I'm a fan!

I'm a fan. I can't help it! It's like it chose me, instead of the other way around. I'm from San Diego, CA and therefore a long suffering Charger and Padre fan. I'm not a fair weather fan, or a bandwagon fan. I am a true blue, die hard fan. I don't leave the game early to beat the traffic. I don't change the channel when the game gets out of hand. Some would say that this makes me a glutton for punishment, but I'm keeping the faith!

Being a fan takes faith. A true fan is always hopeful. The word of God teaches us that hope never disappoints. When a true fan suffers through the lean years, the victories are that much sweeter! Fair weather fans don't understand the agony of defeat, so they can't feel the thrill of victory. The knowledge that you are part of the team...that's the best part! Coaches and players come and go, but fans are forever! So rock your rally caps and wear your throwback jerseys. Keep the faith when the critics count your team out. Be a fan!

Go Big Blue!

What you know?!

I know that if I sit down in front of my MPC 2000XL, I can bang out a beat. I know that if the beat is correct, I can write a rhyme to it. I know that if I perform this rhyme on stage, I can move the crowd. I know these things because it is what I have done for over a decade now. From the west coast to the east coast, from the midwest to down south. I have performed my poetry in front of audiences. It has given me the opportunity to share the gospel with others, and I thank God for those opportunities, but sometimes the music "industry" makes me want to leave it all behind. God keeps nudging me though. Sometimes it is so clear that I feel like I've heard Him audibly! "Use what I have given you."

My mother-in-law likes to sew, So she started a quilting ministry. She makes quilts and the members of her church pray over them before they are given to the sick, the hurting, or the mourning. Now that's using your gifts for The Kingdom!

David took out Goliath with the only weapon he knew how to use. Jesus fed the multitudes with a few loaves and fishes. He can use whatever you give Him to bless others!

I know how to write. I know hip-hop. What you know?!

Adverse Effects

Creativity is birthed through adversity. I have always been able to write better during, or directly following some great trial. Last year I lost my job. The creative result was JustMe and Cas Metah Are Unemployed. The financial struggles that we have had ever since, were also a huge inspiration during the writing of my newest album Before The Twilight.

Last night I was watching my favorite movie, Donnie Darko, and it prompted me to do some research on Graham Greene. Greene's short story, The Destructors, played a major role in the film. I was not surprised to find out that many of Greene's early writings had Christian themes, but I was even less surprised to find out that he suffered from Bipolar Disorder. Every woman Edgar Allen Poe ever loved, died young. Bram Stoker was bed-ridden until the age of seven. Flannery O'Connor had Lupus. I could go on for days!

Why are these writers so successful in touching our hearts? To quote R.E.M., "Everybody hurts sometimes." Pain makes us ask questions. Only God knows all the answers.

James 1:2-4

My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations; knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.

Touchdown Jesus

No, I am not a Notre Dame fan! Nor do I think that God cares one iota about the outcome of sporting events. But as another football season begins, I find some great similarities between this All-American sport and our walk with Jesus.

1. In football your team is always pressing towards the goal, and your opponent is always trying to keep you from it. In life our enemy is Satan, and he and his cronies are always trying to keep us from our goal (The Kingdom of God). If we follow the game plan (Christ's teaching), then we will be victorious.

2. In football it always seems that your opponent is crying to the referee. Accusing your team of committing some foul. In the spiritual realm Satan is our accuser. We can't pay any attention to what the other team is crying about. We have to stay focused on the goal.

3. Football players have to have a short memory. They can't focus on the failings of the past. Dropped pass, missed block, whatever, it doesn't matter. Forgive and forget, you've got another down to play. The same goes for us! We must never focus on our sins. Confess them and move on. Jesus is less concerned with our stumbling than He is with us focusing on the goal.

Philippians 3:12-14

"Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus."

Scribbling Idiots?!

As many of you may know, the name of my rap group is Scribbling Idiots. People seem to like the name, but they always ask why we call ourselves that. We have given many different answers as to how and why we came up with the name, but let me tell you what it really stands for.

I’m a big fan of Mark Twain. The man also known as Samuel Clemens wrote many of my favorite stories including The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, and Journalism in Tennessee . Twain often referred to himself as “a scribbler of books”. The lyricists in SI are scribblers of rhymes, thus the “Scribbling” part of the name. Of course, that’s not the interesting part of the name, is it? Why in the braggadocio’s world of hip-hop, would a rap group call themselves idiots?!

Jesus once said "whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted." For this reason, I have become fairly self-deprecating, but that's only partly why we named the crew Scribbling Idiots. You see, as followers of Christ, our approach to hip-hop (and life for that matter) seems idiotic by the standards of this world. We're not in it for the money or the fame. If we were in it for those reasons, we would have quit a long time ago. We believe in love. Not the uncaring one night stand "love" that you hear about on every-other song on the radio. We believe in the the kind of love that causes a person to "lay down his life for his friends". We believe that Almighty God became a lowly servant to teach us how to live, and died to teach us how to love. If following that example makes me an idiot, then in the words of Redman, "I'll beeeee dat!"

My Life = Musical Chairs

Music has always played a major role in my life. In fact it runs in the family. My father's father played guitar with country music legend Hank Williams, and he wrote many of his own songs. My great-grandma Genta Rippee taught piano. My father is one of the most avid collectors of music I've ever met, and believe me when I say that I've met my fair share. I can remember back to my childhood when I used to admire the artwork of my dad's LPs and beg to wear the headphones when he played some classic rock record. I started deejaying at the age of twelve, and writing my own rap songs at fifteen. When I start reminiscing, I realize that my entire life has been like a game of musical chairs. That may seem like a strange statement, but I'll do my best to explain.

In musical chairs the game begins with the players standing in line around a circle of chairs. There is always one less chair than the number of players. While music is played, the players walk in line around the chairs. When the music abruptly stops, the players rush to sit down in a chair. The player without a chair to sit in is out of the game. The object of the game is to be the last one sitting. Now you may say "that's nothing like life!", but I beg to differ.

As I said before, music has always played a major role in my life. I used to listen to music all the time. I would even fall asleep listening to music. So for twelve years of my life the music played without any interruption, then I began junior high. I couldn't tell you one specific event that caused the music to stop the first time, but I'm sure there were many causes. See, around that time I realized that my parents weren't in love with each other. For the first time in my life, it seemed, not all was right with the world. The music stopped, and I searched for a chair.

We usually look for chairs to sit in them. We want to sit in them to rest our legs. We sit in them for comfort. I sought comfort in drinking. I sought rest in marijuana. The music started again, but now it was gangster rap. And after two years of constant fighting, my parents were divorced. I hoped that harder drugs and sex might give me the comfort and rest I needed, but instead they just made me paranoid. They left me wanting, unfulfilled, and guilty. So when my best friend drown to death later that year, I ran to those chairs with even greater frequency. Eventually those chairs broke under the weight of my burdens. See, while they may have offered some warped sense of temporary relief, those chairs weren't built to last.

See "playing musical chairs" is also a metaphorical way of describing any activity where items or people are repeatedly and usually pointlessly shuffled among various locations. This described my life, which had no point, no purpose, no final destination. And these broken chairs that I was leaving everywhere weren't helping. Like everyone else, I have a conscience, so the guilt that went along with these sins was mounting, and I didn't know how to get rid of it, so instead I just tried to dull it.

My sophomore year of high school, I moved in with my dad. My father had rededicated himself to Christ after the divorce. I began going to church with my dad and a new friend that I made at school was a Christian rapper. In both my father and my new friend, I saw a peace that I coveted. I wanted the rest and comfort that they had found in Jesus. In the book of Matthew, chapter 11, verse 28 Jesus is teaching and preaching in the towns of Galilee and he says
"Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest."

I finally found the chair I was looking for! What's more is, this chair was free! It didn't cost me money, good conscience, or good works. All it required was my faith, and I believe. Now I can rejoice at the words of Ephesians 2:6

And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus.