On a recent Sunday afternoon with temperatures nearing 100 degrees, I navigated South Central, Los Angeles traffic and arrived at Greater Zion Church Family in Compton, California.
One Accord, the gospel rap group within the music ministry of Great Zion was in full concert.
A nice crowd of African American and Latino youth occupied the church sanctuary. Older sisters and brothers were holding their younger siblings while parents and grandparents all sat with anticipation.
Near the 5 o’clock hour, four young men wearing baseball style jerseys mounted the stage. Each had a mic in their hand, lyrics of faith on their lips and urban testimonies in their hearts.
To say the gospel rap concert was a huge success would be a huge understatement. The crowd of both young and old once the bests started bumping never really had an opportunity to take their seats.
A few days following the gospel rap concert, One Accord group member, Danny Harrison provided the groups back story while remaining focused on the music, the ministry and the message. “We actually started out in 2005 with the acronym, “D.A.H.O.O.D.,” which stood for Divinely Anointed Holy Obedient Ordained Disciples. Which is a lot. Back in 2012 we revamped ourselves as a Hip Hop Ministry, and did away with name “DAHOOD,” and renamed it “One Accord.” One Accord comes from the Bible in Acts, when it says ‘The Holy Spirit came in when they were all in one place on one accord.’ It put us in the mindset to remain together and one mindset thinking alike so that the Holy Spirit can use us as well.”
Prior to taking the stage, Harrison admits One Accord was not simply focused on the concert, to them it was more about ministry and not just about the music. “One thing that we were concerned about before the concert was we just wanted to make sure that we were impactful and that we were effective in ministry.”
In between songs, several members of One Accord shared powerful personal testimonies that provided the audience with a glimpse into what the rap lyrics were about, but more importantly, what the individual gospel rappers were about. “Once the concert was over we got a lot of affirmation from people who were coming up to us saying how well of a job we did and how certain words and certain songs actually affected them and actually how the testimonies in between some of the songs were helpful because they either knew of a particular situation someone was going through themselves. The testimonies made it more personable and it made us as a group more personable to the audience that was listening.”
It is safe to say the nucleus that binds One Accord is their similar urban life experience. “Because we didn’t grow up with one another we just met one another at Greater Zion. We kinda came together for our love of the music. So us having similar backgrounds is very important. It gives us insight as to where the other person is coming from. Learning one another first and foremost, is important and it allows us to minister effectively. We have more of an empathy than sympathy and it allows us to effectively minister to the people.”
According to Harrison, a significant amount of One Accord lyrics reflect their personal feelings or lyrics formed during their biblical study and worship. “A lot of the songs are testimonies while a lot of the songs are based upon current storms that we’re going through and storms that we’ve been through. Some of the songs are based off of scriptures that ministered to us in our study time.”
Although passionate about the musical genre of Gospel Rap, Harrison expressed One Accords continued love for ministry through their music. “The overall goal of One Accord is in the mission statement. We want to minister to the youth and others. We want to encourage everybody that there is an escape from your environment and that you don’t have to settle. You don’t have to be a product of where you come from.”
As One Accords inaugural concert concluded, the final beat and lyrics of the song Verses engulfed the sanctuary. “I was very excited. It became a double entendre. Initially we wanted to incorporate everybody who participated in the concert, we wanted to hear their individual style and stories. The hook was, ‘There’s no hook to this beat, all we got is just verses.”
One Accord Photo Album:
Special appreciation to Rev. Dr. Michael Fisher and the Greater Zion Church Family Compton, California.
Person’s appearing in the home page photo: Eric “Slim” Benton, Napolean “Jay” Bolden, Michael Green, Pastor, Michael Fisher, Big2DaBoy, Denika “Nikkie” Abram, Kevin Williams and Danny “Daniel H” Harrison
Photo Credit: Tone @creatiivetone Bio: “All throughout high school, all I ever wanted to do was be a photographer; the art of creativity is my passion. Now God has opened the door for me to do what He birthed inside of me and I’m never looking back.”
