Grammy-nominated rapper FLAME shares wisdom with CUW’s Class of 2022 December grads.
Concordia welcomed Grammy-nominated artist FLAME to serve as its December 2022 commencement speaker.
Born and raised in inner-city St. Louis, FLAME dropped his first studio album in 2004. In 2008, he received a Grammy nomination for his album “Our World: Redeemed”. He has topped the Billboard Gospel charts and garnered multiple Dove and Stellar Award nominations.
In recent years, Flame converted from Reformed Baptist theology to Lutheranism. He earned a Master of Arts from Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, along with a minor in counseling.
Related: FLAME answers Concordians’ burning questions
In his commencement address to Concordians, he encouraged graduates to grab ahold of the “sub-lessons” learned during their time at CUW:
“There are skills that I developed (in the wake of the deaths of my mother and father) that are transferable. It may not be directly what I studied in school, but there were these sub-lessons that I learned through persevering, through prayer, through creatively working through things, through being able to grieve and reach out to others for help.
“And you too have developed those same skills in your time here at Concordia University Wisconsin, and you’re going to have to tap into those in life. But I want you to know you can do it. I want you to reflect back on this time when you were creative and pushing through the pain and pushing through the moments when you wanted give up, and I want you to know you can do it.”
Click on the video below to watch the full address.
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