The room is completely bare. Dust is all that remains from where posters, books, CDs and movies once set.
In the corner of a divested room sits a simple desk. On top of the desk sits a consummate book. The room’s door clicks as a man locks it. There, in the still silence, it is just him and his Bible.
Routinely, in the uncluttered room for a month, he arranges his new life from front page to back. As the words flow, truth trickles into color. Color pours into his heart where, from this point on, Alex Faith has chosen to live for Christ.
Southern Lights: The Story of Faith
Alex Faith grew up in the south side of Atlanta called Clayton County, where he also went to public school. His parents divorced but later remarried.
Alex lived within a charismatic Christian household. He eventually became friends with a man from Nigeria who was Christian and directed Alex to live a life of Christianity as well. Shortly after graduating from high school together, they moved in and worked at an engineering company.
“Whilst at this engineering company, I felt like I had become more of a man,” Faith told Rapzilla. “When I became a Christian, I left behind a bunch of stuff. I went to the Legacy Conference in 2008, met my future wife and came back to Atlanta.
“When I turned 20, things continued to progress, and I became more mature in the faith. I felt more established as a person and took the steps to get married. My wife and I have been married for almost five years now.”
I285: Confidants Driving Confidence
Southern Lights: Overexposed involved a lot of people within the creative process. Some of those people had words to describe Alex Faith:
“Alex’s greatest strengths when it comes to Collision Records is his authenticity, transparency, work ethic, and humility,” said Adam Thomason, Collision Records’ CEO. “His strength from an artist standpoint is his voice. I call it the blessing of a rapper’s voice. Either you are born with it or not — Method Man, Lauryn Hill are examples. As it pertains to his craft, he knows music, is able to be diverse with cadence, patterns, intellect, imagery and word choice. All of these things come to fruition on this album. I believe this is Alex at his best and he has so much more to give.”
“Alex has gotten so much more comfortable as an artist,” Wit said, “and he is more confident now than ever before. I have never heard him rap as hard as he did until this album. His identity is that of a southern dude, and he communicates a lot of that through this album. On this album, you get to know him a lot better. He’s growing at how he communicates, chooses his words and finds himself in music.”
“I met Alex Faith at a concert back in 2009,” Young Noah said. “I remember him being a dope lyricist even way back then. It was cool to know another hip hop artist that I can always relate to. We quickly became good friends.”
“What people don’t know about Alex is that he is young,” Reconcile said, “but he doesn’t act that way. He has the experience that makes him older than he really is. His family is interracial, so he completely understands racism in America. He has a very dope perspective on everything related to the south.”
Collision Records: Overexposed
Adam Thomason and Swoope introduced Wit to Collision Records. Then came Christon Gray. The comradery was unreal. Then stepped in Alex Faith and Dre Murray. Those were the early days of Collision where everybody felt like a family.
Now, the record label is growing. Every year, they seem to take another huge step forward. While losing Christon Gray, they have made the addition of Corey Paul — one of many things to come this year.
“My favorite thing about Collision Records is how it has taught me to work with people and what it’s taught me about myself,” Wit said. “Almost every project, except for We Live As Kings, has been done here at my house. The artists will fly out, write, record and produce the whole project here. My wife even helps the artists as well since she is an artist and writer, herself. Everything happens right here and I really love the process.”
Alex Faith and Dre Murray’s favorite part about Collision Records are the personal relationships. Even when the grass isn’t green, nobody tries to beat each other over the head. They say that they feel like everybody at the record label will be friends forever, even when artists come and go.
“I like the team of people behind the scenes who really operate with integrity,” Faith said. “It’s a small label, and we’re small artists, so I feel like we’ve grown together. We’re really growing with each other.”
“We don’t beat around the bush,” Murray said. “We leave everything out there. I feel like these are relationships that we’ll have for a very long time.”
Having everybody in the same room is the best way to make music, in Wit’s opinion. It is not always a reality, and there are times you have to use technology. Yet, whenever the label’s artists and producers get the chance to get together in the same room and throw stuff against the wall, that’s how some of the best music has ended up coming together for Collision.
Stay tuned tomorrow for a feature on Dre Murray.
Buy Southern Lights: Overexposed on iTunes. Watch the visual album for Southern Lights: Overexposed, the first of its kind in Christian hip hop, here.
