interlínc : Maximizing Music and Media in Youth Ministry

If you’ve given KJ-52 a good listen, then you know that KJ is an artist that can lay down quality – infectious, bouncin’ grooves with fun and poignant lyrics that deliver truth. We sat down with Mr. “Five Two” to hear his story and why he’s right where he needs to be.

What’s your story... how did you receive Christ?
“I didn't come from your typical background,” KJ confesses. “I grew up in the lower income section of Tampa. My parents were two ex-hippie artists who met each other at art college. They split up when I was still pretty young. I wasn't one of those guys who grew up in church. Because of everything that was going on I just started internalizing all those things that happened to me. About the time I got into middle school I really started falling apart. Not just things I was doing on the outside, but internally. When I looked at myself I saw something that I wasn't very happy with. I felt like since my parents couldn't get along there must be something wrong with me.”

After his parents’ divorce, KJ moved with his mother to the ‘burbs. But the change just accentuated his feelings of alienation. “I went from being the only white kid in an all black and Cuban neighborhood, to a suburban neighborhood where I was still just as poor,” he says. “I was at that age when all you want to do is fit in, and I didn't. I felt like a big square in a circle world. Not having Christ made things that much harder. Everything just kept getting progressively worse.

“I ran away twice,”KJ continues. “I almost got shot by the cops one night. I wasn't doing anything really bad, I was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. I'm not saying I was a hoodlum or gangbanger or anything like that. I was just a kid bouncing back and forth between my parents. And I don't blame my parents for any of this. I'm not saying its all their fault for the way I was. I don't buy into that. I hate it when kids use that as an excuse. You’re a free agent. You can do what you want with your life. You don’t have to repeat their mistakes.”

KJ was fifteen and at the end of his rope when he finally found something to belong to. The catalyst was a couple of questions from a relative and a Bible that he says might as well have been written in Russian.

“My cousin failed public school, so he had to go to a private Christian school,” KJ recalls. “It is not like he lead me to Christ or anything. He just hit me with a few questions that made me think. I borrowed his Bible and started reading Revelation. It was the King James Version and I didn’t understand the first thing I was reading. But there was something about it that made be cry. There was a happy ending. Every night I would listen to radio preachers and then I would listen to a hiphop show. I almost became a Mormon, because I didn’t know any better. I just thought they had great TV commercials. The truth is I just said, ‘God, if you are real just prove it and I will follow you.’ And He did. Little by little, He did. I got down on my knees one night when I heard a radio preacher say that I could be saved whereever I was. And the next morning when I woke up I wasn’t the same. I was different.”.

How did you grow... how did youth ministry play a part? And how did you get into Christian music?
With a new life in Christ, KJ started going to church – mom would drop him off and pick him up; not really sure or approving of this new direction in his life. As KJ grew in his faith, it made things more difficult at home, to the point where he was forbidden to talk about his relationship with God. Ultimately, KJ knew that he would have to be on his own sooner than later because of his faith. On the other hand, God was using KJ in great ways in his youth ministry, on campus and really leading him into ministry. The more KJ soaked up, the more he turned around and shared it. It was the openness of KJ’s youth pastor that brought KJ’s rap abilities and his passion for his faith together – this youth pastor was not particularly a rap-fan, but saw that God could use KJ’s talent, story & passion in mighty ways. As KJ began to “do” Christian rap, he found many places where he could minister – this even led to a two-year stint as a full-time youth/children’s pastor at an inner-city church where he had performed many times. It was during the end of those two years that a call came from record company that picked up and listened to a “long-given-up-on” KJ demo – this really was a God-thing, giving some direction to some feelings that KJ was having.

How have you seen God use you?
“A white dude from the suburbs and inner city of Florida doing Christian rap and driving a minivan?” KJ says. “None of that makes sense. No one says, ‘That’s the formula, right there!’ But at the end of the day, it just proves that God did it.”

The absurdity of his situation hasn’t stopped him from becoming one of the hottest rappers on the Christian hiphop scene, as evidenced by his appearance with the massive Festival Con Dios Tour and his 2004 Dove Award for Rap/Hiphop Album of the Year (for “It’s Pronounced Five-Two”). In fact, KJ wears it as a badge of honor. It just proves that God can do great things with small things that are surrendered to His purpose.

“If there is anything that is typical in my life, it is not having much but doing the best with what I had,” he says. “I wasn’t the best rapper. In fact I was horrible, but I got better. I did the best I could and I did it for God. I think He blessed me for that.”

At once a respectful student of the art form and a genuine hip hop innovator, KJ-52 continues to stretch the boundaries of the genre’s sound and shape. His upcoming project, “Behind the Musik,” expands on his ability to rap with the best of them, while injecting a healthy dose of both humor and pathos into his rhymes. This time out he is joined by a bevy of guest artists that include Kutless’ Jon Micah, rising star Jeremy Camp and (gasp!) Rebecca St. James.

“I know, it doesn’t make sense,” KJ smiles. “But wait ‘til you hear it. Believe me, it works.”

Oh, yeah. It works. Take “Are You Real?,” KJ’s ultra-hip collaboration with Kutless frontman, Jon Micah. A canny blend of poignant, pump-your-fist-in-the-air rhyming and crisp, incisive hard rock, “Are You Real?” grabs you by the heart and refuses to let go. Brynn Sanchez lends her brown velvet vocals to “Never Look Away,” creating an atmosphere that is as electrically charged as a Texas sky before an impending thunderstorm. Of course, KJ-52 has no problem rapping solo on such neo-classics as “Fivetweezy,” “Rock With It,” and “Thank You.”

Keep an eye out for KJ near you and you can find his latest CD “Behind the Musik” in YLO volume 59.