ENGAGING CULTURE

I’d like for this to become a monthly column on this site. I’m going to take a look at some of the most popular songs on the airwaves today. I will be honest and say that I can’t give opinions on the musical quality of these songs because I’ve never heard them. I just went over to billboard.com and picked four of the top songs on their charts. Then I looked up their lyrics.

Today I want to look at Billboard’s #1 song “Money Maker” by Ludacris featuring Pharrell. Caution this song contains some overt sexual refrences and vulgar language. I have censored the expletives and only included the chorus and first verse of the song.

Shake your money maker
Like somebody bout ta pay ya
I see you on my radar
Don’t you act like you don’t hear

You know I got it
If you want it, come get it
Stand next to this money
Like - ey ey ey

Shake your money maker
Like somebody bout ta pay ya
Don’t worry about them haters
Keep your nose up in the air

You know I got it
If you want it, come get it
Stand next to this money
Like - ey ey ey

Shake shake shake your money maker
Like you were shakin it for some paper
Took your mama 9 months to make ya
Might as well shake what ya mama gave ya

You lookin good in them jeans
I bet you look even better with me in between
I keep my mind on my money, money on my mind
But yous a **** of a distraction when you shake your behind
I got a ***** on my right side pourin some cups
My whole hood is to my left and they aint giving a ****

So feel free to get lose and get carried away
So by tomorrow you forgot what you was sayin today
But don’t forget about this feeling that im making you get
And all the calories you burn from me making you sweat
The mile high points you earn when we taking my jet
And how everywhere you turn I’ll be making you wet..

I dont know why feminists would chide conservative Christians for what they call and antequated view of women that places them inferior to men and would allow music like this to circulate without even so much as a glance. But I do know that the view of women that is purported by this song is awful and degrading on so many levels. Women are shown as nothing more than prostitutes.

I can’t expect non-Christian rap artists to hold to a high view of the sovereignty of God or exhibit pristine moral rectitude. For them to do so would be hypocrisy. They do not claim to be Christians so why should they pretend to act like one. This song teaches me lessons about the depravity of man and the transforming power of the death of Christ.

While humanity is not as bad as it could be, it is certainly marred by sin in all aspects of life. This stain is universal, it covers not only the raunchy rap artist but also the respectable business leader. The Bible teaches that all have sinned and have failed to glorify God. This fact is the great leveler. I am in the same boat with everyone else, and that boat is sinking in a sea of sin.

But there is hope, for all kinds of people. Jesus Christ died on the cross so that the sins of the priest and the porn star could be atoned for. The power of Jesus’ blood in the sinner is two fold. As August Toplady wrote in his famous Hymn “Rock of Ages,” it is the “double-cure” it “saves from wrath and makes me pure.” His blood diverts the wrath of God from our sin. And cleanses us from our sin so that not only does God view us as righteous, but we truly are righteous.

So while I know that Ludacris is not a Christian, I realize that his music will never change until his heart does. I don’t ask him to sing gospel, because that would betray his nature. I ask him to look to Jesus and seek the change that can only come about when the Holy Spirit gives us a new heart. Perhaps God would be pleased to resurrect the heart of a rapper so that he would look to Jesus and sing a new song of life.