Jean Pierre Mongambi, a singer and songwriter known as “the rapper priest”, is a youth chaplain in the Catholic Archdiocese of Kinshasa.
“I was inspired by secular rap to make Christian rap,” explains Jean Pierre Mongambi, a 44-year-old Catholic priest in the Democratic Republic of the Congo who is also a rapper.
“This music, which influenced my adolescence, enables me to catechize and evangelize the faithful,” says Mongambi who serves as youth chaplain and associate pastor in the Archdiocese of Kinshasa.
He was born into a Catholic family and grew up in St. Joseph’s Parish located in a central neighborhood of the DRC capital. Like his mother, Mongami joined the parish choir. He was also an altar server.
“In 1992, before I became a priest, I was already rapping secular music,” he says.
Like most young people of his generation, this “rapper priest” was also a breakdancer.
CREDIT: LaCroix International
