Gospel Gangstas: An old story of new affiliation in Christ

In 1988, Niggaz with Attitude burst out of Compton, Calif., into middle America, telling tales of urban violence and despair in a harsh but fascinating new language—gangsta rap. The new docudrama of NWA’s rise, Straight Outta Compton, continues to top the box office.

Six years later, another Compton band with a similar sound but completely different focus released its debut album. A first-hand account of saving faith amid ghetto miseries, the Gospel Gangstas’ Gang Affiliated preached Jesus Christ in the same musical dialect NWA, Snoop Dogg, and 2Pac had by then parlayed into commercial success. Among the first Christian gangsta rap albums, Gang Affiliated remains one of the very best. The July/August 2010 issue of HM (Hard Music) Magazine—for years the go-to source for alternative Christian rock news—ranked Gang Affiliated as the No. 1 Christian hip-hop album of all time.

Gang Affiliated opens with the sounds of repeated blows battering a man groaning in agony. Mocking voices ask, “What d’you got to say now, Jesus?” The Gospel Gangstas begin by setting the record straight, owning up to their guilt in the Calvary beat-down of the Son of God.

The confessions continue. In “Before Redemption” and “Testimony,” each band member admits he was once a Pharisee of Pharisees in thug culture: “Got this AK and I’m ready to spray like mace / So don’t come woofin’ in my face … Life is about today, I have no dreams / My only means of survival is these dope fiends.” But they don’t blame “the man” or the police for their deeds: “I didn’t give God my trust / My heart wuz filled wit lust … I didn’t let God in / I chose tha life of sin.”

Gang Affiliated raps a redemptive epistle in Compton vernacular. The 17 tracks, liberally sprinkled with the n-word (but no other profanity), tell a chronological tale of anger and violence, trust in Christ, and ongoing frustrations particular to many inner-city residents: “Shots ring like thunder / How do I keep from goin’ under?… Will I ever amount to anything good? / I’m in a zoo called America trapped in a cage called the ‘hood.”

The Gospel Gangstas’ Facebook page describes how the group’s founder, Mr. Solo, became a Christian after almost dying in a gang-related shooting. He and band mates Chilly Chill, DJ Dove, and Tik Tokk all testified to radical conversions, leaving behind car-jacking, illicit sex, and dope “slanging” for a new affiliation in Christ. The venom NWA spewed at police, the Gospel Gangstas direct at Satan: “Devil…I’ll bank on ya / I’ll pull the sword of the Spirit and proceed to drop a shank on ya.”

The album climaxes with the powerful “Tears of a Black Man,” tears the listener will share before the song ends: “I got the mind like a kind of Benjamin Banneker / Still I’m only good enough to be your janitor … My soul screams from being angry for years / No one hears / Only God can wipe the tears / Of a black man.”

Through their next two albums, the Gospel Gangstas began to tone down the gangsta intensity and up the gospel buoyancy. Their third album, I Can See Clearly Now (1999), was nominated for a Grammy and two Dove awards. Three more albums followed, and another is in the works. While the band’s message of redemption still rings true, not all the original members managed to make a complete break from the life of violence they once knew. Three years after he left the group, Tik Tokk was convicted and jailed for his part in a 2006 murder.

Although NWA put gangsta rap music and the city of Compton on the map, the Gospel Gangstas brought hope to both communities. More than two decades after its release, Gang Affiliated is still striking, a stand-out album testifying to the power of the cross to transform gangland sinners into godly sons.