Isaac T. Atkins III, aka M.I.A.3, is not your typical rapper. A pastor, husband, father and self-proclaimed “hip-hop head,” M.I.A.3 intermixes the stage and the pulpit as the head emcee of Chicago’s House Hip-Hop Church, an organization that aims to transform the lives of teenagers and adults influenced by hip-hop culture.

As part of the rapidly growing Holy Hip-Hop movement, M.I.A.3 uses his love for hip-hop as a tool to reach fellow hip-hoppers with the message of Christ, and serves as yet another example of hip-hop’s ability to positively inspire, motivate and empower youth and adults alike.  

Though busy with job, family, ministry and his hip-hop career, M.I.A.3 took some time out to let us ask him a couple questions about hip-hop, religion, and his new album “Renewal 101,” and here’s what he had to say:

What is your personal definition of hip-hop?

I would define Hip Hop as a culture, originating in the Burroughs of NYC but now the predominant culture of the world’s youth, consisting of 4 vital elements:

1. The DJs
2. the B-Boys, B-Girls
3. The Taggers
4. The Higher Purpose

Without a higher purpose guiding our culture, our culture is destined to pass away. For me of course the Higher Purpose is God expressing His love for us through Jesus Christ. For a lot of other MCs I know it differs, but that Higher Purpose has always been in the culture. Right now though, the problem the culture has is that the predominate purpose for making music is trivial and temporary, and makes our culture look uncivilized. How many more songs can we make about cars, rims, females, sex, d-boys and gangsters before we kill ourselves physically, mentally and spiritually?!

If you had to pick your top 5 MCs of all time, who would they be? How have they influenced the direction you’ve taken with your music?

I know I’m gonna make some heads mad with these, but these are the artists I consider the best when looking at style, content, and overall swagger.

1. Andre 3000 – I’m sorry, dude is a beast and the most versatile rapper I’ve ever heard.
2. Common – Never fails to blend true MC lyricism with a real message.
3. Mos Def – The Mighty Mos is a monster lyrically, and has so much swagger it’s ridiculous!
4. Black Thought – Do i need to explain with this 5th Dynasty cat is on my list. ever since “Do You Want More?!!!?!” I’ve been in awe if his style and wordplay.
5. Cee-Lo Green – One of the most underrated MCs of all time in my opinion. I’m from the A too, so that could play a factor!

I know the heads want to skin me for not including KRS or Rakim in this list, but these are the artists whose style and method of conveying their message have influenced my own style. I love KRS, but was never a fan of his style, and I’ve always loved Rakim’s style but was never a fan of his message even when i was deep into the Nation of God’s and Earths. They are both monsters and pioneers and would definitely make my top 10, but these 5 I’m confident in.

Your new album is titled “Renewal 101,” and attempts to reach hip-hoppers with the message of Christ. What provoked you to create this album? What lessons of Christ do you wish to teach? And why are these lessons important for the hip-hop generation?

My whole purpose in making “Renewal 101″ was to shows the average Hip Hop head what the culture looks like through God’s eyes. That He’s not pleased with everything going on in the culture but He wants to and is using it for His will, to change it for the better. That change can only be truly met through knowing Jesus Christ, but knowing and following him does not mean leaving the culture of hip Hop, it means repping Him to the fullest through the culture. And in repping Him through Hip Hop in this project I talk about a lot of issues and concerns hurting our culture and separating us from Him. I also touch on some issue in the church that heads can clearly see aint right even if they never stepped foot in a church in their lives. So the goal of “Renewal 101″ is to be a course that, after taking it, the average hip hop listeners can reenter the culture with a Godly perspective.

In “Renewal 101,” you talk about fighting against your own need to take pride in your skills as an MC. As you become better known, do you find it harder to deny yourself possible fame and fortune in order to spread your message? Why is it necessary to deny yourself this glory? And how do you fight such urges?

If it’s anything i take seriously, it’s the lessons taught in the Bible. And pride is a constant topic throughout scriptures that in every instance ends badly for the individual indulging in it. It’s the reason Moses didn’t see the promised land, why the Jews rejected Jesus, and ultimately why this world will one day pass away. Man, I pray every day that God keeps me humble because I’ve seen what pride can do in me and in others. Plus I have a wife who won’t play that diva stuff!

Ultimately, I gotta remember that this gift I’ve been given isn’t for me to get rich off of or to be well-known. The message is always more important than the messenger, and the message I’m sending can and has changed lives. I just want to stay out of the way of what God is doing, you feel me?

Gospel rap, or Christian hip-hop, seems to be gaining a lot of steam these days, especially receiving a lot of media attention with such organizations as Kurtis Blow’s Hip-Hop Ministry and the increasing success of the Holy Hip-Hop Awards. What about Gospel hip-hop makes it so appealing to audiences and fans? Do you feel this can be attributed in any way to a backlash against the highly-publicized negativity in hip-hop?

Well, I have a couple of theories on why Gospel Rap, or Holy Hip Hop as we call it, is gaining momentum. One, the culture misses the substance that Hip Hop had in it’s early days, and HHH is filling that void for music with a conscience. I mean, there are a lot of conscious MCs out there, but people are looking for the genuineness, they’re tired of the mixed messages some artists give when they say Jesus in one bar and serve the blocks on the next.

Two, the events in the last 10 years of our nation, with Columbine, 9-11, Katrina, and some many other devastating tragedies has woken people up to the fact that something is very wrong in the world and the solution has to be bigger than us. We are pointing them to the One who has the answers and the cure for this entire world’s woes.

Three. Let’s face it, when Oprah says Hip Hop is too vulgar and demeaning people listen! Sure we go O’Reily and other well-known figures standing up and saying enoughs enough and we has the Imus thing, but Oprah commands an audience of billions around the world and when she says clean up time even Russell is grabbing a broom. You can’t get a lot cleaner that the teaching of Jesus Christ in rap form, so it’s only a matter of time before labels start taking a serious interest in talented Christian MCs.

Yet despite this increasing popularity, there are many people who believe hip-hop and church should not be mixed. Why do you feel they should be? What is it about hip-hop that makes it a good medium for spreading your beliefs?

I promised myself I wouldn’t talk anymore at G. Craige Lewis and his backwards crusade against Holy Hip Hop and Hip Hop in general. I’ll just say that the Bible is true when it says there’s nothing new under the sun. The same religious zealots who didn’t like what Jesus was doing, or didn’t like the Gospel being taught to non-Jews are still hard at work fighting against what we do. Hip Hip is a culture and, like i said before, the predominate culture of this world’s youth. How can we NOT speak to the culture as believers in the language that they know and fully understand? Especially me having grown up in the culture, it just makes sense. There’s few places on this earth that Hip Hop hasn’t touched, and if our commission by God is to go spread the Gospel to all nations, it’s a no-brainer to speak it through a culture known to all nations.

You are the House MC of the House Hip-Hop Church in Chicago. What is this church? What are its goals and objectives? And what is your role within it?

Ah, The House man! That’s my family! The House is Chicago’s first all Hip Hop youth and young adult worship service. We meet the 1st and 2nd Saturday of each month on the West Side, Lawndale community, and are in the local Juvenile Detention Centers the 3rd and 4th Sundays holding services. Check out thahouse.org when you get time too. Our objectives:

VISION:
To present the gospel of Jesus Christ in a practical, holistic and relational way in order to transform the lives of teenagers and young adults influenced by the hip hop culture” (Luke 2:52)

MISSION:
To build a Christ-centered ministry within the hip hop culture that will cultivate and empower teenagers and young adults living on the west side of Chicago with a sustainable faith through an aggressive, urban, teen and young adult-driven, culturally relevant, biblically accurate, community empowering church.

Pastor Phil Jackson is an unbelievable Man of God, and true Hip Hop head and one of the realest dudes you’ll ever meet. All of us House MCs are dedicated to Christ and to the culture, and that’s why I love being a part of this ministry.

Do you believe that this is what God wants you to do? How do you know that? And what about hip-hop do you think is pleasing to God?

I know that in this season of my life this is exactly what God wants me to be doing. That may change some years down the line. My wife and I spent 5 years on the campus of Illinois State University pastoring a campus ministry and helping cats get through school while growing closer to God. During that time I saw just how powerful music is for people trying to find God, and I know I’m providing the road map for so many seekers, and that is His plan for me in this season of life. The truth of the matter is that HHH is more biblically sound that most of the Gospel music to hear out there. The artists who truly study and put their all into the music are giving cats practical steps for living righteous, not just singing about how everything is going to be ok even though you haven’t changed anything about what got you in your jacked up situation, you know what I mean?

Were you a rapper or a minister first? Did your development as one play a role in your decision to become the other? How are the two professions alike and different, and how do they influence and build off of one another?

I was definitely a rapper first, been spittin since I was 12. I think that growing up in the culture is one of the reasons why I’m able to speak to it successfully. I’m not on the outside looking in telling you what you should do, but sharing with you what we all need. Even before I had a relationship with Christ I was spitting about real issues, phony studio rappers, abortion, ect. I was never a NWA fan, didn’t like gangster rap at all, so that set the stage for me. Coming into ministry and growing in the knowledge of Jesus Christ has made me a mature MC, focused and effective on the mic. I cant just write about anything just because like it now, the mission keeps my music rooted in truth and concentrated on being life-changing, not just entertaining.

I don’t think either played a role in my decision to become what I am today, it was both working together to progress me to this point. They are definitely both alike in one important way: When you speak before people you have the power to sway thinking and change lives. Whether from the stage or the pulpit (which I never really liked standing in front of), you are responsible for the words you speak to the masses, and will have to give an account for what you say. But both working together allows me to reach cats who would never otherwise grace a pew.

Are you working on anything new? Where do you see your music headed next?

I’m currently getting plans together for another album I’m hoping to drop next Winter. I having even got a name for it, but it will be more focus on reaching the streets and what we deal with socially, spiritually and culturally. Renewal 101 was the intro course, this next project will be for ready to join me in changing the culture for good and effecting their environment positively. At the same time, I’m hoping to gather some of the dopest MCs I know to drop a mixtape for next summer. It would be the second official release from my label, The Remnant Records, and will hopefully help us get more established while giving the streets some serious heat that will change their lives.

Aside from being a rapper, what are your interests? Do you have a family? Hobbies? Another job?

Wow, i got a lot of em man. I love basketball, playing and watching. I’m an avid reader, and a history buff (I actually graduated ISU with a History degree). I’ve in the last 2 years gotten big into working out, so I’m in the gym 3-4 time s a week. I will be married 6 years in September and we have one little girl who will be 5 in September as well, so being a better husband and father is always a top interest. My wife is my manager and I plan on that staying that way regardless of what happens in the next months or years. She’s got 2 business degrees and knows what she’s doing!.

And yes, a brother still works a 9-5. I’m actually a Multimedia web designer, so my site, my album, all of that I design and keep up. Plus we have a clothing line called Nu Wear that we launched last year that is going well (peep thevisioncreators.com). So we stay busy!

If hip-hop was a person, and you could ask him or her one question, what would it be?

Wow, I’d have a gang of questions, but this one would be most important:

Will you let me help you stay alive?