by Brother IG
It’s been 9 years now that I have been serving the LORD here in San Jo, CA. at Victory Outreach. Before getting saved my life was a lot different. I grew up quick because I admired the big boys on my block. I wanted to be like them & sure enough they disciple me to the things of the world, like stealing, fighting, drinking, drugs, conniving & all that. What started with a little drink here & there & a little toke of a joint led to in all out party. I was the 40 ounce King, weed led to coke & crank & of anything that was around. Being I was then selling drugs meant I always had them, which got me more twisted. At this time we had a good amount of homeboys that would kick it & it seemed everywhere we would go funk would happen. So now we get in little drama in the streets here & there. A turning point came when a homeboy came up to me & ask to get him a gun after saying no for the longest I hooked it up with someone to get it. About a half hour later he committed suicide. This literally killed me inside. I felt guilt for his death & I carried it strong for 4 years. Drinking & drugs was a way dwelling in my sorrow. I was having a pity party & no one was invited.
It was at this time a homeboy of mine Juan - Mr. Brown, was starting to rap. We would just mess around drinking putting it down at parties then we started getting more into it. We then called ourselves Chicano Conspiracy at started the label Crazy Times Records. Which was named from my homey who killed himself because he started a thing called Crazy Times Tattoos. We made an album called “Bury Me With the Mic” & mainly pushed it in San Jo. It was then we hooked up with Tony-Crhyme Boss & started the 2nd album & changed our names to Brown Factor. At this time more homeboys jumped in the rap game including my brother Kalani who now is running things in Crazy Times Records with my homey Roy. Now we putting it down my brother puts out this album called “Home of the Killa Sharks 408 Compilation” that blew up & Crazy Times Records is making a name for itself. But something dramatic happened in my life. I found myself 2:00 in the morning all drunk in this cemetery tripping like usual. I realized that it should be bury there. I seen that all that I had in material things couldn’t heal that blackness on my heart that spread like cancer in me. That next morning I felt something after hearing this boxer named Johnny Tapia say the name JESUS & began to cry. I felt something pierce my heart. It was then I had to seek this Jesus he was speaking of. It was that next day I went to Victory Outreach in San Jose & I put God to the test. I said if your for real you’ll take all this pain I have inside, all this hate, all this guilt & you will bury my homeboy Andrew forever& God heard my prayer that day on July 20th 1997. I had a physical touch from the Lord that day. What I felt at that alter no one can take that away from me. I could never deny what the God delivered me from.
So now I’m tripping because from one day to another my life started to change. My homies tripped on me thinking I was going through a phase; I didn’t blame them though because it just happened. Now back in the lab (the studio) we were still working on our album “If Streets Could Talk” so when I was up to rap I was talking about the Lord. Mr. Brown & Crhyme Boss was sticking to the script with our regular gangsta format. After recording a couple of songs like this I got convicted & not wanted to be a hypocrite I left the group. I left our homemade empire we started. This was like the hardest thing I had to do because it was like my life this rapping thing. But at the same time I was grateful for what the Lord did for me & began moving forward to what God had for me. It wasn’t until a year later of serving Christ that an opportunity came to pick up the mic again. My pastor Ed Morales was making a movie called “16 to Life” & asked me to make a song for the soundtrack which was also called “16 to Life” This began to light up an old fire in my heart to rap again. But now I was doing it for Jesus. I then began to record a song here& there whatever the Lord put in my heart I would do. Now I found myself writing songs as if I was writing a bible study. I prayed & fasted & asked God to give me the words to these songs. I made sure the songs would have scripture in them because God’s word never comes back void. It was a 2-year project putting this album together & once again God has blessed me with the completion of it. What’s more of a blessing is that it’s reaching homeboys & home girls that are in the world. I thank God for what he’s doing I know as long as I put my full trust in him with this album he will take it where ever he wants.