By Helen O’callaghan,Irishexaminer.com

Copyright irishexaminer

We hit it off. He was a professional athlete before becoming a pastor — young at heart, beautiful physique, very kind, warm.

Coming from Croydon, South London, he knew all the street culture we were into. Like we’d known each other for years. We were super-connected, and we enjoyed that conversation very much.

Usually, you let your mom do her thing — she and her friends weren’t our scene. But this man, so warm and kind, we thought, let’s see what he has to say…

That afternoon, our living room full, and I just remember great words. As a Born Again Christian, I love the word of God, the words in the bible. I really care when the preaching’s sound.

At some point, he picked me and MuRli out, said: “God is ready to give you everything you ever wanted. But what will you give him in return?” We didn’t know how to answer.

At that time, I was desperate to become an artist; I just didn’t know how. We’d only seen glimpses of rap music then in Ireland — Rejjie Snow, doing big things outside of Ireland, was the blueprint of what success looked like.

It all seemed so far away. I’m from the West of Ireland. I knew I wanted to do music full-time as a career, but that C word seemed unattainable.

As far as making rap music that connects with people, MuRli and I were trying to figure it out, shooting in the dark, trying different styles, cadences — the net out so wide you just don’t know what’s going to work.

For five years I’d been going to bible study — five years of hearing from God. Pastor Jonas’s words were confirmation of what our own elders had been telling us. People had faith in us for a long time — hearing it from a stranger felt big, real.

Whereas before, this music thing… were we dreaming? Two lads from parishes not Dublin, where the industry is.

It just seemed so incredibly unlikely that we were going to go anywhere. We’re unlikely anyway — despite the odds, our parents made it out of Africa, despite racism they faced when they got here — first black faces some people had seen.

And rap music! We didn’t have a guitar, didn’t make what was in the charts. We weren’t Westlife, or any of what had worked before.

In 2012, I’d done a freestyle rap on the radio, the lyrics included ‘Electric Picnic would never pick me’ — I truly believed we were so outside the ‘normal’. Clare-based producer John Lillis called, said he was taking me to Electric Picnic. I thought it was nice, but an anomaly.

What Pastor Jason said gave us bigger wings. But left us with a question: what were we giving back to Him? We continued on living, to be honest.

But every time we hung out, parked outside each other’s houses, talking for hours, that question lingered. Some days we broached it, others we lightly breezed past it.

Months later, Boom! Our Eureka moment: If God, who made the world, is ready to give us everything, we’re going to give it all back.

That meant dedicating our lives to be selfless in a culture that can be selfish, in a career where it’s not cool to be a Christian, in a country where religion has done immense damage.

We decided to call the group we were already rapping alongside, ‘Random Acts of Kindness’. A young rapper needed help writing music, so we’d help him.

Someone needed a lift; our resources were there. Lots of people want to be creative, but don’t have an outlet. We were saying, ‘here’s the umbrella, come under’ — our church helped us with that too.

John Lillis encouraged us to make an EP. In the summer of 2014, Stuart Clark of Hot Press said, ‘Isn’t it amazing an EP funded by Clare Arts Council is so good?’.

That got tweeted around, then MCD reached out and we supported Snoop Dogg two dates on his tour — our breakout into the music industry, professionally, in Ireland.

Pastor Jason’s words were an anchor. Other words he said later: “Whatever you two do in your music is going to be important.”

We were the first hip hop group to win the RTÉ Choice Award in 2017, the first outside Dublin. It doesn’t mean we had chart success or became pop stars.

But it’s important in a world where, because of my colour, people on the far right try to take away my Irishness. Being the first in something is vital: young men and women can see themselves in me.

Just as a ‘culchie’ can see me and say ‘you don’t have to be from Dublin’. Knowing there’s a bigger call helps when things get hard, knowing God has put me here for a reason. It feels like everything in my life has been a long 24 hours, emanating from that Sunday.

Zimbabwean-Irish rapper GodKnows releases his highly-anticipated debut solo album, A Future of the Past, today (September 26) via narolane records. ‘Misplaced Empathy’ available via all streaming services. godknows.bandcamp.com

GodKnows plays the Guinness Jazz Festival, full programme details at guinnesscorkjazz.com