Devils Work, Part II - A response to Bizzle
This blog is the second blog in a series of blogs about Joyner Lucas’ song “Devils Work. Listen to the song here.
From the title alone, I knew that at some point, the religious community would soon bring about their scrutiny of Joyner’s work. I know there has already been a couple of short, Christian-based podcasts who have had dialogue about this single. For the sake of where I’m trying to go, I want to talk about one response in particular from Bizzle, who identifies as a Christian rapper. In response to Joyner’s single, using the same beat and writing from his perspective of God, here is what Bizzle had to say:
“Before I even start addressing it,
I don't owe you any answers,
so don't get used to it
But I feel like you being genuine,
But the truth is you can't handle the truth, Lucas
But you kept it a buck and I love that
If I kept it a buck back, could you take what you stepping in?
I know it's other folk that feel like you,
so first thing I'ma do is let you know who you questioning”
I have to admit it: didn’t listen to all of Bizzle’s response. That is because I didn’t need to listen to the whole thing to know what he was trying to say. I used to be heavily a part of Western Christian culture, a church leader, and a “christian artist,” so I knew the rhetoric from the jump:
“My God is perfect, and you have no business mentioning God in your music because you’re a sinner.”
There is this habit that I had as a Creative, a ‘duty’ as my church leaders would tell me, to police the way everyone else talked about God. If their lyrics or lifestyle didn’t fit with my idea of how Christians should live, I needed to correct those people. If their theology didn’t resonate with mine, I was told to pull out a Bible verse and check them.
I used to spend more of my time thinking about how to keep people in check, condemning them with my creative gift, than I did on actually creating content that was an honest reflection of where I was at in life.