The Angel of Rap : Call the rapper <i> Reverend </i> Run, and he’s out to inspire and uplift with a brand of ‘sneaky gospel’ music for a hip urban audience. He’s signed three acts for his new record label.

When Joseph Simmons--better known as Run of the pivotal rap group Run-DMC--tells you he’s a pioneer, he’s not making an idle boast.

Back in 1986, Run-DMC scored a No. 4 pop single with a remake of Aerosmith’s “Walk This Way,” becoming the first rap act to reach such a position on the national sales chart, with the first record to bring rock ‘n’ roll to a hip-hop audience.

Nearly 10 years later, Simmons once again has crossover dreams, and this time he’s approaching the mission with a literally religious fervor. Over the past summer, the rapper became an ordained minister, and now, with the backing of the gospel entertainment company the Benson Music Group, he’s started his own record label geared toward Christian-oriented urban and rap music.

Rev Run (as in Reverend Run) Records will launch Sept. 20, with the release of “Rev Run Presents,” a compilation album featuring the three acts thus far signed by Simmons: the New York-based hip-hop groups Zoe Brothers and Sin Assansinz and a more traditional R&B; vocal group called Soul Tempo. All three plan to release their own albums in the near future.

Simmons’ goal, simply put, is to make the most commercially successful Christian R&B; music in history. Sitting in a conference room in the Benson Music Group’s offices in mid-town Manhattan, the sweet-faced rap star--who remains part of Run-DMC--intently and methodically explains his plan.

“I’m not pitching this music toward people who are already saved,” Simmons says. “For me, this is all about going secular with it--taking it to my core audience, the same audience that buys records by Run-DMC and Snoop Doggy Dogg and whoever else.

“I’ll bring the records straight to the deejays I have relationships with from Run-DMC, and I’ll bring the videos straight to MTV and BET [Black Entertainment Television]. Most gospel and gospel-rap artists are happy to sell 60,000 or 70,000 records. I don’t know those numbers--I only know platinum and gold.”

Simmons points out that Run-DMC’s last effort, 1993’s “Down With the King,” was essentially a gospel-rap album.

“But nobody really knew it was gospel,” he says, smiling. “And this new music I’m putting out is like that. They’re gospel records, but they’re sneaky gospel records. They’re meant to dance to, and they don’t come at you like they’re preaching.”

Indeed, the music of Simmons’ two hip-hop acts sounds like aggressive, mainstream rap, and the executive likens the sound of Soul Tempo to that of Boyz II Men. And the video accompanying Zoe Brothers’ “Sanctified,” the first single from “Rev Run Presents,” features comedian Ricky Harris--host of TV’s “Def Comedy Jam”--as what Simmons describes as “a crazy, off-key preacher, like the kind that Arsenio Hall played in [the Eddie Murphy film] ‘Coming to America.’ ” Simmons himself also appears in the video, as does his brother, producer and record mogul Russell Simmons, and Public Enemy’s Flavor Flav.

Does Simmons see spiritually correct rap as an antidote to the violence and obscenity that have become more and more associated with hip-hop?

Clearly, rap’s profile has grown increasingly complicated since the ‘80s, when even clean-cut, positive-minded groups such as Run-DMC could stir up controversy. (A gang melee at a 1986 Run concert at the Long Beach Arena injured 40 people and prevented the show from going on as scheduled, leading some to assume the group’s message was pro-violence.)

But Simmons insists he’s not out to replace gangsta rap with minista rap. “I think gangsta rap is made by people from the streets, and it’s their way of expressing themselves,” he says. “I know about it, and I understand it.”

Run-DMC played a few dates with Snoop Doggy Dogg while promoting “Down With the King,” he says, and recently appeared with Snoop and other gangsta rappers in the hip-hop documentary film “The Show.”

“I won’t let my children listen to gangsta rap, no,” he says. “But I won’t come down on it either. If I’m gonna come down on something, it’ll be the real criminals.”

Zoe Brothers rapper Bobby Walker played a key role in the formation of Rev Run Records, as well as in Simmons’ own spiritual awakening. It was Walker, who once worked as a bodyguard for Run-DMC, who persuaded Simmons to start attending services at Zoe Ministries Church in uptown New York about five years ago.

“I had been seeking God for a long time,” Simmons says. “I was praying at home and reading the Bible, but I couldn’t get to the meat of what I needed without a church. The Bible says, ‘Forsake not assembly with the saints.’ So Bobby pulled me toward that stability. He kept calling me and calling me, telling me I had to come to Zoe. And finally God told me, go ahead.”

Zoe is a nondenominational Christian church--”We’re not Pentecostal or Baptist; we’re just Holy Ghost filled,” he said. Once Simmons arrived there, he discovered that not only did the congregation contain other hip-hop/R&B; luminaries, including the female trio SWV (Salt-N-Pepa have also stopped by), but rapping was also incorporated into some services.

“We even have turntables. [Run-DMC] did ‘Down With the King’ on stage. It’s something to be seen, our church.”

Walker was also rapping in church, and when he approached Simmons about possibly making an album, the seed for Rev Run Records was planted.

“Bobby was showin’ me all his ideas,” Simmons says. “And I thought, OK, we can collaborate. God has given me an ear and the strength. Jesus has shown me how to market these records.”

For Wes Farrell, CEO of the Music Entertainment Group, parent company to the Benson Music Group, Simmons’ combination of street credibility and oral conviction makes him the ideal person to spearhead a new movement in rap music.

“We’re looking to lift people’s spirits, rather than lower them,” Farrell says. “We’re selling positive content. And since Joe is probably the most gifted creator in his field, I can’t think of a greater compliment than having him work with us. We hope to capture an audience that can grow in every direction this music can be enjoyed in.”

Whatever the future holds for Rev Run Records, the Rev. Run himself emphasizes he won’t be overzealous in promoting his music or his faith. “I’m not a guy who spooks people out, tellin’ them they’re gonna go to hell,” Simmons says. “The Bible says, ‘Be a wise witness.’ That’s what I’m gonna be with my label and that’s what I’m gonna be with my life. I’m just happy to be enlightened, to know that Jesus Christ is Lord. I cherish the joy that my walk with God has brought me.”