admin @ Thu, 2005-10-20 11:00
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Antonio Polk's collection of hip-hop was pretty impressive. The 23-year-old Detroit man had more than 250 CDs and the best spins from Notorious B.I.G., Big L, Nas, Kanye West -- you name it.
In August, Polk threw his music away, inspired by the message of G. Craige Lewis, a firebrand Texas minister who preaches against hip-hop, claiming the music's rooted in witchcraft and voodoo, the devil's work. He unleashes his vitriol on gangsta rap, on explicit lyrics, on the images of scantily clothed women in hip-hop videos, saying they're destroying our youth.
Lewis returns to Detroit on Sunday, bringing to Hope Evangelical Ministries a message that the devil lurks in many places, hip-hop music among them. And while his sermons against hip-hop and rap -- an industry that generates billions of dollars in music sales worldwide -- have alienated some, others, like Polk, have found a truth for themselves in Lewis' vision.
He's found accepting audiences in metro Detroit, packing churches in the city, in Warren and in Highland Park during his half-dozen trips since the first of the year.
"I didn't know what to expect before I heard him speak," said Polk, who saw Lewis in August. "After the message, I really started to look at what he was saying and ended up trashing a lot of my rap albums."
But local producers, rappers, teens and even some clergy say the anti-hip-hop campaign is turning its back on art forms created by a younger generation.
"Guys like this are totally against the youth," said Mark (Doughboy) Hicks, a hip-hop promoter and former manager of platinum-selling Detroit hip-hop group D12, which is listed on a watch list on Lewis' Web site.
"These guys live in a white castle and think they can mandate what goes on," Hicks said. "I myself don't agree with all of the lyrics some rappers say, but sometimes these guys are crying out for help."
Lewis' sermons have been known to end with young people stomping on rap albums in front of the altar. So far, more than 750,000 rap recordings have been destroyed, said Carmina Barnett, a spokeswoman for EX Ministries, Lewis' ministry in Texas.
"The positive aspects of hip-hop are dung as far as the word of God is concerned," Lewis says on his Web site. "The negatives far outweigh the positives. Listen to the voice of God on this one. God will not embrace what the world has developed as a means of glorifying that which is carnal and sin filled."
Lewis declined to talk to the Free Press, but Roderick Williams, his booking agent, said Lewis has traveled to more than 40 cities this year -- typically at the request of churches who pay him to speak -- and said the ministry has come to Detroit because there is a need expressed from clergy.
"Your kids are watching BET while you are at work and they are getting programmed for failure," Lewis said to a clapping audience at a speaking engagement at New Beginnings Cathedral in Highland Park in August.
Alfred Knight, a pastor at Power of the Word Worship Center, where Lewis will speak in November, said Lewis' message exposes what hip-hop is about.
"I am aware of some of the artists out of here, and I think some young people see that and look at them as role models," Knight said. "I think Lewis' message brings to light what some of the artists are really about."
Haman Cross, senior pastor at Rosedale Park Baptist Church in Detroit, and other ministers invited Lewis to an open debate on the topic last month, but Lewis declined.
"To say that hip-hop started with the devil is false, and there is no historical or biblical foundation for that," said Cross. "You have to be able to substantiate that from scripture and he has not done that at all."
Cross said some hip-hop is despicable, but some forms, such as the Christian rap played through the church's hip-hop ministry, has drawn teens on Sundays, showing the good that music can do. "We are helping to save young people," Cross said.
Though crowds often attend Lewis' engagements to hear his rants against rap, he often steers away, speaking out against feminism, homosexuality and Rastafarianism. But the Ft. Worth-raised minister's arguments over the rhyming, DJing and graffiti culture is something most teens who love the genre won't want to hear.
Hicks said though he believes Lewis' intentions may be good, he thinks he should educate himself on the culture a bit more before he criticizes it. He said with the emergence of local rappers such as Eminem, Slum Village and other independent rap acts, hip-hop has created an economy that isn't going away. "This kind of guy has no love for the youth," Hicks said. "If he didn't bring the bad vibes and black cloud, maybe people might listen."
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