Why Gap Music? I've often considered changing the direction of my music to flow more "in-step" with the most traditional form of CHH. While I do believe my message and delivery is quite comparable, I feel like my story is a bit more personal and unique due to my experiences.
Growing up, I hung around the block with my cousins and neighborhood knuckle heads. We weren't necessarily causing trouble although, I do recall going hard some Saturday nights and my mom hunting me down the next Sunday morning for church. I used to hate that, LOL. My boys used to make fun of me because not only did I have to go to church, I also had to dress up (in a tie), which back in the mid 90's was NOT fresh. Looking back, I wonder if my mom dragging me to church every Sunday kept me from making some of the life altering decisions that many of my boys made. In no way was I (nor am I) better than them. I don't consider myself to be morally superior as I am not inherently good; however, I seemed to be a bit more responsive to my conscience than they were which could have been a result of constant church attendance and Bible teaching.
As my conviction intensified I began withdrawing from my usual crowd (and activities) and drawing more towards church, particularly my Youth group. Actually, the first time I rapped was at my youth group, I was 13 years old. As the years progressed, I’d go back to the block from time-to-time to invite my boys to church and share the latest Christian Hip Hop. Sometimes they engaged and other times...well, let's just say, my "block card" was in jeopardy. Once I started performing on a more consistent basis, I'd invite my boys out, especially one cousin who lived only a block away from the church, but they never came. If fact, the only time we really interacted was when I visited them. We'd freestyle and clown around but there were times when we connected in an authentic way which opened opportunities to express my faith.
There was a gap between the hope I had (and still have) and their situations. Even though the church was no more than one mile away from the block, it felt like worlds away. I noticed a similar effect when I would share some of the latest Christian hip hop. No matter how talented the artist was there was a sense of "Yea, he's dope but what's that got to do with me?" I appreciate the CHH artist who makes music for the church kids (like me) who need good CHH to vibe to but I have a special appreciation for artists who understand the hood is full of people who believe God is too far away from them and have lost hope of ever connecting with Him. This is the message I'd like to communicate in my music. I’d like to close that 1 mile gap between my old block and my old church. My goal is to proactively reach out to the homies that I've known and grew up with in hopes to connect them with God. Gap music is for them.
GVP MUSIC,
DVT PHELLV
I talk a bit more about Gap Music in this Video:
GVP MUSIC ALBUM COMING SOON!!!
Download the Gap Music Vol.1 mixtape ft. iNTELLECT
