One fine Sunday evening, three months ago, Sri Lankan carolling churchgoers were stunned into sudden silence when they eagerly picked up their Christmas music sheets at one of the country’s biggest Catholic services, in preparation for reciting a beloved prayer.
The “Hail Mary” printed inside the hymnals they had purchased, contained not the famous thousand-year-old verses beseeching the beautiful Biblical Madonna but rather the entire, explicit lyrics to the final notorious big hit single of the same title by American rapper, Tupac Shakur, released in “The Don Killuminati: The 7 Day Theory,” under his new stage name, Makaveli, following his 1996 death.
Instead of “Hail Mary full of Grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed are thou among women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb Jesus, Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death,” the less risqué and more printable phrases proclaimed, “Makaveli in this Killuminati, all through your body, The blow’s like a twelve gauge shotty…” urging “Come with me, Hail Mary, Run quick see, what do we have here, Now, do you wanna ride or die?” and “Catch me Father, please cause I’m fallin in the liquor store, That’s the Hennessee I hear ya calling can I get some more? Hail til I reach hell, I ain’t scared…”
