may say “I am in love with my baby” in an R&B song. You keep the same hip-hop track and say “I am in love with my Jesus” and it’s sold as Holy Hip-Hop and the kids are loving it.

The production value on these new Gospel tracks are as up to date as anything. If you strip the words from a certain song, you can hardly decipher if it is a R. KELLY track or a DONALD LAWRENCE track. The melodies are the same as classic R&B too.

Now we’re even getting samples in gospel like we did when hip-hop took off. You can take a PATRICE RUSHEN track and KIRK FRANKLIN can hoop with a choir over it and you have a contemporary Gospel track. The same for a 70s track from HONEY CONE and their chart-topper “Want Ad” and give it to MARY MARY and call it “Heaven”.

On the other hand, R&B seems to be taking 20 thousand steps backwards every year. So the music executives of the major labels are allowing our children to get messages about going to church and praising and worshipping through the beautiful Gospel music they release, which is absolutely fine, but why aren’t they also allowing our children to get messages about how to value more than just money, hoes, and clothes, respect women, or fall in love with that someone special through the messages in today’s R&B and the quality of R&B artists they choose to shoot into the spotlight?

R&B is losing more and more of it’s identity every year and after a while, it will probably be completely extinct, while Gospel music is continuing to soar, which is a great thing, and hip hop is continuing to become both poison and fuel for gospel and R&B music of today. If we don’t keep pushing forward to educate the younger generation on what quality music is and what’s intentionally being done to ultimately lay to rest one of the most powerful forms of music (R&B),our children will be paying the price for it socially, psychologically, politically, and culturally.

Alright we’re done venting, let us know your thoughts on this ILOSM fam.’