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get the latest coverage of black news and black entertainment from a Christian perspective.
With Reach Records artist, Tedashii, also called "Tdot," you could just as easily shoot the
breeze about politics and the current events of the day, as you could the mathematical equation
to build a custom spaceship to fly to the moon. Okay, I threw that last one in, but the obvious
intelligence of the Christian rapper who recently released his album, Blacklight in June of 2011,
oozes through his discussions. Impressively, the album debuted at #1 and #2 on the Christian
Albums and Gospel Albums chart on Billboard respectively.
To look at this gifted and eclectic Christian rapper chosen to grace EEW Magazine's 10 Men
Leading the Way list today, no one would guess that Tedashii was reluctant to choose Christian
rap as both a ministry and profession. According to him, he had a much greater desire to
immerse himself into college ministry, or emulate media personality Tavis Smiley, or even his
other professional role model... drum roll please...Ted Koppel. "That was odd. That was odd,
don’t judge me," he joked, evoking laughter, which happened more than once during his EEW
interview because of his dry, yet refreshingly funny, sense of humor.
But he wasn't laughing when, back in college, his earlier dream (before he got bit with the Ted
Kopell bug) of being a football star was stripped away from him. "I grew up in Texas where
football ran everything. So I wanted to be a football star. I played football through junior high,
High School, and even as I got in college. I got injured and football got taken away and then,
next came media, film, everything."
"Everything" would eventually morph into a strategic ministry approach within the urban
context that would help transform a generation. "I just knew if you can get paid for talking,
that’s amazing, and I wanted that. I knew, if I can’t get paid for hitting you [out on the football
field], I want to get paid for talking to you. So I thought, one of those are gonna work for me.
Then I became a Christian and still loved talking but I was like, man I want to talk and reach out
to college-age young adult students who are in this weird world where they say, 'I’m an adult. I’m
grown, so you can’t tell me what to do. But I don’t know anything, so can I come to your college
so can you tell me what to do?' So, this weird world of I know everything but I don’t. So I love
being a part of that world. And it’s in that world where I really saw a gift and a knack for music,
art, culture, and ultimately, Hip Hop."
But still, taking the plunge into the urban Christian movement took some serious coaxing,
coaching, counseling. "I really saw myself being one who was gonna kinda do music on the side.
I never saw it as a main thing. And then some guys who I worked with during college ministry
really encouraged me to pursue the music and try it out just to go, maybe it won’t work. Maybe
it will, but you are good and you should at least give it a shot. That was just wise counsel. So I
prayed and talked to some other people that I knew and were older, who were smarter, knew
what they were talking about, and all of them came to the same consensus. I said, you know
what? Let me give it a shot and I haven’t looked back."
It is likely Tedashii's natural hesitance to fully engage his gifts to win the world through the
medium of Christian Hip Hop, that this raw talent has such a mission-focused model. His passion
is rooted in a genuine concern for lost souls and misguided youth, not just an intrinsic love of
Hip Hop music, though he admittedly had many influences growing up thanks to his mother.
My mom was one that was really into a lot of different sounds. She would on Sunday be playing
gospel, on Monday be playing blues, the next day she’d have on some soul music, the next day
some country may come on, the next day some classical would be playing. So there were always
different sounds throughout the house, [like] pop music. She was a huge Jackson 5/Michael
Jackson fan. In one day I could hear Reba McEntire, another day, Michael Jackson, and then I’d
hear Earth, Wind & Fire, and then I’d hear some Bobby Blue playing."
At the same time, Tedashii was a heavy consumer of rap music. "I was listening to everybody
from NWA, EPMD, I was in love with LL [Cool J] when I was a kid. I was in love with Run DMC,
and I definitely could appreciate a group like Wu Tang when they came out. It was a lot of
different influences in there," which is why Tedashii has an intimate understanding of the power
and potency the rap genre.
If you ask him, he'll tell you that Hip Hop goes much deeper than just music and entertainment.
"Hip Hop is a culture. It’s an identity," says Tedashii. "It goes far beyond your favorite rapper,
and I think that you can find that in our own personal lives. Where I grew up, I looked up to
Tupac. I looked up to 8 Ball & MJG. I looked up to UGK. I looked up to guys who were in my
face 24/7 and if it wasn’t my coach, it was a Hip Hop artist. Those were the guys who kind of
defined manhood for me. They defined how I wanted to approach a girl. They defined
relationships. They defined sex for me. They defined so many different things and Hip Hop goes
beyond a music choice. But it’s a culture that you identify with and that somewhat defines who
you’ll be even into your adult years."
It is that comprehensive understanding that drives Tedashii's message to parents of young Hip
Hop lovers. "I would just challenge people to take note of the fact that this is going deeper into
your child’s life than, this is just who they listen to on their way to school, or before a game, or
when they’re home at night when the radio’s on. It goes deeper than that. I would encourage you
to begin to investigate what music is actually doing to them and Hip Hop in general is doing to
them and how they view the world."
It became clear during our discussion, that Tedashii is not merely concerned with Christian rap
being an alternative listening choice, but more so, a paradigm-shaping tool. "For me, I have a
son. He’s almost 2 years old. His favorite song is 'No Worries' by Trip Lee. He can’t talk yet. He
can’t say all the words. But when he hears that particular music he can identify with that song. I
can play my songs, 'Uncle Crae' (Lecrae) songs, 'Uncle Sho' (Sho Baraka) songs, but when he
hears that song, he identifies with that song in an amazing way. So that gives me a platform that I
can build from so I can go, not only can you look at the song and what it’s saying, but you can
look at Uncle Trip’s lifestyle, look at how he loves his wife, how he loves his kids, and X,Y,Z. So
it gives me more of a world view to shape him and not just a listening choice which is, at the end
of the day, far from what we want to be is just a listening choice. And so that’s the heart behind it
all. I want to be able to create a world view for my son to have so he can understand biblical
manhood; so he can understand how to treat his mom in a healthy way; how to keep his yes his
yes, and his no his no, and keep him firm on who he is in the Lord. And so that’s the heart behind
it."
It is indeed the heart behind the skillful lyrics that drives Tedashii to continue along his current
course. Even with a strong passion and desire to change the world, he knows it is an uphill battle
in a world that does not embrace the message of Christ. "One thing I can say with confidence is,
if you are making Christ, or in this culture religion in general, the focus of something, it’s hard
for a bulk of people to get on board. But that’s not to be pessimistic," he explains. It is merely a
reflection of the fact that the Christian perspective does not mesh with a mainstream
perspective. "However, I think if people stay the course and stay true to what this thing is, then
we’ll see definite growth in it, growth in quality, growth numbers, growth in size. I think that
you’ll see more people doing it and starting to do it. But I just don’t see how far it would go to a
mainstream market unless preaching Jesus becomes marketable."
Visit Tedashii online at ReachRecords.com. Twitter: @Tedashii
Article & Interview by Dianna Hobbs, EEW Magazine Founder & Editor In Chief
breeze about politics and the current events of the day, as you could the mathematical equation
to build a custom spaceship to fly to the moon. Okay, I threw that last one in, but the obvious
intelligence of the Christian rapper who recently released his album, Blacklight in June of 2011,
oozes through his discussions. Impressively, the album debuted at #1 and #2 on the Christian
Albums and Gospel Albums chart on Billboard respectively.
To look at this gifted and eclectic Christian rapper chosen to grace EEW Magazine's 10 Men
Leading the Way list today, no one would guess that Tedashii was reluctant to choose Christian
rap as both a ministry and profession. According to him, he had a much greater desire to
immerse himself into college ministry, or emulate media personality Tavis Smiley, or even his
other professional role model... drum roll please...Ted Koppel. "That was odd. That was odd,
don’t judge me," he joked, evoking laughter, which happened more than once during his EEW
interview because of his dry, yet refreshingly funny, sense of humor.
But he wasn't laughing when, back in college, his earlier dream (before he got bit with the Ted
Kopell bug) of being a football star was stripped away from him. "I grew up in Texas where
football ran everything. So I wanted to be a football star. I played football through junior high,
High School, and even as I got in college. I got injured and football got taken away and then,
next came media, film, everything."
"Everything" would eventually morph into a strategic ministry approach within the urban
context that would help transform a generation. "I just knew if you can get paid for talking,
that’s amazing, and I wanted that. I knew, if I can’t get paid for hitting you [out on the football
field], I want to get paid for talking to you. So I thought, one of those are gonna work for me.
Then I became a Christian and still loved talking but I was like, man I want to talk and reach out
to college-age young adult students who are in this weird world where they say, 'I’m an adult. I’m
grown, so you can’t tell me what to do. But I don’t know anything, so can I come to your college
so can you tell me what to do?' So, this weird world of I know everything but I don’t. So I love
being a part of that world. And it’s in that world where I really saw a gift and a knack for music,
art, culture, and ultimately, Hip Hop."
But still, taking the plunge into the urban Christian movement took some serious coaxing,
coaching, counseling. "I really saw myself being one who was gonna kinda do music on the side.
I never saw it as a main thing. And then some guys who I worked with during college ministry
really encouraged me to pursue the music and try it out just to go, maybe it won’t work. Maybe
it will, but you are good and you should at least give it a shot. That was just wise counsel. So I
prayed and talked to some other people that I knew and were older, who were smarter, knew
what they were talking about, and all of them came to the same consensus. I said, you know
what? Let me give it a shot and I haven’t looked back."
It is likely Tedashii's natural hesitance to fully engage his gifts to win the world through the
medium of Christian Hip Hop, that this raw talent has such a mission-focused model. His passion
is rooted in a genuine concern for lost souls and misguided youth, not just an intrinsic love of
Hip Hop music, though he admittedly had many influences growing up thanks to his mother.
My mom was one that was really into a lot of different sounds. She would on Sunday be playing
gospel, on Monday be playing blues, the next day she’d have on some soul music, the next day
some country may come on, the next day some classical would be playing. So there were always
different sounds throughout the house, [like] pop music. She was a huge Jackson 5/Michael
Jackson fan. In one day I could hear Reba McEntire, another day, Michael Jackson, and then I’d
hear Earth, Wind & Fire, and then I’d hear some Bobby Blue playing."
At the same time, Tedashii was a heavy consumer of rap music. "I was listening to everybody
from NWA, EPMD, I was in love with LL [Cool J] when I was a kid. I was in love with Run DMC,
and I definitely could appreciate a group like Wu Tang when they came out. It was a lot of
different influences in there," which is why Tedashii has an intimate understanding of the power
and potency the rap genre.
If you ask him, he'll tell you that Hip Hop goes much deeper than just music and entertainment.
"Hip Hop is a culture. It’s an identity," says Tedashii. "It goes far beyond your favorite rapper,
and I think that you can find that in our own personal lives. Where I grew up, I looked up to
Tupac. I looked up to 8 Ball & MJG. I looked up to UGK. I looked up to guys who were in my
face 24/7 and if it wasn’t my coach, it was a Hip Hop artist. Those were the guys who kind of
defined manhood for me. They defined how I wanted to approach a girl. They defined
relationships. They defined sex for me. They defined so many different things and Hip Hop goes
beyond a music choice. But it’s a culture that you identify with and that somewhat defines who
you’ll be even into your adult years."
It is that comprehensive understanding that drives Tedashii's message to parents of young Hip
Hop lovers. "I would just challenge people to take note of the fact that this is going deeper into
your child’s life than, this is just who they listen to on their way to school, or before a game, or
when they’re home at night when the radio’s on. It goes deeper than that. I would encourage you
to begin to investigate what music is actually doing to them and Hip Hop in general is doing to
them and how they view the world."
It became clear during our discussion, that Tedashii is not merely concerned with Christian rap
being an alternative listening choice, but more so, a paradigm-shaping tool. "For me, I have a
son. He’s almost 2 years old. His favorite song is 'No Worries' by Trip Lee. He can’t talk yet. He
can’t say all the words. But when he hears that particular music he can identify with that song. I
can play my songs, 'Uncle Crae' (Lecrae) songs, 'Uncle Sho' (Sho Baraka) songs, but when he
hears that song, he identifies with that song in an amazing way. So that gives me a platform that I
can build from so I can go, not only can you look at the song and what it’s saying, but you can
look at Uncle Trip’s lifestyle, look at how he loves his wife, how he loves his kids, and X,Y,Z. So
it gives me more of a world view to shape him and not just a listening choice which is, at the end
of the day, far from what we want to be is just a listening choice. And so that’s the heart behind it
all. I want to be able to create a world view for my son to have so he can understand biblical
manhood; so he can understand how to treat his mom in a healthy way; how to keep his yes his
yes, and his no his no, and keep him firm on who he is in the Lord. And so that’s the heart behind
it."
It is indeed the heart behind the skillful lyrics that drives Tedashii to continue along his current
course. Even with a strong passion and desire to change the world, he knows it is an uphill battle
in a world that does not embrace the message of Christ. "One thing I can say with confidence is,
if you are making Christ, or in this culture religion in general, the focus of something, it’s hard
for a bulk of people to get on board. But that’s not to be pessimistic," he explains. It is merely a
reflection of the fact that the Christian perspective does not mesh with a mainstream
perspective. "However, I think if people stay the course and stay true to what this thing is, then
we’ll see definite growth in it, growth in quality, growth numbers, growth in size. I think that
you’ll see more people doing it and starting to do it. But I just don’t see how far it would go to a
mainstream market unless preaching Jesus becomes marketable."
Visit Tedashii online at ReachRecords.com. Twitter: @Tedashii
Article & Interview by Dianna Hobbs, EEW Magazine Founder & Editor In Chief
SPECIAL VIDEO PRESENTATION
EEW Magazine's Founder & Editor In Chief, Dianna
Hobbs shares her thoughts on the Christian Hip Hop
movement and EEW's 2011 "10 Men Leading the
Way" list. Watch below.
EEW Magazine's Founder & Editor In Chief, Dianna
Hobbs shares her thoughts on the Christian Hip Hop
movement and EEW's 2011 "10 Men Leading the
Way" list. Watch below.
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