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YESUS
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CRC
CHECK: "CHRISTAFARI™"
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Reggae band substitutes 'Christ' for 'Rasta'
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Story last updated at 11:12 a.m. on July 18, 2003 The
Associated Press
FRANKLIN - Mark Mohr has a snappy slogan to
differentiate his band from the many others that play
reggae music. "I read The Word," he says with
a laugh. "I don't smoke the herb."
Mohr calls his band Christafari, a play-on-words based
on "Rastafari," the name for members of the
Jamaican sect who concocted reggae. He's also owner of a
label, Lion of Zion Entertainment, that has released
more than a dozen reggae/gospel albums by Christafari
and other artists.
Mohr, a 31-year-old white Christian based in the Los
Angeles area, speaks with the cadences of a California
surfer but affects a Jamaican patois on Christafari
songs. He wears his hair in dreadlocks, like the
Rastafarians who mixed their own beat and beliefs to
American soul music to create reggae.
Reggae's hypnotic beat is ofttimes enjoyed with
marijuana, and many of its songs celebrate it. One of
the genre's classics is "Legalize It" by Peter
Tosh.
The music also has been intertwined from its birth with
the philosophies of the Rastafaris.
Rastas believe Haile Salassie I, the late emperor of
Ethiopia, was the Messiah. Selassie was known as Ras
Tafari before being crowned, and Rastafarians took their
name from his. They believe that smoking marijuana
brings them closer to God.
Though Mohr cultivates the reggae look and sound, he is
firm in his Christianity and resolute that it is
irreconcilable with Rastafari beliefs.
Reggae songs commonly include Biblical imagery, but some
Rastafarians can't accept Christofari, either. Eight
years ago, Mohr said, a rising reggae star became
incensed about his Christian views and attacked him with
a knife in the lobby of a Cleveland hotel during a tour.
Mohr wasn't hurt and declined to press charges.
"It was just a zealous, brand new Rasta who was
trying to prove himself to the rest," Mohr said.
That kind of reaction hasn't caused Mohr to be less
direct about his beliefs. He precedes the Christafari
song "Why You Go Look" on the "WordsSound&Power"
CD with audio of Salassie denying he is the messiah.
"While I respect Christafari's right to express
their religious beliefs, they have to expect some
backlash when recording such messages in an art form
that has a large Rastafarian following and that owes so
much of its formation to Rastas," wrote reggae
reviewer Mark Harris.
Harris, of Hyattsville, Md., has reviewed more than
4,000 reggae albums on his Web site Reggae Reviews. He
says Mohr has "a talent for crafting catchy
melodies," but "I feel a bit put off when it
seems (Christafari) are putting down other
religions."
Christafari also doesn't fit well into a Franklin-based
contemporary Christian music scene that favors a
high-sheen pop sound. The band's records rarely get
airplay on Christian music stations.
"In the reggae community I'm too Christian, and in
the Christian community I just don't fit their
format," Mohr said. "Musically, we're far more
in line with what Bob Marley did, or what Steel Pulse or
even Sean Paul or Shaggy have done."
Christian reggae is not that much of a stretch.
"People like Bob Marley and even Peter Tosh, who
was the most militant, started in the Christian
church," Mohr said.
As early as the 1970s, reggae artist Vivian Jackson
(later renamed Yabby You) was releasing Christian-themed
songs like "Love Thy Neighbor" and
"Anti-Christ." Papa San, a popular Jamaican
artist, converted to Christianity in the 1990s, and now
calls his music "Gospel Dancehall."
But the most popular reggae performers - including the
superstar Marley - have been of the Rastafarian,
marijuana-promoting variety.
Mohr was first exposed to reggae in California by a
Jamaican neighbor, then during a family vacation to the
Caribbean nation.
"Being raised in a Christian family, I was dealing
with a guilty conscience," he said. "I was
trying to figure out a way to justify my sins, my use of
marijuana. I thought I'd found the perfect attempt to
justify that, with reggae music.
"But it just didn't quite add up eventually, and
after a few more years of rebellion, and actually trying
to start a reggae band based on the world, based on
marijuana, I came to Christ at the age of 17."
A mentor advised Mohr to make sure he was theologically
sound before attempting to combine reggae with gospel,
so he studied the Bible at Biola University in La
Mirada, Calif. He left before earning his degree to join
a reggae tour but has since been ordained as a minister.
"Our mission statement is to reach the world
through world music," Mohr said. "Our audience
is on the fringe, with the open-minded reggae fans who
are willing to accept good music, even if the message
isn't 'Rastafari liveth.'
"And it's also with the Christian fans who aren't
quite satisfied with the average contemporary Christian
releases that are more cookie-cutter sonically than what
we're doing.
"So our audience is a counterculture, I
guess."
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POSTED: January 30th, 2005, 5:00am
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In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this
material is posted without profit to those who have
expressed a prior interest in receiving the included
information for research and educational purposes. The
CRC has no affiliation whatsoever with the originator of
the articles nor is The CRC endorsed or sponsored by the
originator.
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HAILE
SELASSIE |
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IKON
OF CHRIST |
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PERSPECTIVE |
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The
CRC
combines the insight of RASTAFARI
and
CHRISTIANITY
on the Babylonian Anti-Christ.
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DISCLAIMER |
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The
opinnions expressed in the link(s) below are not neccesarily
the opinnions of the CRC.
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