Church Prints Very Wrong 'Hail Mary' … by Tupac

Rapper's version of prayer appeared in a Christmas program in Sri Lanka
By Linda Hervieux,  Newser Staff
Posted Dec 26, 2016 8:42 AM CST
Church Prints Racy Tupac Lyrics by Mistake
Tupac Shakur in a 1993 file photo. He was gunned down in 1996.   (AP Photo/Columbia Pictures, file)

There are many variations of Christmas carols, but worshipers in Sri Lanka were stunned to find an R-rated version of a classic prayer in their holiday program. Andrew Choksy knew immediately the "Hail Mary" he was reading with references to female genitalia, drugs, guns, and the N-word was penned by rapper Tupac Shakur. "A lot of people were in shock as whether it was a joke or someone would actually rap the song," he tells CNN. "A few of the older ladies in front of us could not stop looking at the printed booklet. Instead of "Hail Mary, full of grace, the lord is with you," Tupac's version asks the Virgin Mother, "Do you wanna ride or die? I ain’t a killer, but don’t push me. Revenge is like the sweetest joy next to gettin’ p----."

Pictures of the explicit lyrics went viral on social media, reports the Guardian. The mistake marred the Joy to the World service, an anti-poverty fundraiser, held earlier this month in Colombo's Nelum Pokuna Theater. A priest from the Colombo Archdiocese tells CNN a "young boy" erred by downloading the wrong version of the prayer in a booklet of Christmas carols. "When people looked at this page, they saw it before the start of the show," he says. "Two people saw it and alerted us to it." Tupac was killed in a still-unsolved Las Vegas shooting in 1996. He is due to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame next year. (These rappers have a bigger vocabulary than Shakespeare.)

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