Culture is defined as the totality of socially transmitted behavior patterns, arts, beliefs, institutions, and all other products of human work and thought. A primary facet of traditional Yorùbá culture is the belief in deified ancestral beings and/or forces of nature called Òrìsà that assist humankind with their endeavors. In this paper the author uses an Aganjú oríkì (praise poem) she collected while in Nigeria from an elder priestess of Aganjú as well as songs, praise names, and prayers preserved for centuries by the descendants of the Yorùbá in Cuba to illustrate that many of the same themes and attributes regarding Aganjú in Nigeria have become the “fundamentos” or “oro pàtaki” (most important words) regarding Aganjú in the Afro-Cuban religious Diaspora. To facilitate the readers understanding and appreciation of the Yorùbá oríkì art form, the paper begins with a discussion which illustrates commonalities between Yorùbá oríkì and African-American rap by showing that not only does rap, toasting, and poetry contain a number of the same features as oríkì but also utilizes many of the same techniques.