The time to shine is always now.

If people are surprised to see me rapping now, there’s more to the backstory you don’t know.

A lot of people don’t know this. But my mom was basically a part of early hip hop. She used to be called JoSi, The Queen of Rhymes and she had me and my brother in the clubs late at night in Hampton Roads bribing us with virgin daiquiris to not complain. One night she even performed with Dolemite. That’s when I fell in love with hip hop. Then she got guilted by my grandmother saying that a single mother shouldn’t have her kids in the clubs and that we needed to be in church and she shouldn’t try to raise us without a husband. And from then on my mom turned on the music and we had a complicated relationship ever since. She has dementia now and I make her laugh by saying the lyrics to the only song of hers that I can remember. She doesn’t seem to remember a lot. But, when I call and say those lyrics to her, she laughs and says, “I remember that…” So it’s worth it to me to keep repeating it to her.

My mom wanted to be rapper. Then she wanted to be a pastor. She also wanted to do comedy.

I became a pastor. Now, I’m finally coming out as a rapper. I just started doing comedy.

Some of the things she wanted to do, she didn’t or stopped because the church or other people told her that as a single mom or as a Christian at the time, (before she converted to Judaism) she shouldn’t be doing this or that.

At this stage in my own life, I don’t want to look back and say “I would have done this or that but so and so…”

Because if I’ve learned anything on this journey it’s that God gives us everything we need to be exactly who we need to be.

If God is whispering in your ear that you’re being called up to be something, don’t let any human shout you down. Because they will. They’re not shining their lights and they don’t want you to shine yours. Or, they want to be the light of your life so they try to cover your light up. Don’t do it! We’re out here complaining about the darkness in the world when we had the light in us all along.

Remember this:

“When you shine your light it isn’t just for you.
It’s for everybody else that’s been watching what you do. Soo…

Take this life
Make it right
Take this life
Make it light
To see….