So like, at the core of this movement is an appreciation for contemporary Hip Hop and R&B sound, but it’s accompanied by a recognition of how hollow popular music is. Talented artists sing with impressive vocal ability and spit dope rhymes, but it’s simply not enough if they have nothing to say; moreover, even if they have something to say, that doesn’t mean that their message actually matters. In other words, having a song topic or concept does not qualify as “having something to say.” There are enough untalented artists out there to handle all the songs about “living the life you wish you had,” so why should talented artists bother with such a common, unimportant topic? Talent should raise the bar and be expected to do what a lack of talent cannot rather than just sounding like a more skillful execution of the same-old-same-old.
This is why the movement exists. The next peculiar sound—its ambient or Bluesy soundscapes, its silky smooth bass, its exemplary lyricism, its avant-garde song structures and vocals—would be wasted on songs like “No Type” (Rae Sremmurd), “FourFiveSeconds” (Rihanna & Kanye West), “F— Up Some Commas” (Future), etc. Regardless of a fan’s biases for or against these artists, one might say that these or songs like these can often be well-written, well-constructed, well-produced, yet hollow and ultimately either meaningless or unimportant, and beyond that, if the lyricism or vocals fail, all purpose is lost. This movement applies greater-than-average talent to speaking about the fact that so many consider religion to be an oppressively judgmental institution and allow that to color their vision of God when God has already forgiven EVERYONE for EVERYTHING! Religion has caused more conflict than anything else in the world, so it stands to reason that music purposed with addressing this misunderstanding is more worthwhile than music about shallow things like “money, clothes, and hoes, all a n—- knows” (Notorious B.I.G.).
Something’s gotta give! We’re trying to make sure RBF’s talents are used for something important, and there’s nothing more important than their namesake—the message of righteousness by faith. This is why the music occasionally sounds like popular Hip Hop while still advancing the higher message. The problem this creates, though, is that we anticipate that conservative listeners are gonna be like, “This just isn’t acceptable for Christian music.” They did the same to Take 6 whose members were, in fact, ostracized in their own church, a fact to which Said J can attest as the son of one such member, and the basis for this kind of treatment on the part of the church is/was that it sounded to secular, which really just means it doesn’t/didn’t sound like what they felt Christian music was supposed to sound like.
So this music isn’t just for Christians. It’s for everyone. The message and the sound are both radical, which is why we think they go hand-in-hand. RBF is technically member to the Seventh-Day Adventist Church, which is known for its conservatism, so the whole team is proceeding with the understanding that, among their own crowd, there will be backlash. S’cool. S’fine. S’all good. Thing is: there are many out there who may not even be Christian yet find themselves enjoying the music so much that they inadvertently put themselves in a position to genuinely and openly consider the message being articulated—this much more plausible image of God that they’ve never considered before. S’whatchu call an endgame.
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