Using Hip Hop to Mentor: Celestine

When I first started going to my new church, Harambee, one of the pastors had announced that a hip hop artist named Celestine was going to be coming up from L.A. to partner with our after school program (the after school program gets about 125 youth every day from Renton High School, which is one of the most racially diverse schools in Washington state). I was excited to see what he was going to be doing, but still, when you hear of Christian and Hip Hop together, most of the time it just doesn't work. Not only is the video below top notch, but so is the song. Celestine, and his wife Tara, are still adjusting to life in Seattle and ministering to the youth, but the stories of mentorship are already very exciting. I am very excited to get the chance to possibly help them out by doing some design work and have really enjoyed getting to know them for the past 6 months. If you want to know more about their ministry, check them out at Celestine Rap. (also consider supporting their cause through prayer and financial support)



Here is a quick bio of Celestine off of his website:

Celestine Ezinkwo was born in Africa in 1984. He is a singer and a dancer and spent most of his time singing in the church choir, worked as a hip-hop choreographer and served the oppressed. He lived in Nigeria until he was 19 years old. In 2003 he moved to America to further pursue his musical abilities as a rapper. Since living in America he has discovered his strong passion is to liberate the oppressed through rap music and educating his listeners on how they can be proactive in making a change and helping kids and women around the world. Celestine has been on MTV Asia and worked with different musicians and organizations that are passionate about ending injustices around the world. Celestine’s heart is to CRY OUT for those that can’t cry out for themselves and to make a change partnering with others who have the resources and the passion to free kids and women around the world from the oppression they face on a daily basis. “Speak up for those that can’t speak for themselves, for the rights of all who are destitute. Speak up and judge fairly; defend the rights of the poor and needy.”(Proverbs 31:8-9)


Expect me to really be doing some major hype for his album that should be coming out sometime in the Spring or Summer of this year.