Loading...
Loading...
Click here if you don’t see subscription options
Zac DavisSeptember 08, 2017
(AP/America Media illustration)

Rap got religious last year. At least that’s what I wrote earlier this year for America. The truth is, while it may have gotten more explicit about religion in 2016, hip-hop has always had a deep religious undercurrent to its bars and beats.

This week we’re chatting with Alex Nava, the author of In Search of Soul: Hip-Hop, Literature, and Religion. We talk to Alex about religion’s influence on hip-hop and why people are surprised to find out about it. If you need any convincing before or after listening to us—go listen to Kendrick Lamar’s “How Much a Dollar Cost.”

In Signs of the Times, we talk Pope Francis in Colombia, rapping nuns, beer-brewing monks and proposing in front of Pope Francis.

Links from the show:

Czech Catholic Church branches out into forestry
Beer-Brewing Monks Are Helping Rebuild Earthquake-Devastated Town In Italy
Rapping nun to perform for Pope Francis in Colombia
Man proposes to girlfriend in front of Pope Francis
In new book, Pope Francis says he consulted a psychoanalyst
Catholic Church leaders condemn Trump administration’s decision to end DACA

What’s on Tap?

Becherovka, a Czech digestivo (otherwise known as a classy version of Jagermeister).

More: Music
Comments are automatically closed two weeks after an article's initial publication. See our comments policy for more.

The latest from america

For every Fátima, there are dozens of unverified reports of divine messages, “weeping” statues, healing relics and prophetic revelations that have vexed church authorities and challenged the Vatican’s ability to track and verify such events.
John ThavisMay 13, 2024
It is not surprising that Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, an eminent paleontologist, got himself in trouble with church officials and his Jesuit superiors.
Fasting “at least for one day of the week from futile distractions” such as social media also can be a path toward a jubilee indulgence, according to norms published by the Vatican May 13.
With the creation of A.I., anthropomorphized chatbots are one critical example of how the rapidly advancing technology is testing the limits of the human condition.
Eryn Reyes LeongMay 13, 2024