Of all the many great people that have contributed to Hip-Hop and radio, I was fortunate enough to speak with James Rosseau, founder of The Corelink Solution, a nonprofit that owns and operates Holy Culture Radio. The radio show has generated an audience of more than 5 million listeners since its April debut on Sirius XM Radio. This is a testament to the power and reach of faith-based rap, with its mix of hip-hop superstars like Lecrae, Trip Lee, and A.I. The Anomaly, and inspirational talk shows that speak to the African American experience. The radio show delivers a curriculum “to help people develop their passion and purpose, create an informed plan, use provided tools to help them succeed, and establish accountability and ownership.”
The Holy Culture brand aims to promote Christian values and lifestyles through media.
Richard: Who are you? Where are you from and what do you do?
James: I’m based in Wilmington, Delaware. I am the CEO and founder of the organization, the Corelink Solution, which also runs Holy Culture and the Radio, and we are about community revitalization, particularly through empowering people to reach their potential.
Richard: And you also say you’re the founder of Holy Culture Radio?
James: I’m the founder of the Corelink Solution that also runs Holy Culture Radio. I became a partner in Holy Culture in 2000. I don’t claim the responsibility of founding it. I became a partner in the early 2000s and the CEO in 2006, or so.
Richard: What got you interested in the venture?
James: I became interested in Christian Hip-Hop early in the 90s. It was one of the things that changed my life. I was like most kids who grew up in Northern Philadelphia, struggling with my identity in urban culture and I still produced a lot of secular music. A lot of artists in Philly were running rampant and I was doing a lot of different things. A group named “The Cross Movement” came across my studio and one of them said something that really provoked my interest and I started to listen to more Christian Hip-Hop and found that it spoke a message to me in a way that I could digest. I started producing Christian Hip-Hop. I was rapping, producing, I had been a DJ for a long time and then I started doing some radio and Vick who was the founder of Holy Culture, reached out to me and said, “Hey, man, why don’t you bring your radio show over?” A couple short months after that we had good synergy, I became a partner and then a few years later, he decided to exit the business and asked me if I wanted to buy him out. I certainly did because I was so passionate about it.
Richard: Where do you see your business and yourself in 5-10 years?
James: Well, we have reached 5 million subscribers on our channel on Sirius XM. One of the things that I feel like we can do is continue to grow it. I think Christian Hip-Hop is a sub-genre that many people don’t know about. I think we have to continue to work on that. I think we will have better democratized the ability for these Christian Hip-Hop artists to be known on a broader scale and we will have created more infrastructure that those artists can travel and earn a stable income and do it on a regular basis. These artists are trying to take the Gospel out into the community and make an impact for youth and how do they do that if they can’t do that or can’t afford to do that?
Holy Culture Radio can be heard on Sirius XM Channel 154.
Learn more at www.holyculture.net, or follow Holy Culture on Twitter (holyculture), Instagram (holyculture), YouTube (holyculture) Facebook (holyculturenet) and TikTok (@holyculture.net).
Comments