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Antonio Delgado, Colgate alumnus, Rhodes scholar, and Harvard Law School grad, believes. He believes in himself. He believes in his music. And he believes that his music -- hip-hop -- can be an effective agent of positive change.

Delgado, Class of 1999, is co-founder of Statik Entertainment, an independent record label based in Los Angeles. His debut album, Painfully Free, is complete and will be distributed in the coming weeks.

Antonio Delgado started his record label with fellow alumnus Tommy Kim '99.(Photo by Tim O'Keeffe)

The Schenectady, N.Y., native performed several of his songs during a campus visit in March, when he helped celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Harlem Renaissance Center residence hall.

He also went behind the microphone for the latest podcast interview for the Colgate Conversations series.

Delgado discusses hip-hop and the controversy that sometimes surrounds it, the message behind his music, what it meant to win a Rhodes scholarship, and how he was able to define himself while at Colgate.

In performing as AD: the Voice, Delgado believes passionately that hip-hop offers a voice to those who have historically been kept on the margins of society.

While conceding that hip-hop has “warts and imperfections,” Delgado says the music is not the cause of society’s ills but rather a reflection of it, expressed by people who often are living in the midst of those problems.

If hip-hop is protected from exploitation it can foster a grass-roots movement that can change the nature of democracy and serve as a political voice for African Americans who never had one, said Delgado, who believes that the music can carry on the civil rights struggles born in the churches in the 1960s.

His album, Painfully Free, “is a very spiritual album,” said Delgado. “Not in the religious sense but in the sense of a journey, of questioning … it’s challenging individuals to think about life and about issues that are difficult.”

Believing in your own power as an individual is critical, he said, adding that Colgate professors such as Joseph Wagner built on the high expectations established by his parents and helped him determine his academic path as he underwent a personal reality check after being exposed to so many different viewpoints on campus.

To hear more about Delgado’s path to L.A., where he is gladly “grinding it out” to make a name for himself in a city that loves to drop names, listen to the podcast interview here.