The Hip Hop Hope Unity conference took place on Saturday, Dec. 2nd at "The House" hip-hop church in Chicago IL. A little over 30 artists and DJ’s from Chicago attended the four hour event.

After an opening prayer by national author and speaker Pastor Phil Jackson, Tre9 kicked off the first workshop entitled "Mission Minded MC." He explained the desperate need for CHH’ers to become more mission driven and less industry focused. "I really needed to hear this because my focus was becoming a bit self-centered, and the perspective Tre9 brought helped me realize I had to check my heart," stated Chicago’s own Castro.   Tre9 started the unity conferences in order to unify artists in cities across the U.S. for the sake of becoming more mission driven.  Tre9 said, “I was extremely thrilled by the 30 plus attendees who were very eager to hear of a strategy to bring them together.”

James “Trig” Rosseau from HolyCulture.net taught a 15-minute session on how unity is important to our growth in the world. He also explained the impact we could have globally if everyone would work together for the Kingdom’s sake and focus less on their individual names and agendas.  "We need to reach so many more than just our same Christian hip hop circle.  I would shut down HolyCulture.net tomorrow if I thought there was a better way to reach more people than what we are all currently doing," explained Trig.  

Finally ScottFree taught the last workshop entitled "Missing the Mission." He started with a word from the book of Haggai where God spoke and exclaimed to the people, “Is there a time to dwell and build your own paneled houses while my house remains in ruins? The Lord says, consider your ways." ScottFree compared this to the Christian hip-hop culture, which often times emphasizes building individual kingdoms instead of Gods kingdom.  "I was especially intrigued by the biblical references ScottFree used, even though we artists give praises and glory to the Lord, we at times forget the Kingdom work that exemplifies our words," explained rapper Tino.

All three of them speakers came together to challenge and teach artists to become more mission driven and less industry driven.  They encouraged the audience of MC’s to have an effective impact on the hip-hop culture in their own cities, strategizing ways to serve outside of music.

After a moment of prayer and encouraging one another, Pastor Phil Jackson proposed to assist in gathering in unity at least once a month at Tha House Church.  

Future plans are already in the making for the Unity Conference to grow.  The Hip Hop Hope Unity Conference and City Takers events will take place in a new state each month in 2012.  The first stop is Nashville, TN on February 3rd and the last will be Chicago, IL.  

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