UTS event melds hip-hop, religion

WEB EXCLUSIVE. Hip-hop music converged with spirituality on Tuesday night at Union Theological Seminary.

Held at the Union Theological Seminary’s James Chapel, 'Going Beyond Hip-Hop: History, Politics, and Spirituality' featured speakers and performers who discussed the positive influence hip-hop culture could have on youth across the globe, particularly through Christian ministry.

Walter Hidalgo, the event’s organizer and co-chair of the Latino/a Caucus who is a candidate for a Master of Arts in Church and Society at UTS, began with a sermon in which he discussed his own experience with hip-hop. Growing up in an economically challenged environment in Rhode Island, Hidalgo said that he found solace in the spiritual message of rap despite its commercialization.

“I believe that that same powerful word [of Jesus] ... is currently what is helping hip-hop,” Hidalgo said, explaining that both Christ’s message and hip-hop provide people with a sense of community. “Hip-hop culture is creating a spiritual, diverse … public discourse.”

Hidalgo recalled his own experience of using hip-hop to help change the lives of young people in Colombia. Last year, he journeyed to Colombia’s School of Peace to learn about the current civil war and its impact on the Colombian youth. While there, he noticed the universality of hip-hop. In the face of civil strife, young people created new identities for themselves through break-dancing and graffiti. This artistic expression, he said, furthered the idea that “hip-hop is a language” that all people can understand.

After several performances, Dr. Addarel Omar Fisher stepped up to the podium. While visiting a friend in prison, Dr. Fisher observed the terrible conditions of jail life. He decided to help uplift the prison community spiritually by bringing Christian ministry through hip-hop and spoken word performances to prisoners.

“I choose to use my mouth and the hip-hop that I use … to bless, not to curse,” Dr. Fisher said. He finished with a version of T.I.’s hit “Live Your Life,” reworked as “Live for Christ,” and another inspirational track.

Danny Reyes, also known as the rapper Mystery, made more literal comparisons of hip-hop with religion, likening the Christian martyrs Peter and Paul to slain rap stars Biggie and Tupac Shakur.

Reyes was followed by Dr. Josef Sorrett, a non-resident fellow at Harvard’s DuBois Institute for African and African-American Research who will be joining Columbia faculty in Fall 2009. Sorrett discussed religious images in early hip-hop and compared hip-hop to the Bible, saying that its founding by just a few youths in the South Bronx is comparable to Adam’s creation from dust in Genesis.