I think that I first came across the Hope Dealers when I watched the “Gangs, Drill & Prayer”, documentary. From the balaclavas, waving Bibles and the drinking of communion blood, they have faced a lot of criticism.
They restarted a debate in music, (in both the Christian and mainstream scene) artists such as Lecrae, Melvillous, Guvna B and many more have often been questioned about the intersection between their faith and music genre. But with the current debates around drill music and violence, Hope Dealers have started yet another debate, should Christians make drill music?
If I’m being completely honest, when I first listened to them, I wasn’t listening to them with an open mind.
Despite the great visuals that they have for their music videos, I found it to be very distracting. There was a lot going on. I felt as though they were playing into the well-established stereotypes and not really distinguishing themselves. If they were dealing hope, where was this hope and how were they actually doing this?
It wasn’t until I watched their recent video to ‘Matching Skengs’ that I finally realised what my issue was. I highly doubt that they had me in mind when writing this song, their music isn’t for me because it wasn’t made for me.
When you think about the way that they market themselves: choosing to premiere their videos on LinkUp TV amongst the likes of other mainstream drill and rap artists, they are attempting to deal hope to many people who would not be listening to your standard CHH.
We might choose to question the controversy that surrounds them, but when you take off the judgemental lens, you can start to see something bigger at work. I love a good metaphor and some wordplay as much as the next person and I also believe that when done properly, music can be one of the greatest evangelical tools. It is easy to watch the videos and get caught up in the fact that they are doing communion with balaclavas on and miss the message.
The very fact that they are controversial is the issue. They do not fit the mould or stereotype of a Christian. Their dress sense, dance moves and flashy lifestyle automatically puts people on edge. But how do you expect to use the church as a tool to combat many of the issues in society if you are saying that black boys have to completely change their music and dress sense before they step foot into the church?
The main issue with Hope Dealers is not the fact that they are making drill music, it is that they are misinterpreted and misunderstood. Music shouldn’t be simple, it should make you question and that is what they are doing.
When I saw that the song was titled ‘Matching Skengs’ I was completely baffled. Matching knives? What? But when I started to think about the Bible being a weapon and the sword also being apart of the armour of God, I then began to realised that I had misinterpreted many of their metaphors.
Maybe they should start annotating the lyrics on genius to avoid the confusion? Or would that be defeating the point?
