Midlands rapper BUTCHA shared his powerful testimony with Tony Cummings

Butcha

With a steady stream of recordings flowing from Britain's gospel hip-hop underground it's easy for a CD to get released without registering with the Christian media. Such is the case with the 'It's Time' album by Birmingham-based rapper Butcha. Apart from an appearance on Mike Rimmer's Rimmerama programme on Cross Rhythms radio and an enthusiastic CR review (which enthused "the rough sounds only emphasise the street nature of the album") the 2007-released 'It's Time' seems not to have caught hip-hop fans' attention which is a shame as it contains some powerful, streetwise urban music. More than that it features a powerful testimony of a life literally snatched from the vicious grip of inner city gang culture.

Butcha grew up in the Birmingham suburb of Bromford. As a teenager Butcha was in constant trouble with the police. On Rimmerama he spoke about his early life. "Before Christ I was that typical trouble maker, gangster, whatever. My whole family, my whole role model was the street life, selling drugs, in and out of prison, not doing good things. Before Christ I was being fake to myself, not real to myself - just making trouble, really."

Spells in prison did nothing to stop the out-of-control criminal. "I was part of a crew called the Outlaws. It was a big organisation based on selling drugs - hard class drugs. I was my own kind of boss. I was one of the top notches in my area, my zone. There was no one above us really. We were selling crack, heroine, skunk. I didn't have a care in the world. I suppose as my life went on I got worse really, because at one stage in my life I lost my sister (she was a twin, not of me though) - her leaving her sister behind. . . It was a road traffic accident. It really hardened my heart. And losing my friend to the street game, that hardened my heart as well."

One day his lifestyle caught up with the young drug dealer. "I had some unfinished business on the streets and as I left my friend's house to go 'lickle sell a k' - that means to sell some drugs to someone - about five or six geezers pulled up in front of me, stabbed me in my head, stabbed me in my legs, battered me and just left me for dead. [They did this] because earlier that day me and my brother battered them and this was like a revenge attack. So they came and got me on my own. Before I passed out I managed to get a phone call to my brother and my brother phoned my mum, who's a Christian, and she prayed for me."

Butcha remembered waking up in hospital with the nurses telling him "you're lucky to be here." Somehow, Butcha realised it wasn't luck. A deep sense of what can only be described as holy awe gripped the young man. He continued his story. "I looked at life a bit differently for a while. One time after that I was asleep and I woke up and there was a voice in my head that told me to get up and go to my mum's. I went to my mum's and to my surprise there was my mum's pastor and my mum having a Bible study. Instead of doing what I would normally have done, I stopped and listened and heard things that started to make sense. I started to read the Bible a bit, sometimes for days on end. I was finding God, too. One time when I was seeing a girl, she thought I was taking it all too seriously. She didn't really want me to go with all this Christ stuff - she wanted me to be the hard geezer. I said I was thinking about being baptised and giving myself to God. She said to me, 'Don't you think you're taking this too seriously? You're going mad, crazy!' So basically, I left her house, packed my bags and went to my dad's. Anyone who is a Christian will understand what I mean; I wasn't a Christian at the time, but I just felt a peaceful presence, a loving atmosphere, and I thought 'God's going to show up tonight' and I went to bed. I got woken up - something came over me, a spiritual being of love; it showered me in love and I knew it was God. The following Sunday I gave myself to God. That was game over for me."

Even after such a dramatic conversion the Christian life wasn't easy for Butcha to walk in. "I backslid a couple of times over a period of two years. When I became a Christian I was all hyped but I wasn't really built up in the Word, so any time a temptation came my way I had nothing to fight it with. But now I've got something to fight with, I've got power. I think the Christian life is about being built up in the Word and seeking after God's face."

As Butcha began to mature in his Christian walk the music he listened to began to radically alter. He explained, "When I was in the world, when I was listening to some hip-hop stuff it really had a lot of influence over me, it had a lot of power. I know when I was listening to gangsta rap that really got me under control. There's a lot of power in hip-hop music, it can have a lot of influence in your life. I'd never rapped before I became a Christian. I'd never given such a thing a thought. But then people started asking me why I didn't go and give my testimony. So basically I thought I would contact one or two producers just see what happened. Before I knew it I was helping them, even though I'd never rapped before."

Butcha's 'It's Time' had an impressive bunch of collaborators with Daniel Linton, Hatman MC, Vision, Sammy G, Tomar Lawrence and others contributing to the powerful rap testimonies. Butcha is pleased with the results and the impact it has had. He said, "To be honest, I probably gave out more CDs than I've sold - but I don't have a problem with that. If it was up to me, if I could find a way that I could fund it, I would give out my CDs all day long, especially to people who need to know about Christ. If I'd known about Christ about 10 years earlier it would have saved me a lot of trouble. I believe that the CD has real power behind it and I think bringing raps like that to someone else's atmosphere - someone who is used to darkness - will blow it all to pieces."