Kevin Beckett’s story
All my life up to the age of 13, I HATED rap.
My father would always play his old school hip hop and I would cringe. I was always more into dubstep and metal, surprisingly. Not only that, but since music had such a big influence on me, and the music I was listening was crazy and almost evil in a sense, I wanted to be that same way.
I would fill notebooks with depressing and dark messages, saying (if I remember correctly) “Heroes Don’t Always Win” with a ripped up cape blowing in the wind, or “Kill All The Humans,” or weird things like that. It got to the point where I almost couldn’t listen to music at all because my parents were so concerned.
That was a dark time in my life. My dad was dating a woman named “Nicki” at the time, and we had gone over to her cousin’s house (I think) for a family reunion.
Sure enough, every last one of her relatives thought I was going to either hurt myself or someone else, and I knew it, too, I knew how people felt, and at that moment in time, I didn’t care … but I did at the same time. it was a confusing time in my life as well.
But it wasn’t all bad. I had at least a few loyal friends. Most were from church, especially my friend “Nuno” (that’s his nickname. His name’s Daniel, but I’ve got another friend named Daniel, so …).
Nuno was really into Christian hip hop, and I hated hip hop altogether, so I obviously wasn’t into it. Until one day, he played some, and I’m not saying I liked it, but it got me curious.
Then he played the song “Robot” by Trip Lee, and, for some reason, I loved dancing to that song. And it went on to the point where I looked up Trip Lee on YouTube (this was about a few months before Lecrae put out Church Clothes 2).
I listened to Trip Lee’s songs “Robot” (obviously), “I’m Good” and “One Sixteen,” and even though I didn’t want to admit even to myself that I liked them, I loved all three of them!
Soon, I came to terms with my new realization and told my mom “Hey, I’m into this Christian rapper, wanna hear one of his songs?” And she replied “Wait, you’re into a RAPPER?”And eventually, she said yes, so I played her “I’m Good,” and all she said was “I approve.”
Anyway, fast forwarding a month: The school year had just ended, and I had absolutely FAILED the seventh grade. So I was grounded from everything for the whole summer and more. But my parents said I could listen to CDs on my Xbox.
But I didn’t have any CD’s, so I was lost on what to do at first. But a few days later, we went to the mall, and as we were looking around f.y.e., I saw this $12 Minecraft key chain, and I wanted it SOOO badly.
I was almost sure I was going to get it, until I saw something in the CD section. To my surprise, Trip Lee’s album The Good Life was sitting there — right in front of me. I wanted to get it really badly, and It was the last copy, and (looking back at this I laugh) I was having a hard time choosing whether to get the key chain or the CD.
Thankfully, I chose the CD and listened to it right when we got home. I hadn’t heard a lot of the album, so I wasn’t sure what to expect, and some of it sounded a little strange.
But there was this one track, “Love On Display”, that just … made me weep and praise God — something I hadn’t done in the longest time, four or five years probably.
My relationship with God before that was so slim, I almost didn’t know who he was anymore. After hearing that CD, I was literally a new person. Christian hip hop didn’t just change my life. It changed me as a person — inside and out.
I soon ordered Gravity on Amazon. I got it a few days later, the same day that my grandma had to put my dog down after 13 years. And after that I got Blacklight, then 20/20, then Wake Up, then Heroes For Sale, then Minorville, then Rehab (Deluxe Edition) and so many more.
Now, I rap myself, and I’ve got an EP coming out this summer. My father used to be a Christian rapper when I was two or three, so this isn’t all that surprising to his friends or a lot of my family. But God has used Christian hip hop to change my life COMPLETELY.
If Christian hip hop has played a key role in your testimony and you would like to share it on Rapzilla.com, email your story to david@rapzilla.com. Rapzilla hopes that, through your story, another reader will be impacted.
