Mark, please take this opportunity to introduce yourself and tell us how you came into ministry?
My name is Mark Arthur, and I am a Christian MC (my full name is Mark Arthur Crawley), and a good friend of mine known to the holy hip hop world as R- swift, said that my first and middle name sounds dope as a stage name, so I credit R-swift w/ giving me the name of Mark Arthur.
There was a point in time when I actually was not rapping at all. This was about a year after I accepted Jesus Christ into my life and I stopped interning @ Def Jam Records under Kevin Liles, at the time who was vice president of promotions. I cut off a lot of relationships that I made w/ people in the secular industry. J-silas (J-johnson) was actually one of the few people who encouraged me to get into ministry and rap for the Lord. He and I used to go to a men's fellowship in my friends basement when we were babes in the faith. I tried to give up rapping altogether, but it just wasn't happening. Words, ryhme patterns, and schemes would effortlessly run through my head at work and just through the course of my day. I made a few attempts at getting into the hip hop ministry a few years back, but nothing ever came of it, I guess it wasn't God's timing for me. Then one day, while at a friends graduation party, a friend of mine, Manny-aka-(Da' Truth) invited me out to some of the Crossmovements' events so that I could see what ministry really looks like up close. I started working on my first E.P. entitled "Handicapped" about a year and half ago, and things have been progressing ever since. A few years ago I was encouraged to build relationships w/ people and that's what I have been doing ever since. By the time I finally started working on an official project, which would be "Handicapped" I had some good relationships w/ some well known people in the holy hip hop realm such as: Tru-Life from Crossmovement and Mac the Duolos from Everyday Process, who is also signed to Crossmovement records. Mac the Duolos did four songs for me on the "Handicapped" project and Tru-Life did three songs.
We notice that a lot of Holy Hip-Hop artist are influenced by secular music. What is your view on having secular music as an influence in Holy Hip Hop?
I do not encourage using secular music as an influence at all, but on the same token I find that secular music is used as an influence by a number of Christian mc's in this industry. Ideally we would like our sole influences to be things of God, various Bible scriptures, and other Christian mc's. I find that it is hard to be a Christian rapper and not listen to the ones who may have influenced you before you got saved. You can also hear the secular influence in some Christian mc's music. You will even have some songs or even some artist go as far as to try their best to sound like whoever is hot at the time in the secular industry. So although I do not encourage using secular music as an influence, I would encourage that those who do use secular music as an influence, not to be stumbling blocks to those who would rather not use it as an influence at all. The Apostle Paul did speak about not eating meat for the sake of his brother, if eating meat would make his brother fall.
How did you come to settle on the title "Handicapped" on your first project?
When I was writing the songs for "Handicapped" I didn't really have a deep thought process in mind. Honestly, I put together a few songs that I had written a while ago, that I thought would go nice on my first project. Some of the songs were specifically written for the project such as: The Proposal, Vapor, Glory, The Answer w/ J-silas, and Aim 4da Heart w/ R-swift. I did however put a lot of thought into the title of the album. I came up w/ the title "Handicapped"; when I thought about all the flaws and imperfections that I have as a believer. I also thought about all the flaws that everyone of us has, saved or not. Every pastor, elder, teacher, no matter who you are you have some type of flaw, something that handicaps you and keeps you from working at your best capacity. Be it lust, pride, envy, etc... Sin handicaps us as a people, but thank God Christ died on the cross for our sins.
On the project you made it very clear that sin separates us from Christ. How would you describe sin as being detrimental to the unbelievers?
Sin can be detrimental to the unbeliever the same way a cancer, that goes undetected can be detrimental to the human body. When a person doesn't realize that Christ died for them and their sins are forgiven, they continually live a life being a slave to sin through the flesh. They do whatever sin tells them to do, which is then acted out by the person reacting to every desire that they have or that makes them feel good. Just like cancer, if not checked early enough, it will spread throughout the human body and eventually kill it. The principles of sin are the same. If the unbeliever doesn't accept Christ, when He is offered to them, they are spiritually dead, and as John 3:36 clearly states God's wrath awaits those who deny Jesus.
YouTube and MySpace are buzzing about your new project. You are working on with some very notable cats in the Holy Hip Hop ministry. Can you tell us a little bit about it and the artist you are working with?
The project is called "The Obligation". I named it that because I feel as though as Christians we have a lot of different obligations to fulfill. We have an obligation to God to be examples of Jesus to the lost. I have obligations to my family, to my pastor, so forth and so on. That's why it is called "The Obligation". I have songs on the album that reflect the different obligations we have as Christians. I think the holy hip heads will be able to appreciate this album because of everyone involved with it. Let's start w/ the producers on the album, I have: J.R. of So Hot Productions and Crossmovement Records, Rocksoul (Lee Jerkins), D.J. Essence of Lampmode, Mac the Duolos from Everyday Process( Crossmovement artist), Teddy P from Ryhme Council (R-Swift's group), Redd Lettaz from Neo Psalmz, and I still have to get some production from Tru-Life of Crossmovement, and James Macabee.
I currently have and will have guest features w/: Michelle Bonilla (Rocksoul/Crossmovement ), R-swift (Crossmovement artist),Stephen the Levite (Lampmode artist), Young Joshua(Rhyme Council), J-Johnson (fomerly J-silas), Tru-Life (Crossmovement), Everyday Process (Crossmovement), Bronze (my wife), Big City, James Macabee,Logic, Keran Sabiir from S.O.U.L. (Crossmovent artist), and there are a few more people as well.
For upcoming Holy Hip Hop artist that appear to be driven by money, can you explain how important it is to be ministry orientated?
For the money driven Christian mc all I have to say is, only the things you do for God will last. Money does play a part in ministry, but it shouldn’t drive or motivate anyone or anyone's ministry. People can sometimes see through the money driven Christian mc, and if they can't then the mc is only fooling man and not God. The gospel message is too important for that. There are times when a rapper may have to minister for free, or for a portion of their honorarium. I don’t think money should hinder the opportunity to minister to someone’s soul.
If a Church, youth group or any organization wanted to contact you for CD’s or to come and minister how could they contact you?
I will gladly send out cd's for free to churches that contact me and request them for their youth or evangelism teams. The purpose of my current project "Handicapped", was for it to evangelize the lost, edify the believer and to simply give the sinner and saint something else to listen to in their collection of music. So for churches that want cd's to be given to their youth or to pass out as an evangelistic tool when their evangelism teams hit the streets, please give me a call @215 290 9828. I do not charge for them and I will send the cd's out at no cost to the church, but love offerings, whatever they may be, are welcome. I also do not charge an honorarium to come out and minister/perform. I just ask that the church or organization take care of my travel expenses (to and from), and food. Once again any love offerings, whatever they may be, are welcome.
I can be contacted via e-mail, cell phone, or myspace:
215 290 9828-cell#
Will you contact us and let us know when the new project is available?
I will definitely contact you guys when I am done w/ the project. I am going to make sure that we keep in touch anyway. The project won't be done until, the spring of 2008, but as soon as I am done you guys will be one of the first people to get it.
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