As the premier Guildworks iABRAHAM music project, WHAT IF GOD WAS FOUND HERE? is an avant-garde compilation focused on redemptive disruption of false complacencies, and on passionately claiming the Gospel of Jesus through the messiness and beauty of authentically lived faithful lives. Urban and inner-city actuality sounds - this music's meant to disrupt luxurious repose, cigars and fireside presumptions about Christmas. To bring wonder at Jesus "pitching his tent to live among us"; redemption and respite for all with hearts to hear.
A collaborative compilation from worldwide emerging and established artists, WHAT IF GOD WAS FOUND HERE? spans a gamut from gritty street-life, to hard-core theological/spiritually spit bars of shared values between Jews, Christians, and Muslims. The WHAT IF GOD mixtape represents diverse musicians coming together in community through sound, working in parable, allegory and personal narratives to fuel and feel the Spirit-imbued power of Holy hiphop. Rooted in an evolving melange of ethno-indigenous expressions, slave songs, spoken-word Holiness preaching and Gospel music, faith-based hiphop's power and vibrance resound powerfully at this season. As the Abrahamic faiths of Jews, Christians and Muslims coalesce in the heart of common ground, offering compassion and the radical hospitality of God’s love.
Hearing WHAT IF GOD WAS FOUND HERE? is a complex experience involving emotional, spiritual, socio-economic, religious and straight-up issues of faith; sometimes a jarring, painful, discomfiting listening experience, more than a universally accessible story of hope, faith, joy and love (which is what most materially privileged folks know as our Christmas story.) [NOTE BELOW] Not everything on WHAT IF GOD happens in back-alleys, or falls to black-eyes and bar-flys, but some Christmases here happen at rock bottom, in the hard truths and narratives of God moving in a broken world.
“From the crevice of the ghetto" to Harlem Churches…to the Dome of the Rock; God hears the common man and the sounds of a dreamer. God With Us, Immanuel. Emmanuelle; the kingdom of heaven on earth, the sound of our humanity. -Deborah Risa Mrantz Founder|Executive Director GUILDWORKS iABRAHAM 2013-2014
[Note below]:: some music contains artists' authentic visual/aural expression using expletives, et. al. I have made the controversial decision to allow this music in these faith-informed initiatives after years of discernment and the evolution of spiritually and socially conscious forms of holy hiphop and Gospel rap. I believe Jesus would be in concert with this decision, though I realise you may forego listening.
We embrace the hospitality of Konomark. Please also note our (CC) Creative Commons licensing.
creativecommons.org/licenses/ Participating GUILDWORKS iABRAHAM artists work professionally, diligently and perseveringly in an unrelenting music industry; we respectfully request you keep their dignity to be workmen/women worthy of their wages and also remember to purchase music directly from participating artists. If you believe we are inadvertently or unknowingly misusing material please advise us immediately through the contact form and we will directly contact the correct parties.
Some rights reserved. Please refer to individual track pages for license info.