Former A&R-Turned Pastor Cole Brown's "Lies Hip Hop Told Me" Examines Slogans Like "B*tches Ain't Sh*t"

Cole Brown never imagined leaving his job in the Hip-Hop music industry – until he made a most unexpected career change and became a pastor. The transition between these two worlds forms the basis for his new book, Lies Hip Hop Told Me.

In Lies Hip Hop Told Me, Brown examines 14 slogans from the music he loves, in light of the teachings of the God he loves. Interfacing with rap lyrics, Christian scripture, history, and other data, Brown addresses such famous slogans as “Only God Can Judge Me,” “Christianity is the White Man’s Religion”, and “B*tches Ain’t Sh*t.”

Brown is the founding pastor of Emmaus Church in Portland, Oregon, where he has served for six years. He previously worked as an A&R for legendary Hip-Hop producer Teddy Riley (Heavy D, Jay-Z, Snoop Dogg). It is his personal identification with Hip-Hop music and culture that makes his critique of it unique.

“I did not write this book to move people away from Hip-Hop culture,” Brown explains, “but to move people toward redeeming what is broken within it.”

Brown provides a brief overview of the first chapter of Lies Hip Hop Told Me, releasing 0n July 2, and also put together a video of an excerpt from one of the “lies Hip Hop told him” – Only God Can Judge Me Now: