Cheryl "Salt" James, former member of the noted female rap group Salt-N-Pepa, appeared as a guest speaker at the C3 Youth Ministry Service to speak about her past experiences as a hip hop artist and the role spirituality plays in her music.

"I'm giving my testimony about how I'm embracing my faith and how it has changed my life, my music, my marriage and my whole perspective in everything," Salt told Vibe.com prior to her talk. "Once I reached all of my goals, there was still a void inside me, so I had to change my definition of success. I started pursuing the whole pie. I consider myself more successful now."

The Friday evening service was held at 7pm on 29 Sept., at the 25,000-member Christian Cultural Centre (CCC) in Brooklyn , New York City's largest church, where Salt is a member.

Salt delivered a message to teens that will potentially allow them to stand firm in their faith and not be moulded by the images in mass media.

"I want them to embrace their own standard. I think they fall into the trap of letting the media define them, and through embracing their faith, it helps them to learn what God says is within them. I want to encourage them to embrace that. No one should force them to do the right thing for themselves."

Salt recently completed an album entitled Salt Unrapped, set to be released March 2007. The album is executive produced by Jason "Kid" Williams of Kid-n-Play, and will be released on Salt's independent label, GavFam.

"It's just about my life, where I've been, what I've learned and what God has meant to me in my life," Salt says. "I'm not going to put a gospel label on it, because it's simply about me."

Along with her musical career, she is currently working on a series of children's books, her personal biography, and would also like to explore television and movie roles. Salt wishes to share her testimony with Generation Y: "All That Glitters Ain't Gold.", she says.