Harvard DJ uses ‘hip-hope’ to preach social change
AMBRIDGE — Christopher Hope has heard all the criticism about hip-hop: It’s angry, it’s degrading toward women, it glorifies drug pushing, pimping and partying.
The 27-year-old Harvard Divinity School graduate student doesn’t deny that those elements exist in his favorite musical genre. But the Atlanta transplant believes those aren’t the only themes in modern hip-hop. Some of the music, he said, seeks to promote social change and spread the Gospel.
To prove his point, Hope hosts a one-hour, Saturday evening show called “Hip Hope” radio on Harvard University’s WHRB 95.3 FM, where he plays contemporary rap music along with a sub-genre he calls “gospel hip-hop.”
Hope said he uses the show as a way to introduce fans of traditional urban music to a hip-hop with Christian themes. Listeners are exposed to gospel hip-hop songs that have messages about social activism and social change, he said.