From Performance to Prayer: A Musician’s Journey from Hip-Hop to Medicine Music

I’ve always loved music.

As a little kid, I remember playing the Beatles on my parents’ record player and dancing for hours with my sister in the living room. I used to watch my dad's fingers in awe as they danced across the keyboard, playing the blues. I always felt called to learn music someday.

When I was fifteen, I had my first real taste of music as medicine. I had just gone through my first heartbreak and was deep in my feelings when I heard Coldplay’s “Everything’s Not Lost.” I cried my eyes out listening to that song. And somehow, by the end of it—I felt completely healed. That one song gave me peace. It reminded me that everything was okay.

Finding My Voice

In high school, I was a troubled teen. I was often getting into trouble and hanging out with the wrong crowd. I started learning to rap—expressing my feelings through rhythm and poetry. Eventually, I began producing beats and electronic music. I became known around my school as a rapper and producer, eventually performing at my first live show and gaining popularity among my peers.

But I still didn’t believe I could sing. I wanted to—but I just didn’t think I had a good enough voice.

When I was seventeen, I bought my first Native American spirit flute and played it every single day. It helped calm my mind and connect with something higher. In many ways, it became my voice—the closest I could get to singing without feeling scared or ashamed. I would take it with me on camping trips with friends and play under the stars or by the river. It was in those quiet, sacred moments in nature that I started to realize there was a deep connection between music and the Earth—that sound could be a bridge to spirit, to peace, and to something ancient and alive within us all.

The Shift

At twenty-one, I picked up the guitar and started trying to sing. I wasn’t a great singer—but I had something deep inside me that wanted to come out. And I knew that in order to fully express it, I needed to use my singing voice. I had to start somewhere. Then...something shifted.

A few months into learning guitar, I went to a sacred prayer concert called Kirtan, led by Jai Uttal. Kirtan is a beautiful practice of call-and-response chanting, using sacred mantras and prayers of Ancient India.

Jai explained that actually, it wasn’t a performance—but a form of prayer and an act of service. Despite being an amazingly talented musician, he radiated humility. He told us not to worry about our voices or how we sounded, but to sing from the heart—to focus our mind on the prayer.

About thirty minutes into the kirtan, something incredible happened. For the first time in my life, I was singing. Not just humming or holding back—I was really singing, at the top of my lungs. I was bathing in the ecstatic prayers of hundreds of voices echoing through the concert hall when I felt tears rolling down my cheek. I started to feel shame in my nervous system, and embarrassment kicked in. But then, I felt a higher power wash over me with love.

“Just love yourself,” it whispered. “Exactly as you are.”

I started crying harder. I couldn’t stop. I kept singing and crying, releasing decades of shame around being myself.

My heart blasted open. Love poured into every cell of my body. I realized how much guilt and fear I had been carrying around my voice—around being seen. I was bullied so much as a kid, and somewhere along the way I started believing I needed to hide who I was.

But that night, the chants washed it all away. I dissolved. I saw God. That’s when I realized—we were singing the names of God. And God was love.

Jai Uttal leading Kirtan

Becoming a Sacred Musician

After that, I began learning how to pray through music. I started singing mantras with my guitar and writing devotional lyrics inspired by healing and peace—instead of the depressive lyrics I used to write.

I began sharing my newfound music with friends and family, and to my surprise, I for the first time, heard things like:

“You have a great singing voice.”

Words I never thought I’d hear.

That’s when my journey as a sacred musician truly began. I entered a five-year (and ongoing) apprenticeship with my Indian Classical Singing Guru. I dove deeper into spiritual growth and the healing power of sacred sound.

I discovered my purpose was to sing—to help others open their hearts and voices through the spirit of music and prayer, eventually leading Kirtan events and sharing my music with spiritual communities.

Aria and Gabriel

Medicine Music & The Path of Service

Eventually, I met the love of my life, Aria, after sharing kirtan at one of her Sacred Waters events. We started singing mantras and medicine music together, and began working with Sacred Acacia.

One day, she invited me to share music at a ceremony—and we’ve been facilitating deep journeys together ever since. Aria has taught me so much about medicine music, the art of spaceholding, and walking the path with integrity. I’m endlessly grateful for her wisdom.

Over the last year and a half of facilitating ceremonies—and the last five years of walking the path of sacred music—I’ve learned some important lessons.

5 Lessons From My Journey as a Sacred Musician

1. Prayer Is Not a Performance

When I was performing electronic music and rap, it was all about performance and ego. I wanted to impress people and recieve validation from others. This actually kept me stuck from really freeing myself as an artist. Prayer is about intentionality and service. It's about calling in the most high and uplfiting the energy around you.

2. It’s Not About You

Get out of your own way! So many of us struggle to express ourselves because we care so much about the fact that others are listening and get in our heads. This is just another trap that blocks the prayers from coming through. The best way to clear that block is to shift the perspective by focusing on the intention behind what you are doing. It is not about you, it's about serving others and serving God through prayer.

3. Practice Makes Perfect

To be a clear channel for the divine, we must develop discipline around our sacred music. The more polished and well rehearsed we are, the more we can get out of our thinking mind and really concentrate our energy on the intentions of our prayers.

4. Seek Mentorship

I would never have become the musician and facilitator that I am today if it wasn't for recieving ongoing mentorship and guidance from those who have walked this path before me. The humility that comes from having a beginners mind is the same humility that qualifies us to be of service in sacred spaces. I am constantly and continuously learning from my mentors. Even the most masterful teachers of mine seek guidance from their personal teachers as well. This is the power and importance of lineage.

5. Let Go and Let God

The most powerful thing I've learned is to surrender, Get lost in the prayer and fully absorb yourself in the music. Let light pour into every cell of your being as you sing fully from your heart. Practice well and trust in the prayers. The power of these sacred sounds is beyond us, they are channeled from a higher source. The more we can let go, the more we can allow the divine to use us as an instrument of healing.

If this resonated with you, I invite you to come to a really awesome workshop this Saturday called Clear Channel, this Saturday at Lajja Yoga in Milwaukie, OR.

In this workshop we will dive into transformational vocal awakening practices from ancient India and explore tools and practices for becoming a clear channel, as well as learn Medicine Songs from around the world.

Whether you’re new to singing or already sharing your voice, this space is for anyone ready to deepen their relationship with sound, spirit, and self.

Come as you are. Bring your voice, your heart, and your prayer. Let’s go deep!

🗓 When: Saturday, April 19, 2025

10:00am-3:00pm

📍 Where: Lajja Yoga, 11010 SE Main St, Milwaukie, OR

Energy Exchange: $65

Whether you’re new to singing or already sharing your voice, this space is for anyone ready to deepen their relationship with sound, spirit, and self.

Come as you are. Bring your voice, your heart, and your prayer.Let’s become clear channels together.

Click HERE to RSVP

About the Author

Gabriel Sky is a ceremonial space holder and integration guide at Sacred Waters Sanctuary.

With a deep passion for supporting individuals on their spiritual journeys, Gabriel’s work is rooted in shamanic plant medicine traditions, yogic wisdom, and the transformative power of sacred music. His path is informed by lived experience—having personally overcome addiction and mental health challenges through meditation, prayer, and spiritual practice

.

Gabriel brings a grounded presence and heartfelt compassion to his offerings, with a special focus on vocal awakening—guiding others to reclaim their voices as sacred instruments of healing, self-expression, and connection to spirit.

Through workshops, one-on-one mentorship, and ceremonial facilitation, Gabriel holds space for deep transformation, helping others align with their inner truth and walk the path of embodied devotion.

He lives in Portland with his beloved partner Aria, where they share a life devoted to music, ceremony, and service. Having recently welcomed their first child, they now walk the sacred path of family with deep love and connection—carrying that same spirit into the heart of their spiritual community.