I see what you are saying. I tend to have little patience for the most ground level worldly displays of fallen nature. Especially when there is so much in your face attitude and sense of power, and so much celebration of rebellion. God gives many over to their sins and hardens them. On the other hand, people have to do something in life, and if rap is your thing then doing it your way (evangelism) is definitely doing something.

Let’s grant everything you say, for the sake of argument. In that case, isn’t rap and rap culture a leading candidate for evangelism? Goodness – I couldn’t help but think while reading your comments here that you’d penned a wonderfully sober diagnosis of the state of man in sin. The primal, violence-prone arrogance characteristic of much rap, which you rightly point out, is no secret to anyone; but what’s disconcerting is that you look on it without a drop of Christian hope or sympathy. I think I should quote some Scripture here – Jesus shedding tears over the arrogance of Jerusalem, Phil 2, but quite honestly the entire gospel speaks against your attitude. In one sense, you’re perfect right – but you’re only half way there. Christ looked on this misery and it broke his heart; you have recoiled into your own form of chest-beating hubris. Don’t miss the boat on this one, buddy.

This type of music – rap, hip hop – is different from other forms of pop music. Notice it has far outstripped any kind of culturally normal life cycle that we see other forms of pop music go through? That shows there is more than entertainment going on with it. It is intended to intimidate, for instance. It polices it’s environment and pushes itself into new territory. “We’re here,” it is saying. And the ‘we’ of “we’re here” is some of the lowest manifestation of the Satanic trinity as it works itself through culture.