Gospel and Rap- Can it really be accomplished without someone crossing the line?

Gospel and Hip Hop:  Can they peaceably coexist?

That was certainly the question last week after a controversy stirred up about Hip Hop Artist, Meek Mills song, “Amen” struck a vein in the heart of those who love Jesus when they heard the lyrics of this song.  If you have not heard the song, listen to  the song at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KDJSTd-vhhI.  In Fact, Pastor Komo Johnson called for a boycott of the song stating that it was blaspheming God and a sin.  Meeks thundered back at the Pastor on radio station Hot 107.9 Philly stating that Pastor Komo Johnson was trying to seek attention  and that if he wanted money for his church he could have asked him privately for it.  Essentially, Mills accused the Pastor of a divination spirit.  The Pastor rallied back proclaiming that he and other Christians were offended by the lyrics and he had a right to tell him that what he did was a sin and that he should admit he was wrong and repent.   You can here the whole conversation from the radio station at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fT_GJUdM2Ic.  Ultimately, Mills did apologize for offending Christians and Pastor Johnson did call off the boycott, but not before the devil got a chance to raise his ugly head.   Pastor Johnson was interviewed later about the radio confrontation with Meek Mills which can be heard in its’ entirety at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oIPCeggr8co.   After this interview a lot of issues still remain unresolved in my opinion.  First, Mills mentioned that his 85 year old grandmother did not have a problem with his song and she is a Christian.  My question is “Why Not?”   Second, it was cited that some Christian Hip Hop Artists disagreed with the way Meek Mills was approached by Pastor Johnson. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-n-lXgilyoY. Pastor Johnson said he makes no apologies for using scripture to rebuke Meek Mills.  I wholeheartedly agree!  If you can go on national radio blaspheming God, then you ought to be able to withstand the criticism about your actions.  And Meek, it was one pastor who even admits that he isn’t well known.  I feel that the more well known pastors like T.D Jakes, Paula White, and others should have expressed their outrage also.  And what about the gospel and contemporary Christian artists?  Why didn’t we hear more from them?  You got off easy Meek!  Last but least, Meek , you mention how you have helped get drug dealers off the street and have given sneakers to children.  My response to this is, it does not make up for the damage you are doing to these children’s soul as they sing the lyrics to your song while saying “Church, Amen”.  And as far as Kirk Franklin doing a remix with you, I seriously doubt it!

This echoes back to the fears that traditional churchgoers felt when gospel artists began to become more secularized.  Hopefully, this type of thing never happens again, but I doubt it.  Hip Artist like  Kanye West and Pusha T have songs that mention God in their lyrics and titles, but none have gone as far as Meek Mills’ “Amen”.  This is the reason why I feel it is ever so important that Gospel and contemporary Christian artist continue to thrive to produce the best music as possible.  Music that will have our children singing praises to the Lord instead a glamorizing  sex , drugs, money, lies, cars etc.

Sunday’s Best

Melodies From Heaven Enterprises is all about praising God.   It is about letting that light in God’s people shine so bright that others will see and hear the Gospel of Jesus Christ and when they do they will fall down and worship Him and ask, what must I do to be saved?  Today I will focus on three shining lights that are changing the atmosphere and walking the walk.

Lets' first hear from Gospel’s superstar, Kirk Franklin who show on BET called Sunday’s Best has catapulted little known Gospel artists into Stellar Award winning, soul saving messengers of God.  In his Sunday Best Blog #1 on March 10^th,http://www.kirkfranklin.com/blog/kirk-franklin-tv-sunday-best-blog-1, Kirk talks briefly about the new season of Sunday’s Best and gives inspiration to people through a talk about the book of Daniel and how great of God we praise!  Kirk gives insight to how that when you are a Christian, like Daniel, sometimes you will go through tribulations even though you did no wrong. All you may have done was praise your God openly on your job and you are suffering a backlash because of it because of the haters.  Well, the moral of the story, as Kirk so gracefully tells it, people are looking at your response during this trial.  Daniel did not bash the King for putting him in the lion’s den.  What would have been the result had he done this?  Instead, he led a whole nation to God because of his commitment to God’s laws. 

Kirk Franklin is definitely a bright shining light.  And speaking of a light, his show, Sunday’s Best, highlights God’s anointed.  In this fifth season, Sunday’s Best has found a star in my own backyard!  Local gospel talent, Lexi Spright from Buffalo, New York let her light shine so bright as one of God's anointed!  Just sample her soul stirring melody http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&feature=endscreen&v=Nu5qkNPGij4.  This is what MFH Enterprises is all about!  Finding that local talent and setting it on a hill for all to see!  Thank you Kirk for if you had not stepped out on your faith, God’s gift in Lexi from the B-Lo may have never got a chance to be recognized nationwide! Congratulations Lexi!

Last but not least, I would like to talk about last month’s celebration of Black music.  In 1979, then President Jimmy Carter pronounced June as Black Music Month.  We all know that when we talk about Black music, we can’t talk about it without talking about the Gospel and Contemporary Christian music.  Fans of Gospel got a really good treat if they went to http://breathecast.christianpost.com/BREATHEcastFM/gospel.htm.  On this sight you can listen to your favorite Gospel, Urban and Hip Hop, and contemporary Christian sounds.  This channel features new artists and albums.  You can click on their names and go to their official websites and listen to their music and download it or buy an audio CD.  Information is there about their lives also.  

Night Club Promotions

This week I am doing my blog on night clubs promotions.  I decided to write my article on promotions because the success of my project proposal hinges on how well my company, Melodies from Heaven(MFH) Enterprises promotes the concert at The Medallion Club. in L.A.  The concert is being completely outsourced to a production company .  MFH is submitting a proposal to manage the project.  Even though this is a night club atmosphere, one can draw and generalize from the information for any particular entertainment establishment that deals in providing an atmosphere where people come to listen to music, drink and/or eat food.  This particular club serves alcoholic drinks, even though I wouldn't in my establishment.

But for purposes of illustration and completing my assignment, I will discuss promotions at this type of establishment.  The first thing this article addresses is the definition of what promotions is.  It's a door opener.  It is designed to get people in the door.  Once they come in, they will see what else the club has to offer and therefore come back time and time again.  Night club promotions are to be just that - to promote.  It is not something your club is supposed to survive on.  Promotions  should also be based on the target market.  Who is your target market?  What are they interested in?

Now in my proposal I mentioned that The Medallion Club was looking to draw in more people, maybe even a new upscale crowd.  Well, if that is true that would be a mistake on their behalf because according to this article, night club promotions are designed to target your current customers, their likes, their music, their age group, spending habits, dress, etc.  What the Medallion Club really needs is more of the same clientele, they are not looking for a new clientele.  This changes my assumptions  made earlier in the proposal before I had this information.

In addition to this, night club promotions one after another won't give your club longevity.  Your club needs to to know how to advertise to the kind of people your already attract.  So the problem is not that they need a new event , but that they must learn how to effectively advertise to the regular people who they already have so they can increase the number of those type of people that they already serve on a regular basis.

In order to do this, their promotion should start on a holiday, it should be fun and spectacular.  You need to go all out.  Your going to need some early attractions because people are coming out to clubs later and later.  Lastly, it's important to take into account state laws that place limits on promotions.  More information on how to best manage a club can be found on these two websites, nightclubpros.com and http://nightclubalchemy.com/index.aspx.  Night Club Alchemy shows you the phases night clubs have gone through and information on management.  A new wave is about to hit the scene in 2013!  Are you ready!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Why is Live Performance So Important?

Contemporary Christian Music magazine interviewed Amy Wolters and Lang Bliss of Tom Jackson Productions.  Tom Jackson Productions is the top live production company in the world!  In this interview they discussed the live show and why it is so important to an artist career in this economic climate.  What I learned is that if an artist is going to make money he or she must do live shows.  Live shows are not only where the artist gets to share their gift of music with the audience but where they must connect with the audience.  Connecting with the audience drives sales at the merch table.   Lets' face it, if you don’t make sales, you will not make it in this business.  Amy and Lang discuss the fact that times have changed.   The artist income stream depends on what they do whereas before it depended on what the label did.  Artist must put on the live shows and connect with the audience by creating those special moments that make the crowd say that they love this artist, like the way that song makes them feel and create a need to buy that song so they can feel that way again.  Artist can no longer focus on what they feel comfortable doing but now must think about what the audience wants.  They go on to explain how the artist can engage their audience by using a process to achieve a relationship with their audience where the artist will have the audience eating out of their hand.  When an artist achieves this, sales will follow and long lasting relationships with fans will develop.

This is especially relevant for gospel artist.  One of the pressing issues for gospel artists is that their audiences only want to pay half the price for a concert ticket than they would for secular artist concerts.  Could it be that they haven’t made the shift to focusing on what their audience wants?  I think we , (managers and artists) can learn a lot from this discussion.  If gospel artist are going to make the income they deserve, this information is just what we need to implement.

The person that helps the artist go through the process of connecting to his audience are similar to a project manager because he or she has to provide strong direction and structure for how the artist is to use a process to connect to their audience.  They have offer support to the artist and serve as a mentor to the artist while at the same time make sure that the project runs smoothly. Why is Live Performance So Important?


Why is Live Performance So Important? Contemporary Christian Music. Retrieved from http://www.ccmmagazine.com/article/why-is-live-performance-so-important/2012/January30

What Every Christian Can Learn from Whitney Houston’s Life

What Every Christian Can Learn from Whitney Houston’s Life

Last week I completed my discussion board on what I had learned from the industry leaders that I had been following and what I was excited about.  I couldn't help but to check out what Kirk Franklin had been up to since he is the premier Gospel entertainer with over seven Stellar Awards and countless other accolades attesting to his pure genius to crossover and make well over millions of dollars while ministering through the airwaves, TV, internet, and satellite platforms.

Kirk tweeted about the life of fallen angel, Whitney Elizabeth Houston.  He stated that success had killed her.  Many people (fans and those in the entertainment world, and probably even family of hers) took offense to this statement.  Franklin defended his tweet by saying that he was so angry because so many artist have pressure to release the next big single or CD that they look for release in the wrong places.  He even went as far to say that even music executives help there artist get drugs.

Frankly, I don't see what the big deal was for him to say this.  We all know numerous rock stars, actresses, lawyers, doctors, regular ordinary people who get caught up in drugs to relieve the pressures of their lives.  We all know that the press drug Whitney over the coals.  They had a field day reporting on her marriage and drug issues.  It was like they loved it.  They loved to see someone with so much talent had such problems.  It sorta made them relieved to say, "Well, Whitney may be the best female vocalist to ever, but so what she is on drugs."

I think what really got to Whitney was the stress , strain, and embarrassment from the haters airing her dirty laundry out to the public for all to see.  Her talent, her skills, her voice made the haters come out from every corner.  Eventually, I think it got to her and she was trying to blot it all out.  That is what haters do, they hate!

I have some advise for you haters out there.  Stop being envious and jealous of the gifts of others, and concentrate on developing your own relationship with God so that you too can accomplish what those like Whitney and countless others have in their lives!

Backlash: NJ Gov Defends Decision to Lower Flags for Whitney

Backlash: NJ Gov Defends Decision to Lower Flags for Whitney:

*New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie is defending his decision to have flags lowered to half-staff Saturday for the late singer Whitney Houston amid criticism partly related to her history of substance abuse, reports EW.com.

Christie says he rejects the idea the New Jersey native “forfeited the good things that she did in her life” because of her substance abuse struggles.

The Republican governor said Wednesday disparaging emails and other messages have been coming into his office. He says critics are wrongly accusing him of treating Houston better than fallen soldiers.

He has ordered flags flown at half-staff for all 31 fallen New Jersey soldiers and every fallen police officer during his time in office.