“Hip-Hop in the church? The idea is as much taboo and unheard of as it is revolutionary and groundbreaking,” says the voice introducing the first episode of Lifestyle Radio with DJ G!nx. The new radio show, which can be found on Soundcloud, is sprinkled with the sounds and rhymes of artist like Tye Tribbett, Erica Campbell, GAWVI, Kirk Franklin and more.
Founded and curated by music producer Greg Doby (or DJ G!nx), owner of Unidec Entertainment Group, Lifestyle Radio stands to promote positivity through a mixture of Hip-Hop, Gospel, R&B and Rap music genres. The very first episode of the recently relaunched radio show poses the question, “Why can’t we as Christians use Hip-Hop and Jesus to reach an entire world?”
“Religion has put a stigma on secular music, including Hip-hop music. But what we have failed to realize is that God created everything. He gives us inspiration and creation and he created Hip Hop,” Doby told Madison365. “Hip Hop was created to unite and to have fun and unity amongst the community and that’s what it was founded on.”
Lifestyle Radio originally launched eight years ago, a time when the show was still distributed on CDs by Doby himself. After two years of broadcasting the show he decided to explore other music ventures–eventually producing for names like Lloyd Banks, Eric Benet and Avant. However, after a recent family road trip, Doby was disappointed to find there were few radio stations his entire family could enjoy.
“We couldn’t listen to the radio because it was too much cussing and negative messages on satellite radio and I was like you know what I need to have something so people can listen to and something that the whole family can enjoy” he said.
To bring balance mainstream radio, Doby relaunched the show to kick off the new year with positivity.
“I just felt like right now the time, when most of the music and all the stuff that is out right now is negative and I felt like it needed to put something into the atmosphere to offset all of that negativity,” he said.
The upcoming episodes of Lifestyle Radio will showcase artists like Tasha Cobb featuring Nicki Minaj, 50 Cent, and more examples of mainstream artists sharing their own spirituality. Doby shared that the show aims to transform music into an avenue that people can not only enjoy, but even live by.
“This is not a gospel show, even though it has a lot of spiritual aspects in it, but it’s really a mainstream positive, gospel and R&B, rap show,” he said.
Doby plans to release each new episode of Lifestyle radio every Sunday on Soundcloud.com.
“We need more love. We need more unity, especially amongst our Black folks and this is my contribution to do that,” Doby said.
