“thank God for granting me this moment of clarity, this moment of honesty…” - jay-z

*this was taken from a series of tweets i posted last week (@cashhollistah, btw), edited for this post*

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so i realized somethin’ about my career on labor day weekend…i guess i could call a moment of clarity.

as many of ya’ll know, i’ve been doing this hip-hop thing for quite a while (i realized that “bounce” is NINE YEARS OLD. CRAZY!)…i’ve been called everything from an “mc” to “christian rapper”, a “gospel rapper”, even “psuedo-Christian” rapper, sometimes a “spitter”…it’s something that i’ve been struggling with embracing for close to 5 years now. i even addressed the identity crisis briefly on “the best of cash hollistah, so far…”.

but now, i realized that i’m at the point where i don’t even care what people call my music. i don’t embrace the labels, but i’m not gonna shy away from them either. i’m just trying to concentrate on my artistry, but PLEASE BE CLEAR, my faith will be represented in practically everything i do.

i remember when jon foreman of switchfoot once made the comment, “i’m christian by faith, not by genre”…and i thought that was a cop-out. but in hindsight, he’s right, because that’s EXACTLY how i feel! so i guess i’ve finally arrived at the conclusion that “i am whatever you say i am”. and no, i’m not being a puss if when you ask me, “are you a christian rapper?” and my response is, “sure.” I AM WHATEVER YOU SAY I AM!

i know of atheists that don’t look at me that way, they just love the MUSIC…cool. i know pastors of megachurches that bump my music because they love the MESSAGE…cool. i’m just glad ya’ll support my art, even if you don’t agree with my viewpoint from where i’m sharing it. when someone says in a cypher, “that’ll be the day you see hollistah drink and smoke weed…that’ll never happen”, it lets me know that people see the AUTHENTICITY in not just my music, but my LIFE. i’m appreciative of that & hope i can continue to walk that way…

so thank you guys for rollin’ with a brotha. hope you can continue to enjoy the ride!

ch.