Forget about being the king of hip-hop–rappers are trying to be the king of kings.
Mase depicts himself as Jesus on a new mix tape, “10 Years of Hate (G-Unit Radio Part 16),” Vibe magazine reports. The former Diddy collaborator is shown on the cover wearing a crown of thorns and bloody clothes.
Just last week Kanye West took the whole hip-hop savior thing a little too far by posing as the J-Man on the cover of the latest issue of Rolling Stone (right).
But, of course, pop musicians have been messing with Christianity for decades.
1966: In an interview, John Lennon issues his famous “bigger than Jesus” quote, the actual text of which, according to the BBC, is this: “Christianity will go. It will vanish and shrink. I needn’t argue about that. I’m right, and I will be proved right. We’re more popular than Jesus now. I don’t know which will go first–rock ‘n’ roll or Christianity.” Forty years later, both are still kicking.
1977: Sex Pistols frontman Johnny Rotten (at left, in 2003) opens punk anthem “Anarchy In The U.K.” with: “I am an antichrist!”
1989: Madonna delivers the scandalous video for “Like A Prayer,” which showed the singer dancing in front of burning crosses and kissing a Christlike black man.
1992: Irish singer Sinead O’Connor commits career hara-kiri (and ticks off Frank Sinatra) by ripping up a picture of Pope John Paul II on “Saturday Night Live.”
1994: Nine Inch Nails puts out a track called “Heresy:” “God is dead,” frontman Trent Reznor (above, in 2005) screams. “And no one cares /If there is a hell, I’ll see you there.”
1995: Singer Joan Osborne (above, in 2003) delivers the hit single “One of Us.” The chorus, which will now be stuck in your head all day, goes: “What if God was one of us /Just a slob like one of us.”
1996: Shortly after Tupac Shakur was murdered in Las Vegas, his record label releases “Makaveli: The Don Killuminati: The 7 Day Theory.” On the cover, 2Pac is portrayed hanging on a cross.
1999: Nas stars in a video for the track “Hate Me Now” in which he drags a cross through the street. Then he raps while being crucified.
