The Cross Movement - Heaven's Mentality

If Wu Tang Clan and Tribe Called Quest had a baby who loved Jesus

The astute observer will be thinking to themself, “Wait, aren’t we supposed to be drawing from a different bucket this week?!” And the astute observer would be correct about that, we are. However, as I was listening to Lecrae’s debut album “Real Talk”, I was struck by how much it owed to The Cross Movement’s work. So I decided to back it up one time to properly set context.

So, Cross Movement. These guys are what would happen if Wu Tang Clan¹ and A Tribe Called Quest had a baby who grew up to love Jesus. Like Wu Tang, the various members of the group have their own rhyming style and skill level (and also their own solo projects). And like Tribe, they tend to rhyme over jazzy beats with lyrical acumen. Cross Movement is thoroughly refined east-coast hip hop straight out of seminary. That’s not to say that it’s not good music. In fact, its production is pretty on par with any hip hop from the late 90s. And more importantly for the genre, the songs show theologically full lyrical prowess and an understanding of the hip hop world. 

While Cross Movement doesn’t sample popular works in the same way that OGG did, they use familiar lyrical call-outs from mainstream hip hop and R&B: “I’m coming out…”, “Who’s world is this?”, “Walk this way”² and others dot the album with links to the genre at large. These call-outs specific to the hip hop language exist right alongside language that you’d be more likely to find in Bible study: Rose of Sharon, theocratic, hypostatic union, solo christo, El Elyon, shekinah.

This juxtaposition of hip hop and church language is the crux of why this album is an important advance in the CHH genre. Cross Movement seems to exist as the first popular group making hip hop with a clearly defined audience for the genre. Stephen Wiley and OGG made music aimed at kids in the streets hoping to speak the truth of the gospel in a way that was understandable and relatable. Certainly there’s an evangelistic component to any public proclamation of a Christ-centered message, but the main thrust of the Cross Movement is to make music pointed towards the pews–recent converts and lifelong Jesus followers alike.

Cross Movement seems to understand that hip hop isn’t just a musical genre, it’s an outgrowth of Black culture and experience in America. Because of this, they can be thoroughly hip-hop in their presentation while also bringing their Christianity to bear in the music they create. They’re coming from within hip hop culture to speak their messages of truth and life rather than bringing those messages into a co-opted music form. Hip hop then isn’t an enemy for the Cross Movement to conquer, it’s a field ripe for the message of hope that is found in Jesus. This change in approach to the music sets the table for all CHH that comes after. 

Like Lecrae. Who we’ll talk about next week. And we did it. Started and ended with the person we were supposed to get to today. But we’ll get to him next week.

1. A fact that even The Cross Movement highlighted in their song ‘Cypha’ Time’. I mean, check out this video.

2. Yes, yes, I know. A little of a subtle DMC call-out, but a call-out is a call-out.