Spirituality in hip hop comes in many forms, far from the image of clean language and repackaged praise music the idea conjures in my brain. Killah Priest, Brother Ali, Lupe Fiasco, Yasiin Bey, Chance the Rapper, Kendrick Lamar and J. Cole have all spit religious bars over beats while balancing their messages of positivity and personal growth with the politics of the world at large and the immediacy of their surroundings. Hip-hop poet Saul Williams explores these connections in his book The Dead Emcee Scrolls, speaking to how the beat of hip hop makes you nod your head, creating a trance-like state to absorb the poetry.
Detroit rapper GooD Cal-El echoes the spirituality of these hip-hop greats on his demo tape, Buried Talents. The emcee spent a decade living in Fairfield, Iowa before returning to Detroit. Fairfield, famous as the home of the Maharishi International University, has a religiously diverse population compared to most of the state, and GooD Cal-El carries this universal approach to spirituality in his lyrics.
Opening track “I Don’t Do A Thing” spells out his position over a smooth beat that would be at home on a Royce Da 5’9” track. “I do not exist, I’m more or less a vehicle, a vessel for the infinite,” he raps, leaving the nature of this infinite force up to the listener. The chorus would fit in on a J. Cole track, and Cal-El switches his flow into triplets as the song builds. It is an impressive introduction that sets up most of the vibes on Buried Talents. The subsequent tracks “Breakthrough” and “Life Is A Game” (cleverly with an 8-bit beat) continue this positivity.
On “Spaceship,” he paints himself as a vessel that transcends space and time, delivering his message of goodwill while seeking his own independence. These themes are echoed on “Soldier Of Light,” in which he he tries to reconcile his spiritual awakening with a world full of violence, apathy and distraction at the hands of ops, the criminal justice system, the media and social media.
Despite all these revelations, Good Cal-El maintains his street cred. Tracks like “Trappin’, Thuggin’” and “Big Baller” employ some traditional hip-hop tropes as he seeks to hustle and shine through his spiritual awakening, creating a conflict that is later resolved on tracks like “Step Back” and “Apologize.”
Buried Talents is a mixtape, so some themes are repeated, others left unresolved. GooD Cal-El’s beat choices, pop sensibility and storytelling abilities could transition all of these ideas into a cohesive concept album, a narrative of overcoming the struggles of poverty and street life through a cosmic enlightenment. He shows lots of promise and really could go in many directions, but for a demo, Buried Talents unearths all of the skills necessary to engage even non-believers like me.
This article was originally published in Little Village’s June 2025 issue.
