Yes, I know...Now you can't get that "Super Freak" bass line from "U Can't Touch This" earworm gone. Welcome to my world!!! And welcome to Tuesday's Musical Notes where today we answer the burning question...Have we ever featured a rap song before?
Welcome to the land filled with a broad range focus on music with a laser beam range focus on ideology!!! As we venture around the musical landscape that is Tuesday's Musical Notes we have encountered most genres of music. We've even featured some classical music (Tuesday's Musical Notes - "The William Tell Overture" (Rossini via The University of Arkansas Marching Razorback Band)). Today we must correct an oversight in the fact that Rap and Hip/Hop are woefully absent from this cornucopia of musical treats. What better way to get started than one of the highest-charting rap songs to ever busta rhyme. So before we drop that beat, we need to drop to our knees and...
Yes, this iconic album is 30 years old in a couple of weeks and by today's Rap standards seems pretty tame. But its performance thrust Rap into the forefront of popular music. The album went to #1 on the Billboard 200 album chart and stayed there for 21 weeks, making it the first Rap album to hit #1 on the pop charts. Putting it there were the smash singles, "Here Comes the Hammer" (#54 on Billboards Hot 100), "U Can't Touch This"(#8), the cover of the Chi-Lites "Have You Seen Her" (#4), and today's featured song "Pray" (#2).
"Pray" was the song about God that MC Hammer promised that he would deliver on every album that he produced. It reinforces itself by saying the word "pray" 147 times, thus setting a record for the number of times a song's title is mentioned in the song according to the American Top 40 archives. And now on with the countdown...
Does the music seem familiar to you? I think I hear a bird crying in the background. Listen closely and you'll hear the sample of the 1984 #1 song "When Doves Cry" by Prince (Tuesday's Musical Notes - "Let's Go Crazy" (Prince and the Revolution)). This sample was one of only a few that were sanctioned by Prince to be used by other artists. It also includes a sample of Faith No More's "We Care A Lot".
While you won't be hearing this song in your local church choir, (friend, make the time and go to a local church of your choice and do more than pray, get involved. Folks await there to encourage you, be encouraged by you and live life with you) "Pray" is a song from which much can be taken. It strongly encourages folks to use prayer as a means for communicating with God and praising Him for their blessings. It also encourages folks to ask God for help with the social dilemma of the day.
"...We're sending this one out to the Lord
And we thank you and we know we need to pray
Cause all the blessings that are good they come from above
And once again we want to say "thank you" to the Lord with all our love..."
Have you ever had those times where you were faced with doing something you dread and weren't sure how to process the emotions you were feeling? We all do. There are many who would recommend a myriad of solutions. We add this solution to the list as the ultimate and best for you. (Remember, laser beam focus of ideology). Talk to God about it...
We see the pattern of asking for God's blessing and deliverance start to be established early on in the Bible. Jacob utters one of the first recorded prayers to God in Genesis 32. Let's have a look, shall we: Genesis 32:9-12 New American Standard Bible/The Message paraphrase of the Bible/King James Version of the Bible parallel
Jacob speaks to God and voices the emotions that we have all felt. While you may not have had a brother who was wanting to kill you the last time you saw each other, we have all been in the vice-like squeeze of desperation. "We need to pray, just to make it today"
As we look deeper into what Jacob is saying to God we soon see a pattern that develops. First of all, Jacob acknowledges who God is. This acknowledgment is tempered by the legacy that has been passed down from his father and grandfather. Secondly, Jacob reminds God (not necessary for God, but certainly necessary for Jacob AND us), what God's command and promise to Jacob was. Paraphrased, God tells Jacob to go back to his folks and God would bless him. Jacob then reminds himself of his status in comparison to God and how God has blessed him in spite of that status. Jacob comes to the crux of his prayer when he voices his petition to God, asking for deliverance from Esau. Finally, Jacob once again reminds God (see the parenthetical above) of the promise that had been given for Jacob's obedience.
What? Jacob didn't say "Amen" at the close of his prayer? If he did the Bible doesn't record it. You mean to tell me that Jacob wasn't in a church or synagogue when he prayed this prayer? Nope. Jacob was out in the open all by himself, he had even sent his wives and children ahead of him. The Bible doesn't say that Jacob had his hands folded in front of him or that he was on his knees. (The Bible does later talk about those who assume a position of laying flat on the ground while praying, but the Genesis 32 account relates nothing about Jacob's bodily position).
You see friend, while the Bible has models of what praying should look like, it never demands many of the positions or words that cultural traditions have taught us. Jesus, later on, shows us how to pray, and it follows a similar model to what Jacob prayed in his time of need. (The Gospel of Jesus according to the apostle Matthew, chapter 6, verses 5-13 NASB/The Message/KJV)
The point is "That's word, we pray (pray), we need to pray just to make it today". Communication TO you is already occurring. Today, Holy Spirit is drawing you. He is drawing you to restore the broken relationship you have with God, your Creator. Holy Spirit is pleading with you to accept the forgiveness that comes with Jesus' leadership of your life and beg God to forgive you and help you stop doing the wrong, knuckleheaded things that you do. Before you can ask God to bless you and encourage you through those desperate times you will have, you must first ask God to be the king, the boss, of your life. You must communicate TO Him. Through Jesus' sacrifice, God said He would provide the forgiveness, but we have to ask for it. The lines of communication must be opened up by our response to Holy Spirit through prayer. Holy Spirit is asking you today to pray, to talk to God. You don't need to be in a church, you don't need to say theological sounding words, you just need to speak to Him as a child would speak to a parent. This conversation with God must happen before any other prayers you pray will mean anything. So to make it today, have your relationship with God restored by accepting His sacrifice of Jesus for you. And then...PRAY... "That's Word"!!!
'Til Tuesday,
Serving HIM by serving You,
randy
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