How God used Christian hip hop to change Nick, Eric and Nate’s lives


Eric Chavo’s story

I grew up in a suburb outside of Rochester, New York. As long as I can remember, I was always drawn toward people who where different from me, and there was something about rap music that drew me in.

Hip hop became the main vessel that allowed me to connect with people and became my No. 1 musical choice. By the 5th grade, I had stolen CDs of DMX I would listen to in my room. I had to listen to them quietly so my old man wouldn’t find out what I was listening to. I ended up being the kid who had bleached his hair to look like slim shady — if my parents only knew why I wanted that hair.

Fast forward to my junior year in high school, 2005. At that time, the Lord was using an associate pastor to reach out to me and build a relationship. Shortly after, I saw the Lord’s love through Jesus and wanted to follow him.

I remember the Lord convicting my heart that I had to give up my music. I thought I would never listen to rap again. I was sitting in my room breaking all of my CDs — no more It’s Dark and Hell is Hot, no more Flesh of My Flesh, Blood of My Blood.

It was a painful day for me, but I was willing to give up rap to honor Christ. If I wanted to listen to music that honored Christ, though, I was stuck with Christian rock or the contemporary stuff.

Then one day, I was listening to some online radio site as I was instant messaging my friends on AOL, and I heard a song that changed the game. It was Flame’s intro to his first album. I couldn’t believe how Biblically-focused the song was and how talented he was.

At that instant, I hopped into my busted up car and drove to the only place I knew to buy Christian music — the neighborhood Christian book store. I went over to the tiny rap section and looked through what they had. Then bam, I found Flame and saw that he had two albums.

I bought them both. From there, I kept up with Flame and I couldn’t get enough.

I started to check his features and learned about Lecrae, Json, Thi’sl and more. I then bought all of the CDs I could buy from any artist connected with these guys. I was blown away by the talent and the boldness of their faith.

God taught me so much about himself through their music. I would listen to songs and then take them to the pastor who was discipling me, and we began this trend of having heavy theological conversations. And all that came from Christian hip hop.

I began spending time with this pastor who lived in Rochester and encouraged me to engage the city. I believe hip hop built a bridge for me to do that.

Over time, my pastor pushed me to connect with this younger kid who lived in the city. I didn’t know what was all going on at the time, but my pastor was pouring into me and I was pouring into this kid. It reminds me of Json’s album cover for Life on Life.

It’s amazing to see how God works because he took this kid from the burbs and used hip hop as a significant vessel to break my heart for the city.

Fast forward 10 years, I’m finishing my fifth year of full-time ministry with high school and middle schools kids in South Minneapolis. I’ve just been doing exactly what my pastor did with me. I’m making disciples through life on life relationships.

Currently, I’m in process of partnering with a ministry called GRIP in Chicago to launch a ministry called Slam in South Minneapolis. Slam is a ministry focused on raising up, equipping and walking with local churches to do life on life with urban youth — crazy how God works. That’s a sliver of how God has used Christian hip hop to influence and shape my life — glory to Jesus Christ.

David Daniels
David Daniels
David Daniels is a columnist at Rapzilla.com and the managing editor of LegacyDisciple.org. He has been published at Desiring God, The Gospel Coalition, Christianity Today, CCM Magazine, Bleacher Report, The Washington Times and HipHopDX.
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