Reborn: Christian Hip-Hop Artist, Minister, Motivational Speaker

One in a weekly series about the Black AIDS Institute's Greater Than AIDS ambassadors, who are using their VIP status in Black America to increase awareness of HIV/AIDS and HIV testing and treatment.

"It really hasn't changed much at all, sadly--it actually seems worse," says Christian hip-hop artist Reborn of the rap community's lack of progress in addressing the HIV/AIDS epidemic since Eazy-E died of complications from the disease a month after being diagnosed, in 1995.

The soft-spoken Reborn has been using his music and ministry to bring awareness to this issue plaguing young African Americans.

"HIV/AIDS has to be one of the most important issues that our community has to deal with, but it seems that within the hip-hop community, my peers continue to want to speak about things that are shallow, demean women and floss about sex, as if we're all loose and have no morals," he says.

Reborn studied theology at Oakwood University in Huntsville, Ala., where he began crafting lyrics for his latest "conscious hip-hop" release, 2nd Coming (available for download at martyrentertainment.com). His work has been endorsed by high-profile Christian ministers such as Fred Price of the Crenshaw Christian Center and by Public Enemy's Professor Griff. "He is stepping up to his generation," reads a quote from Griff praising Reborn on his website. "He discovered his mission."

Reborn says that he is particularly concerned about women, who account for more than one in four new HIV/AIDS cases in the United States. Of these newly infected women, about two-thirds are African American. "What I tell my African American sisters is to hold themselves accountable and to a higher standard," he says.

On the track "Virtuous Woman," Reborn encourages women to "just say no." Lyrics from the opening verse say it all:

‘Cause just like my sword, I'll always need you by my side/ every morning every day and every night/Girl, I want to put a ring on it/I just want to know ya, then I want to show ya/Next to the Lord there will no one else before ya.'

"I deal with a lot of discussion groups that talk about relationships," says Reborn, "and what I've come to find is that in the midst of looking for love, a lot of our sisters do things that they wouldn't normally do because they think they're at the bottom of the totem pole as far as women are concerned. There are a lot of self-esteem issues in our communities . . . and we reap the penalties for our lack of consciousness."

An enthusiastic spokesman for the Greater Than AIDS campaign, Reborn frequently uses his social media platform on Facebook and Twitter to spotlight the campaign's news and events to keep his friends and followers in the know.

"I love the campaign that we have going on--but it's really time to get out in the streets with it," he says. "This is a choice-based issue. We're greater than this. If we start saying no, less people will have AIDS. Period. And maybe 10 years from now we can get rid of this thing."

Janice Rhoshalle Littlejohn is a Los Angeles-based freelance journalist, author and documentary filmmaker.