Back when I was a missionary in the early-2000s, one of our go-to scriptures we were trained to memorize was Galatians 5:22-23, “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law”. We would recite this passage as a way to try and convince investigators to pay attention to how they felt, and to hopefully identify whatever uplifting feelings they experienced as we talked with them as coming from the Holy Ghost, “That they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after him, and find him, though he be not far from every one of us” (Acts 17:27).

At the risk of stating the obvious (though as I am fond of telling my students, half of all good writing is simply stating the obvious, because what’s obvious to you isn’t obvious to everyone else), the Holy Ghost is the only reason any of us join this religion–and if we were born in it, the only reason why any of us stay. So difficult is it to articulate what that Spirit feels like that no less than the Apostle Paul called it “the unspeakable gift,” and “the groanings beyond utterance.” Not that it’s out of line, however, to try and articulate just what the Holy Spirit feels like.

Enter “Make You Feel That Way,” by Blackalicious, which just might be one of the most spiritual Hip-Hop tracks of the 21st century. In his ineffable style, Bay-area rapper Gift of Gab lists a long catalogue of positive experiences, from the common and ordinary (e.g. sunny days, eating healthy, catching up with “a homie you ain’t seen since back in the day,” getting a “Fresh haircut wit a phat ass fade,” and etc.) to the rare and extraordinary (e.g. winning a championship game, getting promoted to management, “making music that’ll bump for a thousand years,” and etc.). But his point is not merely to roll-call things that make you good, but to try and articulate what exactly the Holy Spirit feels like, by listing off a all-star roster of analogues.

Yet though Blackalicious is definitely among the most optimistic and positive of 21st-century Hip-Hop acts, they are not naively so, noting in the climactic third verse: “Summer days more likely that you notice breezes/Winter days more likely that you notice heat/When I’m warm more likely that you notice me/In the dark it’s more likely that you notice light/In the light more likely that you notice night/Hungry more appreciation for that meal/Dead broke more appreciation for that grill/A bad day’ll make you really notice ones that’s good.” As father Lehi taught his sons, “there must needs be opposition in all things,” and Gift of Gab knows the same.

It is not out of place to discuss the religious in this song; he does list, quite sincerely, “said a prayer that’s sincere and you felt it work.” He also is unafraid to list the sorts of miracles that are only ever acknowledged as having been performed by Christ himself: (e.g. “Deaf man get his hearing now in come vibes/Blind man get sight see his first sunrise…”). And of course at the very end of the song he identifies the “that way” as “it’s love, it’s love”–which would reflect the Two Great Commandments taught by that same Christ. God is love, and He is manifest in all our acts of love.