Christian hip hop artist Lecrae responded to his critics on Thursday, April 11, in an episode of his podcast where he addressed topics including “Diddy parties,” his views on abortion, appearing at a political rally, and a dark period of life he went through around eight years ago.
In the video, titled “I Need to Repent.,” Lecrae acknowledged mistakes he has made and pushed back on people wanting him to do “penance.” He alluded to the Parable of the Prodigal Son, urging people not to be either the younger or the older brother in Jesus’ story.
“Being human means I’m not pretending I’m something I’m not,” said Lecrae. “Now I’m not going to lie to you: The struggle with doing a video like this is that I know no matter what I say, there’s going to be somebody who says, ‘I don’t believe it. He’s fake. He’s this, he’s that.’”
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The intro to the episode shows clips of several prominent figures, including Nick Jones, Marcus Rogers, and Charlie Kirk, criticizing Lecrae. Lecrae said if he were making his video to try to justify himself to his critics, he would be living for the approval of others, but that is not what is motivating him.
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“I don’t want to be immature and just be saying, ‘Please guys, please love me. Please accept me,’” he said. “I want to be a mature Christian who says, ‘Hey, listen, I’m telling you this for your own benefit and my own benefit.’”
Lecrae: ‘I’m the One That Told You I Was There’
Lecrae is a Grammy, BET and Dove Award-winning Christian hip hop artist. He emphasized at the beginning of his podcast that his video is “not me trying to get people to embrace me. I’m embraced by the Creator of all creators. I’m embraced by my community, by my church, by my wife, by my family. I mean, that’s what I need, who I need to be embraced by.”
However, Lecrae’s video “is a warning in many ways, to say, ‘Man, I have made some mistakes and some missteps. Don’t repeat these. And other people have made some mistakes that drove me to dark places. Don’t be those people.’”
“So this is for the older brother who is judgmental and self-righteous and for the younger brother who is irreligious and irresponsible,” he said.
Lecrae went on to define sin as missing the mark and repentance as aiming for “God’s target,” which is holiness. When people online call him to repent, said Lecrae, what they are really saying is they want him to live how they want him to live, and what they are asking from him is actually “penance.”
