North Carolina Episcopal church celebrates Black History Month with ‘Hip Hop Mass’

[Episcopal News Service] St. Ambrose Episcopal Church, a historically Black parish in Raleigh, North Carolina, will host its first Hip Hop Mass on Feb. 23 as part of its series of educational and celebratory events honoring Black History Month.

“We will be bringing hip-hop – which has a tremendous influence worldwide but has not historically been a part of church worship – to the altar of God, which means a part of me and a part of many other people who were either formed by hip-hop; hip-hop-slash-rap is an important part of their current life,” the Rev. Jemonde Taylor, r ector of St. Ambrose, told Episcopal News Service.

February is Black History Month, the annual acknowledgment of Black Americans’ accomplishments and contributions, including music, to the making of the modern-day United States. The 10:15 a.m. Eastern service is scheduled to be livestreamed. 

Loosely using the “Hip Hop Prayer Book” – a book written by the Rev. Timothy Holder, rector of St. Thomas Episcopal Church in Elizabethtown, Tennessee, as an outline, the Hip Hop Mass will follow a standard Episcopal liturgy and incorporate rapping from young adult parishioners, live music and a professional DJ. It’s intended to be both celebratory and educational.

“I’ve had this question for a long time – when did Christ become not cool?” Christian Green, St. Ambrose’s music director, told ENS. “My hope is that this Hip Hop Mass can be a huge invitation to the church that magnetically draws people in, because that’s what hip-hop beats do. That’s why people blast their cars with the music any time of day when they go to places, bopping their heads and moving their bodies. Body movement is healthy, and worship doesn’t need to be stiff.”

Imani Nia is a young adult spoken word artist and parishioner of St. Ambrose who’s helping Taylor prepare the Hip Hop Mass’ sermon. She told ENS that music and musical expression are important facets of African American culture and should be included in Black History Month discussions.

“When people talk about Black History Month, they tend to focus on ‘I Have a Dream,’ and the Montgomery Bus Boycott, but they’re focusing on the same things every year. At the end of the day, you’re not teaching anybody anything new,” Imani Nia, a young adult spoken word artist and parishioner of St. Ambrose who’s helping Taylor prepare the Hip Hop Mass’ sermon, told ENS. “If you pull somebody over on the street and ask them what’s the first think that comes to mind when they think about African American music, they’re most likely going to say either R&B or hip-hop.”

Hip-hop, formerly known as disco rap, stems from several historically African American musical genres, including funk, jazz, rock and roll, soul, scat, R&B, disco and gospel. It emerged as a music genre and culture in 1973 at a party in Bronx borough of New York City. Then-18-year-old Clive Campbell – known by his stage name DJ Kool Herc – disc jockeyed for a party his sister hosted using a self-made “breaking” technique. He’d isolate the unaccompanied rhythm section emphasizing the downbeat, or “break,” from one funk or soul record, then immediate play the break from another record and continue switching from one break to another on his two turntables. Campbell also developed a technique on his turntables where he’d loop a single break with two copies of the same record, which he referred to as a “merry-go-round.” These techniques formed the foundation of hip-hop and the art of rapping.

“I remember sitting in the back of the school bus, doing Run-DMC rap, beatboxing with other people on the school bus. – When I learned to drive, listening to Wu-Tang Clan and Biggie Smalls (the Notorious B.I.G.), 2Pac on the radio and CD player, being in college and going to college parties with hip hop music,” Taylor said.

Hip-hop has significantly evolved over the last 52 years and now includes many distinct subgenres –gangsta rap, such as “Who Shot Ya?” by the Notorious B.I.G.; crunk, such as “What U Gon’ Do,” by Lil Jon & the East Side Boyz; political hop-hop, like N.W.A.’s famous protest song calling about police brutality toward Black and brown people released in 1998; trap, such as “Bodak Yellow,” by Cardi B; and others. Globally, hip-hop has influenced other art and entertainment forms, fashion, language, technology and much more.

St. Ambrose’s Hip Hop Mass won’t be the first of its kind at an Episcopal parish, but mixing hip-hop music with Episcopal liturgy isn’t common. In the early 2000s, Trinity Episcopal Church of Morrisania hosted annual Hip Hop Masses. Kurtis Walker, known professionally by his stage name Kurtis Blow, deejayed the 2004 worship service. Walker, best known for his song “The Breaks,” is the first rapper to sign with a major record label.

The “Hip Hop Prayer Book,” originally published in 2004 by Church Publishing Inc., translated the Eucharist and Scripture using hip-hop vernacular. Everyone involved with organizing the Hip Hop Mass carefully curated the songs to showcase different eras and based on how well they mesh with liturgy. For example, the sermon will incorporate the baseline of the song “Power,” by Rapsody.

“If you were to strip the music from the service, nobody would know the difference,” Taylor said.

As a music genre, hip-hop has been a driving force for social change, activism and empowerment. Artists like hip-hop group Public Enemy and the late Tupac Shakur – also known by his stage name 2Pac – have used their platforms to call out systemic injustices Black Americans face, especially police brutality, mass incarceration, poverty and mental health challenges. For example, Public Enemy’s “Fight the Power,” which was featured in Spike Lee’s movie “Do the Right Thing,” encourages listeners to resist racial inequity and the government’s abuse of power; Shakur’s “Brenda’s Got a Baby” addresses teenage pregnancy and its damaging effects on mothers and their families.

Hip-hop as a source of social justice expression made international headlines earlier this month during the Super Bowl LIX halftime show, when Pulitzer Prize-winning author Kendrick Lamar used it musically and visually to highlight the cultural divide in the United States.

“They were expressing what they were seeing and experiencing through their art form,” Brian “B” Paiz, an on-demand radio personality for “Pulse-FM” 96.9 WPLW-FM in Goldsboro and a parishioner at St. Ambrose, told ENS. Paiz will DJ the Hip Hop Mass.

“Hip-hop is poetry, and these artists would be lauded as geniuses in different contexts,” Taylor said.

–Shireen Korkzan is a reporter and assistant editor for Episcopal News Service. She can be reached at skorkzan@episcopalchurch.org.