There are artist and there are ministers. There can be at times both, those who use music to minister.

Hazakim does just that. They not only use the music to minister but to educate. I would call them teachers of the faith. In an interview with Tony I was not only ministered to but learned a lot not only about their faith but more about how Hip-Hop can be used to do much more than most genres of music. Tony and Mike both have not only a passion for the faith but a passion to educate about the roots of the faith. This was one of those interviews that I didn’t want to end. The interview was more like a coming together to reason about the word of God.

This is one interview that I am very excited to share with you and introduce you to Hazakim. If you haven’t heard of Hazakim yet, you will and very soon. Their delivery, style, and message are like none you’ve ever heard. They have mastered the art of preaching to music or shall I say teaching through a diverse style that can only be described as musical genius.

I almost forgot that it was an interview because I was so engaged in the words that were being spoken. It’s not often that I get to talk to a minister. But in this case that’s what I felt like. These guys really are about evangelizing than just making music. Check out what Tony from Hazakim said about the music and he faith and how they relate to his methods. And be sure to listen to the sound bite from the interview when Tony says who Jesus is.

Were you brought up as a Christian?

Mike and I (we’re brothers) and we were raised in a believing household. My father was involved in ministry. And a little later in life in middle school my parents began attending in the Messianic Jewish movement. It was part of our culture that we always knew was there but the Jewish aspect of our culture wasn’t really as important until The Lord kind of started leading my parents to pursue that.

So are you Jewish?

We are multi-cultural. We are Jewish on both ends. My father has Jewish roots on his dad’s side and my mother has Jewish roots on her mother’s side. And we are Protégées, Jamaican, and Sicilian. It’s kind of mixed so that’s how I identify. My Jewish roots on both sides and my faith in the Jewish Messiah it is something that is important to me as well.

Where did you guys grow up?

We grew up most of my life in Columbus, Ohio.

What was it like for you growing up?

As far as testimony it was a little bit uneventful. My parents did a really good job of instilling The Word of God in us. We both got saved really young. I think I was 13. We both got saved around the same time. We met some other believers that were on fire for The Lord and that kept us encouraged during our middle school and high school years. We were involved in street ministry and things like that. It wasn’t until a little latter actually hitting 19 to 21 where I guess our faith weakened in the sense of getting side tracts with temptation and stuff like that but The Lord was faithful and brought us out rather quickly. We found our wives fairly young.

I would say it was also rather interesting growing up with the unique background that we had. And then the Hip-Hop aspect, growing up in that time, Hip-Hop was very influential. We grew up on a lot of the more intellectual Hip-Hop that was out in back in that time period that was more socially conscience. Some of it was even religiously driven not necessarily for The Lord but a lot of different religious ideas and social commentary.

So how did you guys start in Hip-Hop yourselves?

Actually I started years ago with a guy named John Rueben who is now on Goatee records in Columbus. John had a crew of ten rappers and I was one of them. Then John got signed to Goatee and broke off to do his own thing. And The Lord started pulling me more towards Jesus driven lyrics. My brother at the time was not a huge fan of Hip-Hop. He respected it but he sort of lost interest when rap started going off into a particular direction. He was more into Jazz and Big Band. But when The Cross Movement came out it kind of encouraged us that you can use this genre to really expound on scripture and to really make a statement, more so than just “I use to be a thug and Jesus saved me”. You can do more profound and biblical acts of Jesus in rap and Hip-Hop. So we found it to be a very unique and interesting way to present the Gospel. Being raised in the Messianic movement for many years, we just infused our music with that Messianic Jewish perspective.

So how would you say that you can use Hip-Hop to speak to youth? Just to give you a little background in the Hip-Hop culture. It started in the 70’s in the Bronx area. And even within the first generation you had certain rappers doing social commentary so it wasn’t all about a party. And then in the 80’s you have guys like “Public Enemy” (not to give attention to secular artist but to give you some background) and KRS1 who, not that they were biblically sound but Hip-Hop has always had the knack of really preaching. In the words of a label mate of ours (Shai Linne) “The Question is what are you preaching about? Every rapper has a sermon but what are you preaching about?” In that era it was all about empowerment, knowledge, and Afrocentric ideas. And then Hip-Hop in the late 80’s became more gangster rap and then it became affiliated with mindlessness and a party. But I think really at its root and the genre I think Hip-Hoop is unique in that we have songs that we have songs that expound upon entire doctrine of scripture. And I don’t really hear other genres being allowed to do that in the same way. In Hip-Hop it basically enables you to preach a whole sermon. You can preach a whole sermon and preach about the deity of Christ and the triune nature of God. So we find it to be very edifying. And I think even beyond just youth depending on the way you present the music. It’s really done musically not just with the synthesizer. You can even reach older people. We are in our third generation of Hip-Hop. So even beyond the teenagers there is a large demographic that understands the worth and the lyrical and poetical value of Hip-Hop.

So do you think that it’s easy to use if for preaching because the way that it’s orchestrated?