BETWEEN THE LINER NOTES
Bobby Bishop for President
By Jennifer E. Jones
CBNmusic Producer
CBN.com
– Nashville, TN – Bobby Bishop is waiting for me this time.
The day before, the rapper missed our first attempt at an interview, and I was fortunate enough to have a sliver of time and just enough tape left to talk to him. We sit on the bench by the elevators in the Nashville Renaissance Hotel -– the very same spot where I interviewed his friend Shok earlier.
Much like Shok, Bishop is very much an ordinary guy in an unusual profession. While most rappers are going into debt to maintain their fabulous facades, Bishop proudly tells CBNmusic how simple his life is.
“We’ve just tried to keep our overhead very low,” he says. “My wife doesn’t work. We own a two-family house. We rent upstairs so we’re landlords. That offsets a lot of the mortgage. We’re gonna be obedient but set ourselves up for success.”
Even Bishop’s cars are all paid off. Who taught this hip-hop kid from Boston about money management?
“My pastor is a whiz. He’s like, ‘If I hear about you using a credit card, I will kill you’ (laughs). So we don’t have any debt. It works out.”
It’s clear that he has a good head on his shoulders. It’s wisdom that’s not only street smart but Godly as well.
Bishop saw a lot of life from his work as a social worker and a youth pastor. Although he grew up in the suburbs, he was inspired by the urban environment, and he wrote his rhymes about the inner city.
“I got past the point where I thought that I have to be in the city to do hip-hop,” Bishop says. “Even though I had been in the city, I got past the point of having to show and prove things. I felt God call me in this direction, and I went after it. This is who I am.”
His transparency is what drew people to him, and Bishop used hip-hop to bring kids into the church who had never been before.
“I just went outside. It’s as simple as that. Talk to people, let them know what you’re doing, showing some love, invite their friends,” Bishop says. “We do a lot of hands-on stuff. It gets people’s attention.”
In the Boston area in particular, he found that it was not always an easy task.
“We’re in the North East. People are kinda raw. We did a public schools tour in Kentucky. Not even an issue. I know for a fact that would not fly in Massachusetts. It’s things like that where you know there’s a liberal umbrella going on. But we found that if you go out there with the intention of being a regular person, meeting a need, being approachable, we’ve had tremendous success getting people to come to church.”
Bishop says his grassroots ministry was not only bringing people in but also letting them know that the church wasn’t quite as stuffy as they might have thought. “We’re a little more blue collar, a little more down-to-earth,” he adds.
That approach to evangelism also pulls Bishop down from hip-hop star to the guy next door.
“It takes me 45 minutes every week to go outside and rake the trash out of my yard. There’s gum wrappers and cigarettes in my yard, and I have to rake it,” he admits with a laugh. “There’s nothing flashy about it. Just regular life.”
But not many people’s regular lives come with press interviews and performances with KJ-52 and
GRITS. In spite of his accomplishments, Bishop’s feet are firmly planted in reality.
He explains, “You can reach the very top of [the Christian music industry] and be perceived as a superstar. It would be very easy to act like you have a big head. But reality is, outside of this thing, nobody knows who you are.”
Because of that, Bishop stresses the need for rappers to remember why they do what they do. He says very simple, “If it’s really about ministry, keep it about ministry.”
Bishop may be taking his underground ministry to a whole new level now that his album Government Name was re-released with national distribution. He is also touring throughout the fall. In spite of his rising notoriety, Bishop knows he’s a youth pastor at heart.
“We do the altar call. Somebody shuts down the merchandise table until we’re done praying with the kids,” he says. “We make sure there’s a time where the kids can come and pray. Otherwise, you can get a job at the mall. It’s cool if you entertain them but so what? You never know who God will send you.”
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