“The way I feel I’m going to do missionary work is to show the world, hey, there are a million types of Mormons and I happen to be one of them,” said James Curran, more commonly known as James the Mormon, while describing the motivation behind his music. He was interviewed before a Dec. 3 concert on campus. “I like hip-hop. I act like this. I am like this, and maybe if you resonate with me, you won’t let this worldwide stereotype of what a Mormon is stop you from learning about the truth of the restoration.”
Curran performed songs from his album “I’m Not a Rapper” at BYU-Hawaii in the Cannon Activities Center. BYUH students said they enjoyed seeing Curran live.
“Dude, it was dope. Are you kidding me? It was good,” said Eric Harline, a junior from Colorado studying accounting. “‘Treasure’ was my favorite because it’s about the gospel. I just get pumped whenever the beat drops and they go crazy. That’s my favorite part. My voice is gone, so I had a good time.”
Enoch Shek, a freshman from Hong Kong studying marine biology, also commented on the concert’s atmosphere. “It was pretty good. Everything, everyone, the vibe in here is just good.” Jason Chang, a junior from Taiwan studying graphic design, said, “I think it’s good, it was a pretty good concert.”
Curran’s song “Motivation” from his album “I’m Not a Rapper” topped the iTunes hip-hop charts at No.1 in April of this year.
“There is this stereotype of what a Mormon is,” he said. “And often, it’s like, people are trying to mirror the motherland of Utah. This is the culture of Utah, and ‘this is what a Mormon is.’ And now, everyone else, 15 million of you worldwide, even though most of the members are outside of the United States and outside of Utah for sure, mirror what we have created here.”
Curran went further into the Mormon stereotype and how the gospel fuels his music. “I’m struggling. I sin. I struggle with commandments. I’m just like you. I’m a struggling person. I’m nowhere near this Peter Priesthood. But, the atonement is real, and I get up and try every day. The church is very true, and it’s the reason why I’m happy.
“That’s what I think Mormonism should be. We are just a bunch of real people, fallen people, and we keep it real, because then we resonate with everyone else, instead of being this perfect robot version of ourselves.”
Curran also discussed how he became James the Mormon. “I would blog about my sinful and party past, and how I transformed into what I am today and why. I was trying to encourage people who had a similar past as me, that you don’t have to be stuck in this. I always had this hobby of making hip-hop music, and I released stuff and it was other people, because of my social media who said ‘Oh you’re James the Mormon,’ and it just kind of stuck.
“James the Mormon is there, because, I want people to know I’m Mormon. I don’t have to make music about being a Mormon or a Christian or anything. I can make secular music because they can like the music for the music and resonate with what a Mormon is. It might change their stereotype or bring them to the fold.”
Writer: Savanna Bachelder