The Top 10 Christian Rap Albums of 2024
Let’s call this list A Medial 10.
It feels like a golden year for Christian rap, with many newcomers making waves, breaking into mainstream arenas, creating platforms, and building audiences in innovative ways. The genre has never been more visible.
This reminds me of a decade ago when collectives, like Reach Records and Collision, were breaking new ground. For a while, it seemed like the momentum had slowed. However, it looks like God is opening a window again.
This year has seen a mix of veteran artists returning after significant breaks. Meanwhile, younger newcomers are stepping into the spotlight with fresh, innovative perspectives on familiar messages. Additionally, some artists continue to break new ground, challenging the audience to remain intrigued and open-minded about what Christian rap can offer.
With that, here’s my list of the top 10 Christian rap albums of 2024, starting with…
10. The Boardroom V1 — The Garden Club
{A more soul hiphop version of BROCKHAMPTON but they all love Jesus.}
Isaiah Velez and friends team up for a musical get-together full of reflection, humor, charm, and poignancy. Their sound is an eclectic fusion of hip-hop and soul, with a touch of punk. It feels reminiscent of a family reunion — but if it were happening at Camp Flog Gnaw. With a sincere desire to engage with those who may feel disillusioned by Christianity, Garden Club delivers a thoughtful and engaging listen that empathizes with the listener.
Man, this sh — groovy!
9. Does Anyone Know You’re Going This Way? — 350
{Trap-fusion crooner rapper comes out of the closet… as a soul and jazz sampling backpacker. I’m glad he’s out, more rappers should come out of the closet.}
With the advent of Holy Smoke Fest by Indie Tribe being a great outlet for 350, I hope it’s encouraged him to continue down the route he’s been going, specifically with his most recent record, Does Anyone Know You‘re Going This Way? which features softer melodic samples with ripe-sounding drums as he spits immaculately over tight instrumentals. In a recent interview with nobigdyl., he talked about being able to perform these types of songs in front of an audience, over his more turn-up trap-infused songs. I think his most recent record speaks to what he desires to be as an artist.
8. Flop Era Volume 2 — Marty
{Marty continues his campaign of self-aware bars with occasional jabs at clout chasers, haters, and thirst trappers. #rippokemoncards}
I’m a little confused by this album. Click like if you feel the same way.
Earlier this year, Marty released Flop Era Vol. 1. Later on, he followed up with Flop Era Vol. 2, which just seems like an extended version of Volume 1. I’m Just ignore Volume 1 and focus on this one.
In his previous work, Marty for President 1 & 2 were more specific approaches to diversify and cultivate his sound apart from Social Club Misfits. The first was a moodier production, while his follow-up overall displayed more control over his voice and delivery in his follow-up, Marty for President 2.
Flop Era 2 marks yet another departure from that trajectory, featuring a wealth of high-energy, stadium-filling songs. Additionally, Marty is delivering some of his best verses. Of course, I have to mention one of my favorite songs of the year, which is “Big in Japan.” It feels like a blend of James Blake and Kanye West. Marty’s verses are perfect, and every third of the song transitions into this late-night, Tokyo-type sound.
Can we just go ahead and get a music video of Marty directed by Spike Jonze?
7. Bodega 2 — Dj Mykael V + 1995
{Lecrae gives Taelor Gray a shout-out. Wit called this the greatest rap album he’s heard in a while.}
I’m jealous, but it’s not like DJ Mykael V and producer 1995 didn’t earn it. This album proved that Mykael is a connoisseur of high-tier rap. He’s putting together fantasy versions of collaborations that I never thought I’d see. I don’t remember the last time there was anything that quickly became the talk of the town in CHH.
It makes me giddy thinking about what Bodega 3 might have in store for us. Who would be on it? I wonder if he would even be willing to collaborate with people who have left the CHH genre. What if he got Alex Faith? Or Ziv? I don’t know — the possibilities are endless.
6. New Era Leader — RALI
{What if, in an alternate timeline, Kendrick Lamar lives out his formative years as a theater kid?}
{This album is the eventual one-man show he puts on before he makes it to Broadway.}
Rali takes us through a one-man show that feels like an elongated monologue with the occasional Deus Ex Machina-like interruptions from his personified interpretation of God.
It just works especially, after watching Wicked. It feels like a musical. Rali, selling himself as a Christian rapper gives us stretches to communicate his vision by crooning, and doing so effectively. There is also an interesting blend of classical and jazz rap, with an experimental touch.
It makes me excited to see what he has to offer in the future. What if Biola University writes him a grant to make an album and put on a show?
That would be an experience.
We got any Daveed Diggs fans? Hamilties? Any Hamilton fans? Clippng.-type fans. Yeah, listen to this.
DOUBLE FEATURE. DOUBLE FEATURE. DOUBLE FEATURE.DOUBLE FEATURE.DOUBLE FEATURE.DOUBLE FEATURE.DOUBLE FEATURE.DOUBLE FEATURE.DOUBLE FEATURE.DOUBLE FEATURE.DOUBLE FEATURE.DOUBLE FEATURE.DOUBLE FEATURE.DOUBLE FEATURE.DOUBLE FEATURE.DOUBLE FEATURE.DOUBLE FEATURE.DOUBLE FEATURE.DOUBLE FEATURE.DOUBLE FEATURE.DOUBLE FEATURE.DOUBLE FEATURE.DOUBLE FEATURE.DOUBLE FEATURE.DOUBLE FEATURE.DOUBLE FEATURE.DOUBLE FEATURE.DOUBLE FEATURE.DOUBLE FEATURE.DOUBLE FEATURE.DOUBLE FEATURE.DOUBLE FEATURE.
5. the people we became — nobigdyl.
{dyllie claims his spot as a junior OG, edifying the youth and giving us the game}
This is one of the seminal projects of 2024. All around, it’s just a solid, well-executed rap record.
After a 5-year hiatus from releasing full-length projects, nobigdyl. comes out swinging with a juggernaut of an album. Blending mainstream with arthouse, dyl takes time to pen heartfelt verses that endear the believer and the artist. It is a compelling listen for anybody who wants more thoughtful, conscious rap. This record is the culmination of cultivated philosophies, both in the spiritual and practical realms, explaining the artist’s ethos and overall perspective. Concerning many hot-button issues, dyl. takes a stance as he tactfully paints the nuance of every topic. The production is an interesting, industrialized, and hypertextualized version of jazz rap instrumentation, blending boom-bap and trap music.
Renaissance is a mission statement to be nonconformist in the art and the faith.
the people we became (reimagined) — nobigdyl. + 350
{350 & nobigdyl offer a reworked version of the people we became for the thinking man to sip cognac to in his study}
I like a good old reimagining. It’s kind of like how Son Lux kept reworking all of their songs for a good portion of their discography. the people we became reimagined has been on repeat more consistently than its original predecessor. 350’s production is more open and minimal with its reflective Soul samples being a good punch in a boom bap.
Dyllie understands his audience better than I do, so he was willing to repurpose it for people who just want to sit and meditate on the bars. It also allows us to view 350 in another context.
4. For Promotional Uses Only — Andy Mineo
{Andy demonstrates an exercise in experimentation. A more idealized version of the creativity and freedom that many Christian creatives have lamented that Christianity lacks. Shade thrown indeed.}
Can you imagine some buffoon listening to this and being like “but where’s the gospel?”
While this is technically not a traditional album; it’s more of a project, to put it broadly. However, this project exemplifies why *medial exists. To see a work like this emerge gives me hope. But that’s me talking about myself.
Why is this record — why is this project — such an impressive piece?
Andy samples moments and pieces of media and recontextualizes them, adopting differing aesthetic references and then reincorporating them into a new form. While this is far from a new practice in the art form of rap, the mix of ethereal-sounding production, and brilliantly-crafted verses abstaining from traditional commercialized hallmarks in modern music creates an atmospheric and engrossing experience. There is a famous book called Steal Like an Artist and many other art thinkers have referenced the idea that all art is essentially a regurgitation or recycling of ideas that have left a mark on the artist, manifesting themselves in a new form. This is the only true form of reincarnation.
Get it? Andy presents his theology in the execution of the art if not always readily available within the content itself.
Throughout the rollout of this project, from the marketing campaign to the actual finished product, we are bombarded with samples, references, and b-rolls from other content — from popular art-house films like “Punch Drunk Love,” starring Adam Sandler, to making single covers that are saturated versions of pictures of rappers from the early 2000s, like Mike Jones. This extends to the side project, which includes a handful of remixes of his “Red Room” freestyle.
The songs coupled with their visual components make for a work that feels more like an art installation than a mere project.
Unfortunately, this album would have been at the top of the list but, at the current time of checking it, the project is missing its finale track that brings it full circle, “I Swear I Tried to Like the New Andre Album.”
3. Let the Church Say Amen — Peace586 + Taelor Gray
{Peace586 is the Lugwig Gorranson to Taelor Gray as he rounds out a perfect trilogy that is a meditation on growth, manhood, and grief.}
Taelor Gray continues to lean into his child of the church-type aesthetic. Putting up Nas-level type records with timeless yet futuristic-sounding production.
What if Black Thought did an album produced by Kanye West? This album demonstrates Pastor Gray’s aptitude for lyrical mysticism.
Peace 586, the co-creator of this album is right in step with Taelor crafting a pallet that soul beats and progressive forward-thinking boom-bap music. It’s futuristic and old school. Meanwhile Gray is using the pen and pad to articulate his perspective on the cultural world and church issues from the lens of a man who was seen much though he is still young. It feels like an album a the adult-thinking man but also for a generation that is growing more in their hunger for lyricism.
2. The Practice Ep — Jackie Hill Perry
Coming out of a deep slumber, Auntie Jackie arrives with a brand-new EP under Reach Records. She has always been praised as a wordsmith, but now she’s exploring her craft over grimier trap production, which we haven’t heard from her on previous records. Similar to Kendrick’s most recent releases, she takes the opportunity to hop on trendier trap-heavy production while maintaining her lyricism. This marks a shift from her earlier days at Humble Beast, where her work featured more minimalistic and drier soul samples. Of course, she hasn’t abandoned boom bap; that style is still evident on this record. However, she is certainly mixing it up and running with the big dogs, establishing herself as a high-tier premium feature in the Christian rap space.
This presents an interesting conundrum. Generally speaking, I believe that The Practice by Jackie Hill Perry was well received. However, I am curious whether the core Christian hip-hop community has fully embraced this album, and there could be various reasons for that. As Ruslan pointed out, Jackie is somewhat of a legacy artist in this space, given her two profound releases with Humble Beast last decade: “The Art of Joy” and “Crescendo.” It seems that the larger Christian rap community may have somewhat overlooked her.
The Practice EP is not technically an album, but to me, it remains a worthwhile project.
1. We Go On — Swoope + John O.
Can Christian rap make you cry? Yes. This album will make you cry.
This 2024 release is a loving exploration of grief, mourning, and death. The concept of these three ideas is explored across various compartments of life, including a person’s professional career, grief felt on a national level due to death at the hands of police, and the literal expression of death when it comes to loved ones. Moreover, this is one of the first times we get to hear a Christian rapper viscerally explore the concept. Swoope crafts very articulate and sensible verses while orchestrating instrumentals that are vibrant and beautiful and ultimately feel like celebrations with a sobering look at mortality.
That was what 2024 looked like for me and Christian rap — a year of game-changing moments, pushing the genre forward, and breaking barriers.
If you’re reading this for the first time, thank you for joining in.
I hope the rest of your season goes well.
Joy, contentment, and salvation can only be found through the gospel of Yeshua, who is Jesus Christ of Nazareth.
I owe the totality of my preservation to the strategic and brilliantly calculated provisions of God.
If not now, maybe later, I hope and pray that you come to an understanding and enlightenment of the truth of the bisrat, which is the gospel. Other than that, here are some playlists for you to get into if you haven’t already.
And now…
Here is my most popular playlist so far.
