The following is an excerpt of an NPR/All Things Considered interview with Supaman, a member of the Crow Nation, who is a Christian rapper.
"I was just down and out - rock bottom you could say - and I grabbed the Bible," says Supaman. Reading the Bible rekindled memories of going to church as a boy. And despite his own disbelief at first, Supaman found himself in a dialogue with God over the next few days. He says he saw a sign of his presence and fell into prayer.
"And I felt right there at that moment this love, I felt this warmth come over my body," he says. "I said, 'God, why did you do this? You know me, I'm dirty.' I just cried. Tears came down my eyes; I'm holding it back right now. Every time I tell this story I feel that. And right there I said 'All right, I'm yours God. You want me to rap for you? I'll do it.' "
Supaman stayed true to his word. He walked away from a deal with the record label and returned to the reservation to weave a new message into his music. He knew he couldn't be too obvious about it though, otherwise his fans would turn him off. So he cloaked the message under a tough exterior of rugged beats and heavy-hitting metaphors.
"When they heard it they were like, 'Man, this is pretty good,' " says Supaman. "And then they would hear the lyrics and be like, 'Oh, you're rappin about Jesus.' Some would hate it: 'Oh man, I don't wanna hear that.' And some would say, 'I'm not into Jesus Christ, but, man, this is good music.' And others would be influenced by it."
Supaman says his conversion has allowed him to look at his life and the reservation with different eyes; to see beyond the bad things and focus on the beauty and humor that are there too.
"I talk to a lot of kids - go to schools and everything - and I tell them, 'Man, you don't know who you are. You don't know what you have. You can go to Europe, Japan and these people love you cuz you're Native American. So you should value that,' " he says. " 'You should value that and know who you are!' "
It's a lesson Supaman says he learned the hard way.
To listen to the interview, follow the link below.
http://pd.npr.org/anon.npr-mp3/npr/atc/2011/10/20111011_atc_09.mp3?dl=1
To read the complete article, follow the link below.
http://www.npr.org/2011/10/11/141238763/supaman-rapping-on-the-reservation
