KJ-52
Best Hip-Hop Artist
Best Hip-Hop Artist Runners-up:
2. Group 1 Crew3. GRITS
Profile By Matt Conner
From a Tone Loc concert in 8th grade to nearly quitting before landing a record deal, KJ-52 knows the power of music and what it brings to the lives of its listeners. So the SoFla rapper takes his community seriously, providing them with Freestyle Fridays, Mixtape Mondays, daily Bible study helps and more. Given the incredible accessibility, it’s no surprise KJ once again ended up this year’s “Best Hip-Hop Artist” as voted by you.
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CCM sat down with KJ to find out what he thinks of his fans, some of his own moments being a fan and the need to provide energy drinks for the long-distance concertgoers.
TYPICAL KJ FAN DESCRIPTION
I don’t think I’ve figured it out yet. Because every time I figure it out, something completely opposite of my spectrum is what happens. It’s really grown over the years because the medium of hip-hop has changed. It’s not a youth thing anymore. People have grown up with it as kids, and now they’re adults and have a mortgage and kids. At shows, it can be everything from the 5-year-old to the 35- or 45-year-old.
MOST MEANINGFUL FAN MOMENT
That’s pretty easy. I do a podcast and also a Twitter page and YouTube page. I did a Monday devotional on one of them on how my iPod got stolen. I was just frustrated and mentioned it. A couple weeks later, the message board pooled their money together—a lot of it was just one guy, one of my moderators—but they pooled their money together and actually bought me a brand-new iPod. It was something they completely did on their own, and that was awesome. I need to lose more things at that rate!
OUTLANDISH FAN FUN
Kids make their own T-shirts and their own signs. I always try to make it a point to highlight those people on my TV show on my YouTube page. One that really stuck out is a mom who brought her kid, who I think was 7. He wanted to dress up as me in one of my videos, so he came to the show basically the same as I was dressed in the “Life After Death” video. [
Laughs] I think he actually dyed his hair.
GOING THE DISTANCE
There’s definitely been some long distance travel. When someone tells me they drove three or four or five hours to be there, I just think, “Really? You wanted to drive that far?” In some cases when people make the long drives, I'll go to the dressing room and make it a point to unload my energy drinks on them. I tell them, “Here, you need this more than I do.”
BUILDING COMMUNITY
I’ve now come to the point that I’ve realized you’re only as strong as the community that you build if you want longevity. I think you can have a flash in the pan thing, no problem. But that’s spurring me to do a lot of fan-based things. I just launched an audio Bible study that runs every day. In the last six months, I’ve really focused on giving away tons of free stuff—not only meeting the music needs of fans but all their needs. The Bible study was birthed out of people asking if I had a reading track they could follow, so I thought, “
Just follow what I’m doing already.”
AT THE CROSSROADS
From an impact standpoint, way back in ’98, there’s a guy named Vassar from Cross Movement… I was a youth pastor, and I had brought them down on an off-day to where I was at. He ended up really speaking into my life when I was at a point of wanting to give up the mic. I had gotten so depressed over a bunch of issues that I was ready to walk away. But he spoke into my life, and that was a turning point for me. Ironically, six or seven months later, I ended up getting a record deal.
FAVORITE HIP-HOP SHOW
I saw Wyclef in Nashville a few years ago, and he brought a lot of musicianship and a way of connecting with crowds that was pretty dope. There’s a group named Mars Ill and a guy just incredible dope off the head freestyle-wise named RedCloud. This will sound hokey, but I saw Tone Loc in 8th grade. Even though he showed up four hours late and only did four songs, I was a little 14-year-old kid, and it suddenly made me realize that maybe I could do this. This guy wasn’t as untouchable as I thought.
For more information on KJ-52 visit, kj52.com.
For a complete list of 2009 Readers’ Choice winners, log on to CCMmagazine.com/readerschoice09winners.
