This interview of Lecrae by Ebro Darden on Apple Music is a rare find on a major platform. It's full of mutual respect, curiosity, and the discussion covers music, religion, politics, faith, and more.
Lecrae on true Christianity:
Have a relationship with God. It's not a religion. Religion is duty. Religion is like […] I'm in the military. I follow these rules, and I'm earning approval. And a lot of faiths are about religion. Christianity is not. It's about relationship at its essence. Maybe not what we see in America. But It's about understating that none of us are good enough to grab the hand of God so God gotta reach down and pull us up.
Ebro asked, “Are you seeing people lose faith?” Lecrae's response:
Yeah, for sure. People walked away. It's hard not to when you see a lot of the corruption, a lot of the political alignment, and the marriage of faith and politics. How could you not say I don't want nothing to do with this. Because a lot of those things people throw the baby out with the bath water. (14:30)
This lead to a discussion of how to stay engaged and not lose faith when good things are corrupted, whether it be Christianity or hip hop.
Lecrae on going back to the root of Christianity:
The Lord is our foundation. And what is he calling us to do? Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, self control, goodness. That's what we're called to be in this broken world. (16:15)
I was particularly struck by this exchange about how to engage in broken systems. Ebro offers a challenge to stay engaged instead of dropping out:
Where people get frustrated with something they love. and then they start seeing a lot of things being made that are feeling empty and just kind of commoditized. And I always remind people if you're looking for something, and you can provide leadership in a community or in a thing, you should get out there and do that work. Because with a lack of leadership and authenticity a lot of people are just going to follow what makes them feel comfortable or is easy. Because people are busy and because a lot of people are often looking for leadership. (17:00)
Lecrae offers a call to build, rather than destroy:
Beforehand I was just mad at the system. And then its kinda like… why don't you fix what you're mad at? There's constructive anger and there's destructive anger. Destructive anger is when you go ride and burn everything up because you mad at the system. Constructive anger is when you [say]… alright, what are we gonna build in light of this chaos out here?
Lecrae draws out the universal pattern:
Everybody goes through what I would say is an awakening, a growth period, and then a productivity period. And then they get pissed off when it don't work out.
This describes my history with working in design: excitement → growth → productivity → burn out → cynicism.
Lecrae goes on to talk about the “clout chasing” of modern hip hop, which just as accurately describes the modern design industry.
…clout chasing. I think it's stupid. It's like… “Aw yeah I'm trying to make a move off of this.” I just didn't come up in that era. Y'all care more about clout than connection, which is dumb to me.
Seeing how much self-promotion is a part of the design game these days, I feel this. Ebro again brings the challenge:
If you're contributing to the thing you love in a constructive way, and something that's going to keep it going forward. Is that clout chasing or is that just the game? And there's just people who out the blue are jumping in on things […] or taking away from and not contributing back which is always problematic too (29:40)
He's saying two things:
- If you're contributing back in a way that happens to bring you attention, isn't that just a part of being engaged? That's just part of it, and it's different than seeking attention for attention's sake.
- If you just always take from the community but never give back, that's not right either.
That's a challenge that hits close to home.
The Lord is our foundation. And what is he calling us to do? Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, self control, goodness. That's what we're called to be in this broken world. So you're gonna see broken people doing broken things. But it was never about: did you show up to Ebeneezer Baptist ever Sunday? (16:15)
Everybody goes through what I would say is an awakening, a growth period, and then a productivity period. And then they get pissed off when it don't work out.
I had to deconstruct in order to reconstruct. Some stuff is more American than it is Christian.