Secular music with positive messages.

DMX prays at his rap concert in the Barclays Center and connects Christian believers closer to God, Friday, April 21, 2017, in Brooklyn, NY. 

DMX is a well-known hip hop artist expresses his faith in God through his prayers from the foundation of his music. 

In 2017, DMX made a statement once he used his voice of prayer in his home state New York for his concert at the Barclays Center.  After working under a label, DMX started to create his own music and films that supported his faith in Jesus before DMX’s passing (India, 2021). 

There are messages in DMX’s music that can give his audience a feeling of fulfillment which brings his audience closer to God.  DMX was able to inspire his community through his prayers, but his music left behind messages that did not always shed light on his love for God and this affected his community very greatly from the misleading of his teachings. 

“You got homies coming?  Where they at?  Right where?  I make’em like
            air, floatin’ away.  Wouldn’t tell what he was thinking so I opened a way. 
            Left him broken away,” said DMX in his song called F’in Wit D (DMX,
            1998). 

DMX speaks of how he is threatened by people in the streets but then expresses his emotions on what will happen if he is threatened in that way.  DMX has a character full of rage and speaks on how killing resolves emotion when all violence does is destroy and gives the community a negative image of how to express themselves.

Investigating more into the influences of how Hip Hop is negatively affecting the communities, rapper Dre Skywalker from Tampa, FL expresses his emotions on how secular music has influenced him. 

“I saw the chains, I saw all the glitz and glamour, but behind all of it is really
            a façade; It’s simply not true.  It leads you into destroying yourself.  Record
            label contracts have creativity clauses where they decide for the artist what
            to speak about and how they want to craft the artist’s image,” said
            Skywalker. 

Dre Skywalker goes on to speak of how secular music affected his creativity in his own music and way of living. 

“By being able to influence people especially getting a hold on the youth to
             promote negativity, keeps all of us trapped and stuck inside a system where
             we think that we need to be doing what our favorite artist is doing and that
             is simply not the case,” said Skywalker. 

Dre Skywalker is saying that secular music has created such a big influence on the music culture that it is easily accessible to the public and the youth.  Secular music is known for promoting violence and leads the community to rebel against the people.  Positive music is known for creating peaceful environments which unites the community and provides a good influence for the youth.

Business Insider magazine highlights how through secular music, DMX was able to express his imperfections and the trials he had faced in his community (Robinson, 2021).  All secular music is not bad to listen to, but there is secular music that creates negative impacts on the communities through lyrics that have hate towards another kind.  DMX created music that his community could relate to but expressed his emotions with vulgarity which left behind filthiness from his character.  DMX was not a perfect person, but he did change the sound of secular music.

Secular music is a culture that impacts the local community from the composition of each song.  Producer Fawn from Tampa, FL expresses his emotions on how he creates positive music through composition. 

“I use a thought-provoking kind of sound through my experience with
            synthesis and different forms of instrumentation.  I try to provide a spiritual
            and almost in a sense religious kind of nature to my productions.  As far as
            lyrics go in my music, I like to send a positive message that inspires my
            audience to become the best version of themselves that they can be.  Again,
            I think a lot of it comes from production specifically composition and I try
            to make it to where things are more positive overall,” said Fawn. 

Music that includes spiritual sounds through instruments can be considered pleasant for the listener.  The meaning of the composition depends on whether the song is either a good influence or a bad influence for the public.  Keeping music clean will impact communities positively so they can become productive in their own passions from what they are influenced by.

References

Robinson, T. N. (2021). Growing up Christian, I couldn’t listen to rap music. But DMX’s ico
           nic prayers turned me into a lifelong fan. Business Insider. https://www.businessinsi
der.com/dmx-iconic-prayers-praying-christian-personal-essay-2021-4

India. (2021). DMX uses 1 verse for 2 new songs. Web Newswire. https://advance-lexis-c
         om.oclc.fullsail.edu/api/document?collection=news&id=urn%3acontentItem%3a62
SX-PJD1-JDKC-R3NJ-00000-00&context=1519360&identityprofileid=FVPZ3W51
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DMX. (1998). DMX-Fuckin’ Wit’ D. Genius. https://genius.com/Dmx-fuckin-wit-d-lyrics