How did you
come up with name KJ-52?
The KJ part is
an abbreviation for an old rap name that I used to have, (which used to be
King J) while the 52 part (which is pronounced “five two” not fifty two) is
a reference to the five loaves and two fish that Jesus used to feed the
5000. In that story Jesus took one boys five loaves and two fish and fed
the masses and in the same way I have put my talents, abilities, music
etc... in the hands of Christ to feed people spiritually. God takes the
little that we have and multiplies it when we decide to place what we have
in his hands. I didn't have much to offer when I started, but whatever I
had I was going to give it over to Christ.
Your latest
release is entitled Soul Purpose with Todd Collins, what will listeners hear
on this release?
Just a fun
radio/club/r and b/hip hop album.
How did you
hook up with Todd Collins?
Man…long story
here is my whole dealie on how I started…
Without going
into every detail of my 10 years of Christian hip hop... this is basically
how it came about. I've been writing raps since I was 12, which was when I
heavily got into the hip hop scene (golden age of hip hop i.e. BDP, Tribe,
De La Soul, NWA etc..) however everything changed when I gave my life to
Christ at the age of 15. I threw out all my old tapes and started getting
into Christian hip hop (i.e. PID, SFC, Apocalypse, D-Boy, Dynamic Twins,
Grits, LPG,
T-Bone) though
I never set out to be a Christian rapper.
God called me
into the ministry at the age of 16 and I figured I would be a senior Pastor
someday or something like that. However, I broke my nose pole vaulting when
I was a senior in high school and being stuck at home for 2 weeks I wrote my
first Christian rap (no joke!). I never felt like that would be my calling
though and so continued to purse the pastoral ministry. Through a series of
events however God began to give me a peace about it and I began to do shows
all around the state of Florida. I recorded my first demo at the age of 18
(which was really horrible... I apologize to anyone who bought it) and was
living on my own trying to get things rolling with college.
To make a long
story short I eventually went to school for a little while, hooked up with a
young 16 year old by the name of Golden Child and formed Sons of Intellect.
We put out a full length album and began to tour while I was on staff at an
inner city church called “Cornerstone”. We continued to do shows together
until he left in the summer of 98 and I went back to being solo. I
eventually became youth pastor at the church and continued to record my solo
album independently (which was eventually what turned into 7th Avenue my
first album). With a successful youth ministry taking place I strangely
couldn't find peace being there.... all I could think about was the hip hop
ministry I wanted to do.
Within 1 month
of that I got a call out of nowhere from Todd Collins (Gotee Records at the
time) he flew down to meet me and we began to develop a relationship. I
thought I would wind up on Gotee but when that didn't work out Todd
unselfishly turned my stuff over to Essential Records. I knew this was
God's way of opening up the door, so I stepped down from youth ministry and
went to Nashville to work on 7th Avenue . In June of 2000 I hit the road
for 4 months and have been full time ever since!
How was it
like to be left without a label when Uprok Records was terminated?
Uprok is still
around... I'm still signed to Uprok/BEC
What was
your influence for Dear Slim?
Basically just
trying to share what was on my heart w/ him. I was tired of the comparisons
so I tried to nip that in the bud by trying to deal w/ the whole issue in a
song format.
You won the
Rap/Hip Hop Recorded Album of the Year, Dove Award in 2003, for "It's
Pronounced Five Two", how did you feel about winning that award?
It was cool..
a dream come true really. I dedicated my award to all the emcees trying to
come up... I said that it was for all of them.
How did the
collaboration with the rapcore Peace of Mind come about?
Mainly just an
idea I came up with that Brandon Ebel ran with.
How did you
get into producing?
Umm… more out
of default. I'm not sure if I'm @ that point yet... but I purchased reason
2.5 and have been messing around w/ it since then.
Any more
collaboration albums planned?
The next peace
of mind lp will be.
What's in
store in the near future from KJ-52?
"Behind the
Music" the newest KJ lp in March. Acquire the fire in the fall and spring.
For more information on KJ-52 check out
