Conrad Tillard
American religious leader & politician (1964-)
Conrad Bennette Tillard (born September 15, 1964) is an American Baptist minister, radio host, activist, politician, and author.
Tillard was in his early years a prominent minister of the black nationalist organization the Nation of Islam (NOI). He was at age 25 appointed Minister of Mosque No. 7 in Harlem, a position formerly held by Malcolm X. He became known as the "Hip-Hop Minister," noted for his outspoken opposition to the promotion of gangsterism in hip-hop music lyrics, and for defusing potentially violent feuds between rappers.
Tillard left the NOI in 1997 when he was 32 years old, and returned to Christianity. He became a Christian preacher at Abyssinian Baptist Church in Harlem, then the Senior Pastor at the Nazarene Congregational Church, a United Church of Christ, in Bedford Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, in New York City, and now the Senior Minister at Flatbush Tompkins Congregational Church in Flatbush, Brooklyn. He also wrote a memoir, was a radio host, and became an adjunct college professor.
Tillard ran for New York State Senator in 2022, in a Democratic primary campaign for the New York State Senate against incumbent State Senator Jabari Brisport. He was endorsed by New York City Mayor Eric Adams. During that campaign, he became the subject of renewed controversy over his past history of antisemitic, anti-abortion, and anti-LGBTQ remarks.
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The entry’s evidential value lies in the named roles, institutions and publications that can be tested against primary documentation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 29, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q46563859. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1964, 1997 and 2022.
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This entry incorporates text from “Conrad Tillard” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.