Hip-Hop And The Bibleናሙና

“KRS-One Drops Biblically Inspired Lyrics On Spiritually Minded”

In 1992, legendary hip-hop icon KRS-One asked a group of Cal-State Fullerton students a provocative, if not rhetorical question.

“Why do you look for a living God in a dead book?” the co-founder of Boogie Down Productions said while holding up a copy of the Bible. “Everything God wants you to know is already written in your heart.”

Ten years later, however, KRS-One was singing (or rather rapping) a different tune on his album Spiritually Minded, which contained numerous biblical references. “Lord Live Within My Heart” pulls from Matthew 7:7 where Jesus says, “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.” Then, in the song “Take It To God,” KRS-One makes reference to the story where Jesus walks on water (Matthew 14:22-34).

He continues that New Testament theme in the song “Know Thy Self” with the line “Know ye not that ye must be born again,” a reference to the story of Jesus and the Jewish teacher Nicodemus (John 3:1-21), and does so again in the following line where KRS-One asks the question “What does it mean to be in the world but not of it?” that Jesus famously posed in one of His teachings (John 17:13-19).

His odes to the Bible continue all the way into the 20th and final track titled “Power,” which includes multiple references and concepts throughout the hook:

Serve Him, serve Him

Serve Him with gladness, serve Him with gladness

Praise Him, Praise Him

Praise Him forever, praise Him forever (Psalm 100)

Power, power, You reign in power

You reign in power, You reign in power

You reign in power, You reign in power

You reign in power, power (1 Chronicles 29:12/NKJV)