I recently caught up with Serge from the group Authentik via e-mail to ask about prison ministry, putting Bible stories into rap form, and unique band names.

Sketch: The guys in your group are from Florida but some of them spent time in Texas and the South basically being homeless evangelists after some training by the Global Gospel Movement.

How did that experience impact the music?

Serge: While on the mission trip, we saw the effects of sin on mankind first hand and they’re total and absolute hopelessness without Him. We ran into thousands of people, lost and found, who DESPERATELY needed the Gospel, so as we minister through music, we want to ALWAYS relay to the listener whether lost or found, we never graduate or go away from the Gospel, but instead we go deeper into the Gospel, as it is our only hope.

Sketch: You also told me this album, Groans Before Glory, is somewhat based on a pamphlet called “No Cross, No Crown” that was written by a Quaker named William Penn.

That’s got to be a first for a rap album, right? How did you guys run across that piece of work that ultimately inspired your rhymes?

Serge: We actually heard about it from Gus Cruz (our manager). Somewhere in the pamphlet the writer mentioned groaning before glory and that just stuck with us. We decided to study more on that topic and what it means, so after searching through the scriptures we just found that that theme was all throughout the Bible, so we ran with it!

Sketch: Your group is working a series of songs/videos that illustrate famous Bible stories including like Abraham and Isaac and the Fall in the Garden of Eden.

Which one has been the most challenging so far? Which story are you most looking forward to fleshing out via hip hop?

Serge: Both stories we’ve done so far actually came pretty easy, however we have a list of Bible stories that the ministry wants us to do for them and it looks like the story of Joseph in Genesis will be the toughest. Its such a long and
interesting story so its going to be a challenge trying to pack all of that into one song!

The story that we’re looking most forward to doing has already been done, The Fall of Man, we’re most excited about that one because we felt it came out pretty good!

Sketch: You guys do a fair amount of prison ministry as well. How well would you say that hip hop is accepted in that environment? Why is that?

Serge: Hip hop is very well accepted in the prisons! People just in general love stories, so when we go into the prisons we try to do some Bible stories to get them to reflect on scripture and then we like to turn it up after that, the inmates love loud bass and dope lyrics.

Sketch: The record company you formed for this release is called CTF or “Conformed to Facts.”

However, I can’t help but notice you didn’t conform to the fact that the word “authentic” is spelled with a “c” at the end and not a “k.”What happened there when it came to naming the group?

Serge: Haha! We just wanted our name to be easier to find when people search for us! SO many different bands and random videos pop up when you search “Authentic” with a “c” so we wanted to better serve the people while they search.

To learn more about Authentik visit: http://ctfrecords.org/