Reach Records rapper Trip Lee appeared on social networking site ThisIs50.com which is owned by 50 Cent and discussed gospel music’s acceptance of hip hop and hip hop’s acceptance of Christians.
When
asked by host Young Jack Thriller if people in the gospel music world
bought his albums, Lee explained just where his genre of music fits in
the whole of the industry.
“I think sometimes the gospel world
assumes hip hop just embraces us, because we like them but they’re a
little too hip hop, and I think hip hop assumes the gospel world
embraces us, but really we’re like somewhere weird in the middle,” said
Lee. “Nobody knows what to do with us.”
Lee also feels his fanbase is based off of people embracing the message in his music.
“Our
fanbase, because the music to them is more than just music, because
we’re trying to talk about life stuff and trying to make them think,
it’s impacted their lives and so we have a stronger fan base than most
fanbases. Sometimes it’s smaller. It’s loyal! So that’s why when my
album drops, even if I don’t have as many fans as some of these other
artists, [the album] is going to hop to number one because our fans are
loyal.”
Trip Lee’s latest album Rise was released on Oct.
28 and quickly rose to number one on iTunes. His first single off the
project, “Shweet,” was viewed on YouTube almost 350,000 times. Lee is
signed to Reach Records, the same label that is home to other hip hop
stars Lecrae, Tedashii and Andy Mineo.
Back in 2012 Lee
told his fans that he would be stepping away from music in order to
pursue being a pastor. Some fans took this as his early retirement.
However, Lee admitted to keeping his original announcement unclear
purposely because even he didn’t know what his sabbatical would look
like.
“Let me continue to try to set the record straight: I never
retired,” wrote Lee on his blog. “Yes I know that sounds like retirement
taking an early retirement But I purposely didn’t use that word. I kept
it intentionally vague because I wasn’t 100 percent sure what it would
look like.”
ThisIs50 host, Young Jack Thriller asked Lee why he
decided to pursue the position of pastor and he answered by sharing his
testimony of when he decided to take God seriously.
“I got serious
about God when I was a teenager,” said Lee. “Before that I had gone to
church with my family, I didn’t really care about it. When I was a
teenager everything really clicked for me and I really understood what
it was about. That is wasn’t just me trying to be the best person I
could.”
Lee said after that point his life changed and his mission
was to help people see what he was seeing when it came to God and his
experience. His music is one of his main tools for fulfilling that
desire.
He also took two years off from
music in 2012 and started to serve as pastor at a church in Washington,
D.C., wrote a book and focused on leading ministry. Since making that
decision, Lee admitted to missing music which eventually led to his
return with his latest album.
