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Kayne West Keeps It Real with
a Provocative Gospel Rap and Video!

by Kamau Austin

Rap and Hip Hop are not new to the vibes of Christian Spirituality. Kirk Franklin and Mary Mary have crossed the paths of these two musical genres before. However, until Kayne West released his latest controversal video "Jesus Walks" I don't think gospel rappers quite captured the angst of the urban streets the way Kayne West has in his provocative release "Jesus Walks".

In my opinion until now most Christian or "Gospel Rap" has been created to proselytize or make Christian lifestyle cool. This is predicable because Gospel has perennially been used to appeal to the current generation of a time period. Christians of course must always target the youth of its day to fulfill their mission and ministry in a contemporary period.

Kayne's "Jesus Walks" rap and riveting videos really turn Christian Rap on its proverbial head by injecting the pain and throes of urban inner city life. Therefore many would consider "Jesus Walks" more rap and less Gospel.

Too often Urban Christian groups in my opinion are a reflection of many of the middle class values of the Black Church with the tendency to try to out "bling - bling" commercialized gangster and hard-core rap. I think this is the wrong way to try to influence struggling inner city young people. I think more middle-class urban Christian music could learn a thing or two from West's vivid portrait of struggles in urban inner city life.

While I love the music of urban Christian groups like Mary Mary and Kirk Franklin I can't help but wonder if urban Gospel wouldn't have more appeal if it truly could reflect the challenges and travails of inner city youth especially males.

Now that Gospel artists see this type of keep it Real Christian music can be financially viable and make the point that the Spiritual walk with Jesus can help you deal with the challenges of urban poverty and the institutional vestiges of racism - classism and social injustice, they will pick up the mantle of Kayne West and speak truth to power.

More on
Kanye West

NEW YORK, NY - March 22, 2005 - With over 2.5 million albums sold, Roc-A-Fella/Def Jam artist Kanye West is set to deliver the definitive collection of groundbreaking music videos from his Grammy-winning debut "The College Dropout."

West, who recently stepped out on his own as a video director for the acclaimed clips "Ordinary People" from John Legend and "Corners" by Common, holds the music video medium in the highest artistic regard. "The College Dropout Video Anthology" realizes Kanye's vision for the fist time in a complete collection. "The College Dropout Video Anthology" includes The Source magazine's video of the year, "Through The Wire", MTV's most-played video of the year "All Falls Down," the previously unreleased video for the album cut "Two Words," plus Kanye's special cut of the Twista/Jaime Foxx smash "Slow Jamz," and an 8 minute long extended video of the "The New Workout Plan."

Of course, no Kanye West video collection would be complete without the controversial, groundbreaking clips for his Grammy-winning epic "Jesus Walks." Archived here for the first time are all 3 critically acclaimed "Jesus Walks" videos plus an hour long "Making Of Jesus Walks" documentary.

"The Kanye West Video Anthology" also includes a bonus audio CD with remixes and previously unreleased material:

WE DON'T CARE (REPRISE)

JESUS WALKS (REMIX) feat. Mase & Common

IT'S ALRIGHT feat. Mase & John Legend

THE NEW WORKOUT PLAN REMIX feat. Fonzworth Bentley, Luke & Twista

HEAVY HITTERS feat. GLC

TWO WORDS feat. The Boys Choir of Harlem (Cinematic)

NEVER LET ME DOWN (Cinematic)