Can we understand bias by looking at music?

I hope that today finds you doing well.  I pray that you have been able to take some time to rest and find peace with all that is going on in our global and local communities.  Between Covid-19, civil protests, economy fluctuations, stay-at-home orders, and everything else we experience in our homes daily, the world can seem overwhelming at times.  Have faith my friend!  You can find peace in Christ!  He is here, your church is here, and even I am here if you need anything!

Last week at my daughter’s softball practice she was fortunate enough to experience firsthand an example of bias.  I say “fortunate” because we were able to talk about it on the way home.  Also, we were fortunate that the bias was not directed toward a person but directed at the music playing during practice.  The song “Sideways” by KB came on in our playlist during practice.  Almost immediately one of Ema’s teammates said to her “well that song is really inappropriate”.  Ema responded saying “it’s not” and her teammate said, “Only because it’s the clean version!”.  My daughter chuckled inside and chose not to respond.  I too chuckled when she shared with me this exchange.  We weren’t laughing at the teammate.  We were simply laughing because there isn’t an explicit version of the CHH (Christian Hip Hop) song “Sideways”.  Take a quick moment to listen to the song that played at practice. Here’s the link (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tsk1e9GFD1U).  You too may have the same reaction as Ema’s teammate.

I grew up loving all types of music with a special appreciation for rap.  During the 90’s I was introduced to hip hop from the likes of 2Pac, Snoop Dogg, Dr. Dre, Ice Cube and more.  I have experienced the lyrics of rap that helped make it the genre it is today.  Those lyrics were not always positive and most of the time they were very explicit.  I can fully understand why Ema’s teammate thought there was an explicit version of this hip hop song.  In my opinion society mostly views rap as a genre littered with real stories told with generally not child-appropriate language.  The irony is that the song “Sideways” does not lyrically mimic that 90’s rap at all.

KB is one of many CHH artists that I have come to appreciate over the years.  In his song “Sideways” he’s telling us that the world looks at him sort of sideways.  Imagine tilting your head when you hear something that you didn’t quite expect – looking sideways.  He’s a black rapper with a degree in theology singing about Jesus!  Society looks at him sideways because his lyrics are clean in a not-clean viewed genre.  His piers look at him sideways because he’s rapping about Jesus!  Almost nobody expects rap to contain a message suitable for kids.  That has created this bias that we experienced at practice last week.  Because we understood where the young teammate was coming from, we were able to chuckle not at her but at the thought there was a non-clean version of the song “Sideways”.

In this example I was fortunate enough to have knowledge of both “sides” of the story.  I was familiar with the expectation from a rap song and I was also familiar with this specific song.  Rarely do we have experience on both sides of a discussion or a situation.  Most of the time, like my daughter’s teammate, we bring our own education and experiences into a situation and then expect the outcome to be based on what we know.  That is natural.  I wanted to share this experience to remind us that there is more to a story, person, or song than we know.  There is also more to you than the rest of us know.  All we can do is stop, listen, and learn.  When we do this, we may find ourselves looking at other’s unexpectedly (sideways) and they just may look at us like that too!  Don’t judge a song by its genre.  Don’t judge a book by it’s cover.  Don’t just see a person for who they are on the outside.  Stop, listen and learn.  And who knows, you might just turn your head sideways while gaining a new friend!

If you would like to get to know more about Christian rap check out artists NF, Lecrae, Andy Mineo, Trip Lee, Kingdom Muzic, Guvna B, and Tedashii.  These are some of the artists who provide positive lyrics with a positive message using a genre of music that has a history of being negative.  They’ve allowed me to continue to enjoy hip hop and enjoy it with my kids too!  As a foreshadowing note, I've been able to share God's word through rap music also.  Now I really have you looking at me SIDEWAYS!