ABSTRACT
Religion has always been an important element of rap music, and manifests itself in three main ways: artists whose material openly reflects their religious orientation, artists who have left rap and converted to the religious life, and artists who may hold strong religious beliefs personally, but they are not reflected in their music. Many historians of rap find early templates for the genre’s vocal delivery in the cadences of black preachers. Artists like Kurtis Blow and Ma$e have left the music industry and gone on to become ordained ministers. While Christianity had an early and lasting influence on rap music, two groups with ties to Islam—the Nation of Islam (NOI) and a splinter group, the Five-Percent Nation—also had a profound effect on the culture in the late 1980s and early 1990s. More recently, hip hop with overtly Christian themes has moved out of the shadows and is becoming increasingly visible, as artists like Lecrae and Chance the Rapper have released albums with strong roots in the church.
