Hip hop group to take word songs to Middle East

ANAHEIM, Calif. — Matthew Aguilar has been doing Christian rap since 1989. It all started at church, perhaps an unlikely place to discover music from the streets. But it makes perfect sense when his dad, Phil Aguilar, is founding pastor of Set Free, a worldwide outreach to bikers, people living on the edge, people left behind or left out.

Matthew and brother, Phil Jr., are two members of the Set Free Hip Hop team departing Feb. 1 on a 23-day tour to entertain U.S. military personnel in Europe and the Middle East. Break dancer Eric Aceves and three female song and dance artists round out the hip hop group.

“This is what we love to do. Now it’s become our life,” Aguilar said, characterizing hip-hop music as an underground genre.

“It’s the No. 1 style,” he said. “Hip hop is on the street. Rap is what you hear on the radio.”

AKA Productions, a major provider of entertainment for the U.S. military, is producing the Set Free tour at the invitation of the U.S. Army Morale Welfare and Recreation Division. It will be the third military tour for the Set Free hip-hop team.

“It’s the first tour extending into Operation Enduring Freedom,” said Dwayne Ulloa, president of AKA Productions.

It was originally scheduled to go into Iraq as well, but that portion of the trip was cancelled due to security concerns. The tour will commence in the Balkans, with stops in Bosnia and Kosovo before it wraps up in Afghanistan.

“Their music has gone over great with the troops,” Ulloa said. “What we liked about this group is that they have a great attitude.”

The producer said it can be difficult to find artists willing to rough it on the tougher tours.

“It’s a life-changing experience,” he said.

Aguilar agrees. His mission is to bring the troops a taste of home. He described the tour as a chance to relate to them as people, not just soldiers.

“Whether it’s 9/11 or growing up in a rough neighborhood, every life has its own drama,” he said. “Our message and our music testimony is sharing a story. Rap is based in real life. It’s telling the truth in stories.”

Aguilar said he wants people to know that rap didn’t save his life, but God did.

“I would have stopped a while ago if kids didn’t come up and tell me, ‘You encouraged me to live another day,’” said the 26-year-old rapper.

Since it began, the Set Free group has performed nationwide, from Venice Beach, to public schools and state prisons. They even put on a private show for former President Reagan. But selling hip hop to a Christian audience is not easy.

“Christian rap is a stepchild,” Aguilar said. “There is something about putting on a beat that causes the Christian community to take pause. There is something about rap that hasn’t been accepted by the church yet,” he said.

It’s no surprise to Pastor Phil Aguilar at Orange County Set Free, in Buena Park. He questioned whether hip hop will be accepted by mainstream churches in this generation.

“Christians move so slowly,” he said. “There’s always the new harvest. You can’t put new wine in old wineskins.”

Published by Keener Communications Group, February 2005

Christian Examiner™, P.O. Box 2606 El Cajon, CA 92021 • 619-668-5100 • Fax 619-668-1115
Email: info@christianexaminer.com • Web site: www.christianexaminer.com