worship and glorify Jesus. And I had never seen
in the Church?
for granted that we are rappers who know that
that before in my life. I was just blown back by
on the other side of this is more money, more
it, and very interested in who this Jesus was. What kind of pressure do you get from other fans, more notoriety, more fame, but we love
Once my eyes were open to that and where I Hip-hop artists about being a Christian Hip-hop Jesus so much, and we love the mission, not
come from. And who I am as a person. That I artist? the money, so much, that we know these are
could be accepted by the Lord, and that I could
our core values and this is what we’re going
be transformed, then I was all in. That’s what [Steven] Oh absolutely, there are so many to stick with. Personally, that’s something that
really shook me first about this place. times where, even when you look at it from I don’t wrestle with because I love Jesus too
an aspect of acceptance, I’ve had this much, but it’s a reality.
[WM] The Edge web site also poses the conversation with people that’s just like, “Bro, following question and inspiring answer… Hip-hop on a mainstream scale is killing it right [WM] The video for “Fuego” has 1,000,000
now!” Hip-hop on the mainstream circuit is views. Tell us about the journey from getting
Why a Hip-hop Church? the number one genre right now that’s being started to where you are now?
Hip-hop is not a fad that can be simply defined streamed. Mainstream artists are going out to by a song or dance. It is a sub-culture that has these shows, getting ten or twenty thousand been in existence for about 50 years. Whether dollars a show, and their fan base is crazy. we like it or understand it, this sub-culture has It’s very quick and easy to build an audience impacted young and old, professional and the and build a brand as a mainstream artist, but street hustler. We are losing this generation to then on the Christian side the rappers are the negative influences that exist in this culture. still the little guys, we’re still growing, we’re This culture is impacting the world that we live still the small sub-genre, and the openers to in, so the real question is...WHY NOT HIP-HOP everything. So many times, I think people take
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February 2019
“Fuego” // Steven Malcolm
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