T-Bone.

René Francisco Sotomayor, T-Bone to the rap world, grew up in the Mission District of San Francisco. Son of Nicaraguan and Salvadoran pastors, he started rapping at seven years old, at neighborhood parties and battles, with N.W.A. and 2Pac as his references. His best friend died in a shooting, and out of that loss came his decision: to use the language of the street to talk about Christ to the young men who grew up like him.

His debut, Redeemed Hoodlum (1993), came out on the independent label Metro One and was a rarity: West Coast sound and lyrics of redemption, when Christian hip hop was barely taking its first steps. Then came Tha Life of a Hoodlum (1995) and Tha Hoodlum's Testimony (1996), which put him on the Christian music charts and in conversations where a rapper hadn't fit before.

The leap came with Tha Last Street Preacha (2001), which entered the top 25 of Christian albums and earned him his first Grammy nomination. Then came Gospelalphamegafunkyboogiediscomusic (2002), with KRS-One as a guest, and Bone-A-Fide (2005), with production by the Avila Brothers and the Jerkins brothers. He totals three Grammy nominations —2002, 2007, and 2008, the latter for "With Long Life," with Israel Houghton— and Dove Awards. He has also acted (The Fighting Temptations, 2003) and was part of the rock opera !Hero.

His Spanish chapter is the one most listened to today: "Volaré," recorded with Marcos Witt in 2016, tops seven million streams on Spotify, and the album Pa' mi Dios y pa' mi gente (2017) surrounded him with Witt, Christine D'Clario, and Obie Bermúdez. He closed out his studio discography with Broken English (2018). His official profile presents him as a three-time Grammy nominee and six-time Dove Award winner.

T-Bone was among the first to show you could rap with a Latino accent about faith without sounding like a stained-glass church, and he did it in two languages. For a generation that lives between the street, the home, and the temple, his catalog remains an entry point.