The Hip-Hop Mass: A Contemporary Vehicle for Evangelization in the Black Catholic Tradition

By Dr. Kevin Phillip Johnson

Introduction

I. Liturgical Evolution Through the Eyes of a Witness

Dr. Kevin Phillip Johnson, a composer, conductor, and Associate Professor of Music at Spelman College, has spent over five decades in Catholic liturgical music. From his early years in Los Angeles to his current work directing the Spelman College Glee Club and developing innovative worship experiences, Johnson’s journey has paralleled the rise and transformation of Black Catholic music. A former seminarian and youth music leader at Holy Name of Jesus Catholic Church in Los Angeles, Johnson is the creative mind behind the “Hip-Hop Mass”—a culturally resonant liturgical offering aimed at reengaging emerging adults in the life of the Church. This paper presents Johnson’s lived theology and academic framework for the Hip-Hop Mass as a necessary and timely vehicle for evangelization in the post-Civil Rights, post-Vatican II era.

The liturgical experiences of Black Catholics in the United States reflect a journey from survival to expression. In the decades following the Second Vatican Council, the Church embraced inculturation, giving rise to powerful innovations by African-American liturgists. Dr. Johnson was shaped by these developments, serving during the 1980s and 1990s at parishes like Holy Name of Jesus, where Gospel Masses provided vibrancy, community, and identity to Black Catholics navigating racial and social transformation. These Gospel-infused liturgies were not just music—they were lifelines for communities coming through slavery, Jim Crow, and into the Civil Rights movement. Their goal was to carry a people through a moment.

But that moment, as Johnson argues, was not designed to sustain future generations indefinitely. “The excited Church of the ’70s–’90s is gone,” he reflects. “That time was meant to cultivate that time—to get us to where we are today.”

II. From Gospel to Hip-Hop: Same God, Different Beat

The African-American Church has always expressed its faith through the prevailing music of the people. In earlier generations, spirituals and gospel music carried the faith of the oppressed. In the late 20th century, composers like Fr. Clarence Rivers and Leon Roberts brought a powerful fusion of Black musical idioms and Catholic sacramentality, shaping a uniquely African-American liturgical voice.

Today, Johnson contends, the most globally relevant Black musical form is hip-hop—a genre born of struggle but adopted worldwide. Hip-hop, he believes, is the natural successor in the arc of Black sacred music. It is expressive, poetic, communal, and prophetic. “This African-American hip-hop genre was built for all people, all over the world,” he explains. It is universal in its resonance and rhythm.

The Hip-Hop Mass—anchored in the core structure of the Roman Rite—uses beats, lyrics, and cultural symbolism to articulate the Gospel in a contemporary language. Its mission is not to entertain, but to evangelize. As Johnson puts it: “Same God, different beat.”

III. Evangelizing Emerging Adults: A Pastoral Mandate

One of the greatest challenges facing the Church today is the absence of youth and young adults. Johnson has observed firsthand the exodus of emerging adults from Catholic worship spaces. The excitement and unity he once witnessed at Holy Name of Jesus—where youth led music, taught children, and inspired elders—is now rare. “Youth have left the building,” he states bluntly.

The Hip-Hop Mass is not nostalgia—it is a new invitation. Its purpose is to reignite the sacramental imagination of a new generation by using a language they already speak. As with his earlier hip-hop arrangement of Children, Go Where I Send Thee, Johnson has demonstrated that rhythm, theology, and cultural voice can coexist powerfully.

Just as Fr. Rivers once said that “Blackness is a gift to the Church,” Johnson now asserts that hip-hop is a gift—a living language of worship, born in Blackness but not bound by it.

IV. Infrastructure and the Future of Liturgical Innovation

Johnson also reminds us that previous movements failed not for lack of spirit but for lack of support. “Back then, we didn’t have the infrastructure or financial backing to sustain the movement,” he notes. Today’s efforts must be paired with intentional investment—sound systems, stipends for artists, lighting, PR, and documentation—so that the Hip-Hop Mass is not a fleeting trend, but a transformative and replicable model for the Church.

His vision is clear: A Church alive with the energy, joy, and purpose of the young, the creative, and the faithful. A Church where the liturgy is not static, but alive with culture and sacrament—where emerging adults return not just to observe, but to lead.

Conclusion

The Hip-Hop Mass is not a novelty. It is an extension of the Black Catholic liturgical legacy—rooted in history, lived experience, and the unbroken desire to worship God in spirit and truth. It stands on the shoulders of giants: Fr. Clarence Rivers, Leon Roberts, and countless unnamed parish musicians who kept the flame alive. And now, with Johnson’s leadership, it offers the Church a path forward—a way to evangelize the heart through rhythm, reverence, and relationship.

“Let’s go,” Johnson says. Indeed, the time is now.

Footnotes

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