Rap, gospel flava'd

I haven't had a nice healthy music post...here it is.
Okay, so, uhm, I'm wondering, what will it take for gospel rap to experience commercial success? Urban and r&b gospel has had relatively good success with icons like MaryMary, Kirk Franklin, Donnie, Yolanda, Cece etc But for some reason, the rap world at large hasn't opened up to gospel rap.

Is it becos there's so many secular rappers that the idustry has been saturated? but then there're also many singers out there too.

Crossmovement has been holding it down for years and have built a great ministry. More recently they've had huge success with artists like Truth, Flame, Amb. etc. But this success has been limited to the gospel charts with exception from da'Truth's feature in the Source. I've heard some really hot albums from artists who've been around for years but are given no major props.

Rap is inherently in-yo-face type of music and centrally egocentric. I've never enjoyed hearing rappers say their rhymes make "demons take flight" or they "bust the enemy's camp" etc. And 1-thing that perplexes me about most christian rap is they continue to mention secular rappers in their songs. You can hardly hear a gospel rap album without some form of reference to Tupac, biggie, east coast this and west coast that. Or they say sumthin along the lines of 'I'm too hot', 'demons flee when they see me', or 'the blind see when i rhyme' or 'i rock the mic'.

It is in essence sounding like secular rap, just using different words and references. Of course it's not all gospel rap, but majority. I think until gospel rap seperates itself from these tired trends, and finds its unique identity and method of expression, it'll sound like every other lamar, rick and Johnny.
People like original and fresh work. Every breakout rapper had sumthin that was different, new and original. Gospel rap has so much more cos it carries the message of Christ. But rappers must be careful not to cloud n block that message when they in essence give credence to secular rap by rapping about it.

I'm not saying don't mention secular artists, no. But don't do it in every song, or every other song, infact 1-song on an album is enuff. We must not forget its not about how phat your ryhmes are or how clever the rhythmic comparisons are...if your music is not backed by the annointing, you're simply making noise. And I find myself not being able to relate to the lyrics of some gospel rap cos they're essentially "street" or i think a betta word is "thug-aimed". By that i mean their tracks are all the same, virtually aiming at only the street audience. You can't generate a national audience like that, unless of course God called you specifically to reach the streets.
Diversity is a beautiful thing and I respect any rapper who's album reaches a troubled youth, a single mother, a happy family, a pastor, white and black folk, a young urban gurl like me, college kids, etc with different songs.

NEwayz nuff said.
For your reading pleasure, here's an article about the state of HolyHipHop i found on SOHH.com the popular hiphop website. I certainly don't agree with a lotta whatz being said, but i think its an interesting read, along with the readers responses: http://blogs.sohh.com/media_check/archives/2005/09/christian-hiphop.html
Check out these links to some of my favorite rappers on the local scene in the east coast:

Juma (www.jumamusic.com), Dkun Frost (www.beatmart.com), Conquest (from Brooklyn) his new site will be up soon, (www.etherealhiphop.com and www.face-s.com) Ethereal and Stereotype, worcester's very own; and my personal favorite Rez (from Connecticut) www.maestromovement.com).

I knowz ya'll gats 2 love these soldiers.