These Hard Times Are Tight Like That by Rev. J.M. Gates

These Hard Times Are Tight Like That is a depression themed sermon by Rev. J.M. Gates. Reverend J.M. Gates (1884 – 1945) was an American preacher. He was pastor of Mount Vernon Baptist Church in Atlanta GA from 1914 until his death. He recorded over 200 sermons and gospel songs between the mid-1920s and 1940s. He was one of the most prolific preachers of the pre-war era, and was largely responsible for the popularity in recorded sermons. These Hard Times Are Tight Like That is one of them. It's a a metaphor for hard times. The sermon was recorded in 1930 for Okeh.

Preacher Rap

One of the main factors in the evolution of rap music were the early "straining preachers", many of whom recorded to extraordinary popularity in the 1920s and '30s. Rev. J.M. Gatescould belt out a sermon and sometimes a short hymn in that time, usually joined in the singing by a few members of his church. The rhythmic exhortations of preachers such as Gates were the predecessors for the secular rhymebusters of the 1970s. Back then, Gates had a superstar status and his funeral was the largest held in Atlanta before Martin Luther King's.

Source: All about blues music, Cross rhythms, Wikipedia
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