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50 CENT
Wus Up 50!
Brotha, you came out BLAZIN'! 4 million sales and counting! The work you put in has
definitely paid off. As a Detroit
native, I wasn't privy to the underground mix tapes that sparked the buzz that lead to your signing, but the resulting chart
success (3 singles in the Top 10 at once!) has definitely awakened anyone who slept on you.
Your past has become common discussion in the hood and for many authenticates you as a "black superman"
and makes your lyrical content beyond reproach. Who knows if you'll ever see this letter, but for you and those who will see
it, I feel compelled to encourage and challenge you since you have the ears and minds of our youth on lock right now and many
parents agitated. Don't get it twisted, this is not an arbitrary dis, or resentment from someone "hatin' on your success,
because as a disciple of Christ, I'm called to love you, but as it's been said, "love without truth, is compromise."
"My songs belong in the Bible with King David…" 50 Cent / Song: U Not Like Me
Now that's deep! King David was a man after
God's heart. King David's psalms praised God, your songs grieve God! David was not a perfect man, but when confronted, he
repented. Get Rich or Die Trying, huh? The very title of your CD glamorizes materialism and underscores the distorted values
so prevalent in the 'hood today. Now there is a more complicated component to why that is, but you can't front on how rappers
and ballers have the minds of young people captive.
As you've experienced already from drawing crowds wherever you go, these
people LOVE you, and look up to you whether you want them to or not. Do you honestly believe you survived nine gunshot wounds
to talk about promiscuity, drug runnin'and thuggery?
" Every night I talk to God but He don't say nuttin back, I know He protecting me…" -50 cent
/ Song: Many Men
"I got that X if you into doing, drugs" I'm into having sex, I'm not into making love," "I got
the Magic Stick", given the HIV/AIDS rates, and drug use among blacks these are things the hood really need to hear right?
50, you may not believe it now, but you will give an account for every lyric you spit. (Matthew 12:36)
I can't expect you to see things spiritually through your natural eyes
50, but for you to say that you "wanna sell records, but not your soul" but not see that the reason, you're selling records
is because your content contradicts everything God stands for. Knowingly or unknowingly you're promoting the kingdom of darkness,
for PROFIT.
Providing a soundtrack for the hedonistic lifestyles of a generation, deceiving many with your
vain words (Ephesians 5:6), causing them to stumble as they pursue riches and fame and not God (Matthew 6:33).
Some of this may be hard to swallow 50, but the Lord corrects those whom
He loves (Prov. 3:11-12), and the fact that you're still here brotha is
a testament to that love. The Yuinon is here to walk with you as you submit to God's true purpose for you life. In your BET interview you stated, you couldn't
do "gospel" unless you were living it. 50, you're a man of integrity in the making. Please don't end up like Pac, a brother
who knew better but didn't DO better and died on the fence of indecision and doublemindednesss. Hip-hop has presented many
religious options through the years, but if you noticed only one brotha demonstrated true HARDNESS and gave up what God showed
him were ill gotten gains, Ma$e, remember him? No one has promised you tomorrow 50. Hopefully one day we can meet in person
and build. Until then, I'm in prayer for you homie, hoping that you'll spend eternity with God, and not with the one who has
you P.I.M.P.ing our youth's minds, Satan.
"I've seen gangstas get religious when they start bleedin, sayin "Lord,
Jesus Help Me" cause they a** leakin!" - 50 Cent
~vessel
Beyonce's Dangerous Double Talk
On the recent VHI episode of Driven that featured Beyonce, it was interesting to see how the name Destiny’s
Child was created. Beyonce’s father saw the word destiny in the Bible and added child to it. Now several years,
hit records, a few group members and solo projects later, the child of Destiny finally steps
out for her moment in the spotlight.
I have to admit, I’m hoping Ms. Knowles moment in the spotlight is only “fifteen minutes” indeed.
Not for reasons that would amount to hateration, or because I disagree that Ms. Knowles has the talent and potential for longevity
in the music industry. I realize that the longer she is at her current point of multi-media saturation. God will be misrepresented.
Young girls that look up to Beyonce will think it’s acceptable to be in church worshipping teary eyed (VIBE February
2001) on Sunday then, frolicking, bootyliciously for a video shoot in some daisy dukes the next day!
Dangerous, double talk!
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“…I’m not gone compromise my Christianity…”
- from Survivor
“I know you want my body, tonight, I’ll be your
naughty girl”
- from Naughty
Girl
“I have a strong belief in God and I love going to church,
in that I feel like when I go there I can cry and kind of FEEL.”
- Interview from Movie Guide
“Come Sunday, church is my sanctuary, the place I go
to let go. Every time I go to church I feel like I’m baptized, I can start over.”
- Beyonce / Essence August 2003 |
How does God feel about this
duplicity?
I hate the double-minded, but I love your
law.
- Psalm 119:113
A double-minded man (woman) is unstable in all his (her) ways.
- James 1:8
Perhaps the tears are of conviction resulting from a true need to repent, and start all over upon realizing that she’s
straddling the fence. It is so easy to go to church and convince ourselves that we’ve paid our penance. We think our
attendance is sufficient, and that God understands and appreciates this. All the while He wants a transformed life, a renewed
mind and for us to represent Him.
It has been documented repeatedly that Beyonce is very much into the
church and considers herself very religious. There is a difference between being religious and being spiritual
. We can’t assume that churchgoers know this, no matter how high profile they are. The latter leads to a fruitful life
that lines up with the book, or at least attempts to. While the religious person
surrounds themselves with the external “trappings” of Christianity such as crucifixes, church attendance and clichéd
language.
I recall seeing an interview on MTV, where Destiny’s Child actually said they didn’t believe
that they dressed
scantily but only show a little cleavage, and their midsections.
I also want women to dress modestly, with decency…
- I Timothy 2:9-10
Come ON! If I was to post some of Destiny’s Child’s pictures, the Yuinon could be mistaken for a soft-porn
site. Various interviews describe how Beyonce often “dresses down” and is more comfortable in jeans and sweats.
Unfortunately, little girls don’t see her in this attire. They see the videos, the persona and the moves that have made
her a cover girl and a budding actress. Impressionable girls aspire to the same, which is good in itself. However, in their
young minds, the way to get there is the way she did. Work hard, play church, shed some clothes, dance raunchily, and sing
about whatever over a hot beat.
Dating a multiplatinum rapper might help too. Yeah, we had to go THERE. The VIBE cover of October 2002
predated Beyonce’s flings with Jay Z, aka Jigga, aka Jayhova.
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“I need a thug that’ll have my back, do-rag, Nike
Airs to match… where my thugs at…” - from That’s How You Like It |
A thug, huh? Beyonce, I thought you didn’t comprise your Christianity?
Or did you mean Churchianity?
Be not unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what do righteousness
and wickedness have in common?
- II Corinthians 6:14
Since the head of every man is Christ, and the head of woman is man, Beyonce who are you following? Paul in this text
is speaking to Christian men (1 Corinthians 11:3). As far as I’ve noticed, 50 and Jay Z's
lifestyles and lyrics speak otherwise! So if their lifestyles are of Satan, who is their head? If they are the head of you,
who are you following? Huh, I guess you are “Dangerously in Love”.
We can’t allow (with our silence) cultural icons like Beyonce to reshape God in their own image, live any kind
of way, justify it and then talk about how much they love church. Her double talk is dangerous, deceptive to ignorant observers,
even if unintentionally so. The church is a body of believers in fellowship, who speak the truth in love, not a building where
we go to cry and hide from instruction but rather where we go to heed the correction spoken of in 1 Corinthians 11:31.“…But
if we judged ourselves, we would not come under judgment.” Beyonce, we love you and we will continue to pray for you.
Remember, Iron Sharpens Iron!
Beyonce
you are a child of God but are you fulfilling God’s destiny for your life?
~vessel
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