Lavar

I’ve been a free style rapper since I was kid – even before I knew what the term “rap” meant. I figured it out one day when I was watching television and New Edition started rapping to “Cool it now” and I realized, “Hey, that’s what I do.”

For many years, I rapped for the world. Rapping for crowds in the thousands. Working with Ice-T and Melissa Etheridge opening for major artists such as Ludacris and Natalie Cole, Sheila E, Tower of Power and Will Smith, to name a very few.

But that all changed in 2006 when I experienced real tragedy for the first time in my life. Jennifer Blakely was my girlfriend and she was expecting my first child. I really looked forward to being a Daddy: I attended child birthing classes and even named my son Jordan. But something terrible happened in the last month of Jennifer’s pregnancy.
Jennifer became hospitalized because of an intestinal ailment. The day after she was admitted to the hospital, I received the news that my son Jordan was gone. I would never hear his laugh, I would never teach him how to ride a bike, throw a football, tie his first necktie – things that Dads do. But things took another turn for the worse when two days after Jordan died, Jennifer died also.

Brokenness. Desperation. No where to run no where to hide. There was only one place I could go …..To my knees.

As I cried out to God, I had an experience that I believe was similar to what Paul encountered on the road to Damascus: I had a personal encounter with my Savior. He reminded me that He had given me my gifts and that He wanted me to use them for His glory.

From that moment, I have only had one heart’s desire: To rap for God.