Yeah, C’mon: Hungarian Rapper Gives Glowing Example of Contextualization Gone Horribly Awry

In order for this post to make sense you must first experience Speak the Hungarian Rapper for yourself, because frankly there’s just no way I can describe it:

Let me start by saying that I have researched this a little bit and it is not meant to be a joke.  The man known as Speak made this with the utmost sincerity, and in fact went bankrupt doing so.  I should also make it clear that the purpose of this article is not to bash Speak or make fun of him, but to try and point out that a lot of what Christian culture produces often comes across to those outside of it much as Speak does to us. 

I sent this link to my friend a week ago and his only response was “how does this happen?”  A fair question.  I think a huge part of it has to do with the fact that Speak and his cohorts spent much of their lives behind the Iron Curtain and only in the last decade or so have had greater access to more culture.  The Soviet ideal was that the countries within their dominion and influence (including Hungary from 1945-1989) would create their own “counter-culture.”  In doing so, however, they created such a divide and such an oppressive environment that almost NO culture resulted.  What often sprung up instead was a weird bastardization of the culture that trickled in from the West.  

I watched a concert DVD of Paul McCartney playing in Red Square and they really drove this point home.  The youth under the Soviet regime longed for the things of the West (including things like The Beatles).  The more they tried to suppress the influence of the West in fear that it would undermine the core values of the Soviet Union, the more the kids behind the Iron Curtain wanted things from the West.  As those kids become adults, I can’t help but wonder how much that influence and desire to be free helped bring about the seemingly sudden collapse of the Soviet Union (and subsequently Communist rule over much of Eastern Europe).  Less than 75 years form its inception, the Soviet experiment failed.

I picture Speak and millions like him trying to find identity and create culture in this void.  After decades of close-minded oppression they are left to their own devices to do the best they can.  Surely some have succeeded greatly, but in general we don’t hear about those because people find it far less interesting than comical failure.  If Speak had made a well-spoken anti-war song in a more culturally authentic way (and in Hungarian) it would never have gotten over 700,000 views on youtube. 

There is an obvious parallel here to the Christian culture in the United States.  MANY Christians exist behind a kind of “Christian Curtain” and though they live in the same cities and towns as others, they are on completely different planets culturally.  I am not suggesting that Christian homes are oppressive regimes the likes of the Soviets.hardly (though I’m sure there are a few), but I can say for certain that before I was a Christian looking in from the outside at Christian culture for the first 25 years of my life, much of it appeared as comical and backwards as Speak.  I remember years before I was a believer having a Christian guy play me this song about “what if cartoons got saved?”  I’m sure some of you are cringing at the mention of this abomination. I can’t remember exactly what it was (and please don’t feel obliged to remind me), but I can guarantee that it made me all the more sure that I was quite fine in my “jack-squat” camp and wanted nothing to do with “Jesus” camp where that was their idea of humor.  I was still every bit responsible for my rejection of the Lord, but I hope I learned a lesson from this in how to not create more obstacles than are already there between an unsaved person and Jesus.  

I’m sure no one would say Speak was a bad guy, or even that he was insincere.  I think he means what he say.  I think he does indeed “pray for God” that there is an end to war, and that is a fine and noble thing.  But his presentation destroys the message and makes it IMPOSSIBLE for anyone to take him seriously.  The beats are plastic, the English is terrible, the singing is terrible, etc, etc, etc.  He arrives to sing (or more accurately “talk somewhat rhythmically”) about war to a graveyard in a Porsche that he probably spent a good portion of the budget for this thing renting.  Then he starts name-dropping his “black brother” rappers and hopes that they too are against the war (including the deceased TuPac who I’m sure would have had Speak’s back had he not been long dead already).  At the end he appears to release a pigeon instead of the more typical “symbol of peace” dove.  I could go on.the more I watch it, the more I am flabbergasted. 

But how much of what we produce as Christians seems the same way to the world?  How can we skimp on every single aspect of something and expect it to translate?  How can we lazily co-opt elements of popular culture and expect to be taken seriously?  A lot of what I see being produced in the name of Christ comes off as sincere but not worthy of being taken seriously..we destroy the message in our crappy delivery.

So what should someone like Speak do?  That’s hard for me to say because I’ve never been to or lived in Hungary.  It might start with him not simply trying to imitate a culture that he has nothing to do with.  Maybe he should start by singing (or speaking) in Hungarian.  Maybe he should take vocal lessons.  Maybe he should keep plugging away.  Maybe he should give up. There is the chance that he is doing far more to make his country look clueless than he is doing to represent it well.  Its hard to say.  And believe me.I feel for the guy. 

Business.