"? Nah, instead David publicly challenged him. (1 Samuel 17)
Let me share another one. When Peter started acting out of line with the gospel did Paul wait to pull him aside to tell him not to do that or did he openly check him in front of everyone present on what he was doing? (Galatians 2:11-14)
Last night mudiwa and I spoke. He told me it's too late to meet up (coz i said let's do so) and that I should have holla'd at him first. But how many have tried that to no avail? Instead he said he will keep doing him (unrepentant). I was willing to scratch the song because for me it would have shown that he is willing to build but as he said, It's too late (as if he was gonna grant me time). So the song WILL drop tomorrow.
Proverbs 27:5 "better an open rebuke than hidden love
So as Push we want to get down to the song Courtney dropped
and see if he made any sense. The song is called FAL$E which you can get here
“Yeah I see these rappers talking about their Jesus Money /
Faking to the masses flossing in their Maserati / Making like that’s what
Christianity all about / Half dressed women in videos walking around/..”
At this point we already knew that he was talking about the
GGB and Mudiwa Video. We agree with him there that, it just doesn’t make any
sense for one to represent the core message of Christianity in such a manner.
The cars are pretty cool, the house is big, furnished too, head boards and all,
the girls in their thigh flashing short dresses, little tops and skirts and stuff is a splendid
representation of most videos that talk about just that, but they put it on a
Gospel song. The message there, “when you get that Jesus Money, you will get
dee girls dee whips and dis here crib homie” Coming from a strictly
interpretation of a video song, It don't look too representative of the gospel message.
I’m like really, you mean to tell me this is Christian rap /
because you mention God between all other crap?
To be honest, in GGB’s verse on the Set Free Zvikufaya he
only refers to Jesus when he talks about his chain, most of the rest of the
verse talks about cars, cars, mansion, clothes and well and very little detail
about the Holy Spirit. On the same song Mudiwa opens with the lines “ma jaguar
asina denga, takutsvaga asina ma tyre” (drop top cars, we now looking for those
with no tyres {bigger rims probably}, lovely word play there). Referrals to
spiritual deity here are in regards to them being the reason why life is so
financially good.
What really bothers me/ is the fact that these cats is
endorsed by the industry/ listen, they do not represent us/ they do not hold to
Gods view but mans lust….
Question,To which God do you really pray / and how does He
feel that you endorsed 50 Shades of Grey?
Perhaps the most shocking of all was the fact that a gospel rapper was used by Ster Kinekor as
the face for 50 Shades of Grey, YES that damn near porn flick which had to be
censored to be shown on the big screen in Zim and banned in other countries. We
don’t think there is anything wrong with Mudiwa being a Ster Kinekor brand
ambassador but we think it does send the wrong message if the movies he accepts
to be a face for stand against everything the doctrine his music is supposed to
represent preaches about. Pre marital sex, nudity, porn, lust, adultery… and a
Gospel rapper fronting that, sheeesh!
See number one spots and awards will mean nothing, when you
stand before God/ He will only ask you one thing/ and that’s, Do you know His son, coz, I think
you don’t/ We can tell by the kinda things you do promote Cos if you really met
Christ and your life changed/ You will not boast about possessions but the
Lords name
I do not care about the things you got, call me a hater its
cool but your bars do not represent the things of God
The above seems to be a direct call out on content which He
had been explaining all along. This quickly turned into a street rap line which
said
Even your flow is not dope enough/ buts that’s another story hommie, Y’see your
message only choking us
Never edifying to the body, the only thing you telling kids
“its okay to like God and love Money”
Whoever that was directed to will be pissed.
He goes on to quote the GGB feat Mudiwa track "Set
free" and says
"we have been set free from poverty, found true riches/
Thats Christ, not money, not cars not sneakers.."
WHATS OUR VERDICT?
We have for some time noticed with great interest (just like
any other Zimbabwean) how money seems to be the ultimate reason why people
exist now. The church, ironically has been the one to push the the envelope
when it comes to "how to get rich". It doesn't take a rocket scientist
to tell you that love for the dollar and the dictates of Christianity don't mix,
at least according to what we have known (love of money being the root of all
evil). Unforgiving about the way we may be sounding preachy, let us just say,
it is disgusting when the "church" talks more of money than the exact
reason why church even exists, i.e, Jesus Christ, his life, death, why he died,
why he lived again, love, forgiveness, hope,converting others to Christ, living
harmoniously with fellow man! come on, we are in the Easter season, this is
revision!
On a more rap point of view, we think, Gospel or not,
rappers who show the courage to table such issues need to be applauded. Why we
say so is that at its very roots, rap music was protest music, going against
the grain of what society, governments, laws seemed to accept out of
manipulation or mislead, i.e Tupac, Dead Prez, J. Cole, Kendrick Lamar. So
given that, we like our Gospel Hip Hop
to stay Gospel.
Again, the joys of being bloggers is that this is our opinion, we think Mudiwa dwells more on the making money living lavish side of things. We are not sure if that is cohesive with his label as a gospel rapper. This video did not even bother to give lessons for anyone to take with them; how did he get rich in those four years? Then again we all have our views of what gospel should look like. This is what will slow down the acceptance of gospel rap in churches.
False Audio Download
Remember to P.U.S.H
