Hiphop on the human condition

My ghetto ties got me living my life in pain

See the world knows, we gonna be thugs forever

You can take me out the ghetto, but you can't make it better

See the status of your money done changed

But the status of your danger remains the same

I need to clear my head of these evil thoughts

And teach Magnolia and Gateway what I was taught

Take a ride with me to eternity

And watch me live to see another century

COREY 'C-MURDER' MILLER

('Ghetto Ties' from the 'Life and Death' album)

These interesting lyrics are penned by an incarcerated hiphop artist* . I find that hip hop artists express the depravity of the human condition in such profoundly honest ways. In those few words, Corey 'C-Murder' Miller not only captures that something is rotten within him, but that he cannot get salvation without such an inner transformation. Money cannot end the pain and danger he faces in this world. He is crying for help from another place.

And it is clear that within him there is a deeper longing for transcendence - for eternity. I believe Magnolia and Gateway are his kids. And it seems the human condition has been brought into sharper focus as he contemplates their future.

C S Lewis once said, "God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pains: it is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world.” I do wonder whether to that we should add our children. They often function as sermon constantly preached to us of our need for salvation that is only found in Christ. Whether it is flagging up our finitude, as in C-Murder's search for transcendence or our fallenness, as is more often the case.

*(C-Murder is actually now doing life in prison. We must pray that the Lord meets him there).

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