J-Giles Son has been rapping since he was like 9 or 10, but for a while, the closest he'd ever come to Christian rap was spitting rhymes about saying "no" to drugs. For years, he became a self-described "disciple" of hip-hop and R&B, absorbing the work of Master P, Juvenile, Busta Rhymes and Talib Kweli. 

But as he matured in the faith, he said he could see that the songs he was internalizing affected his spiritual life. 

"I wanted to love God with my whole self... so I had to take some steps back in regards to my musical choices," he said.

J-Giles Son eventually discover Christian hip-hop, starting with Lecrae. It blew his mind that rappers could so skillfully present the truth of Jesus Christ. 

Fast forward to today, when the South Floridian is writing rhymes of his own for the kingdom, most recently with his latest project, Employed by the King. Amidst wearing lots of hats (including working in the school system), J-Giles Son is presenting some hip-hop that people are starting to notice.

I talked with J-Giles Son recently to find out more about this up-and-coming new rapper. 

To start off, tell us about you. Tells us about your life and your family, and if you have a second fundraising job or church life. 

I've been married for about 3 years. My wife's name is Clarissa. I'm actually a school counselor. I work in the school system. 

You're a counselor at a school. What age group? How long?

I've been in a middle school for the past three years. I just got a job that starts in August at a Christian school and it's going to be high school students.
 
Has working in that environment certainly inspired some of your music?

You see a lot when you work with kids. I mean they go through a lot and so it's a way for me to try and reach out. It's a way for me to gain influence into their life so that I can maybe help them out with other things that are going on. The more influence you have with the youth, the more they'll listen when they don't want to. It does play a part.

I'm sure making the music you do probably gives you a certain kind of voice into their lives. Now, are you connected with a church down there? Are you at all involved at your church?

Me and my wife, we work with the teenagers at church as well. It's kind of crazy because the school that I just got an offer from, I'm going to be working at, some of the teenagers at church, they go to this Christian school, so it's like, "How much more can you work with them?" That's kind of our area where we serve. We're working with the teens.

I just got back from a Christ and youth conferences. We took about 118 to that conferences, so it's Community Christian Church out here in Tamarac, Florida.
 
Now, who is Cynthia Giles, who does the spoken word thing on Track 4?

My little sister is Cynthia. She's five years younger than me. She's just finished college and her field is in writing and poetry, kind of journalism. She's trying to find her way right now and a big thing she does is spoken word and she teaches, she has little camps for kids.  She teaches them about spoken word and stuff like that and expressing their thoughts and ideas. I guess the whole family gets into it in one way or the other.

What about your rapping? When did you start? When did you know this was your calling? Tell us about the history there.

The first time I rapped I was like 9 or 10 and I rapped in front of everybody at midweek service about saying no to drugs with my homeboy Cyrus. I became a Christian and basically I listened to a lot of stuff that eventually over time it was like this is the opposite of Christ and all that kind of stuff, so I just stopped. I was just done for a long time.

Somebody introduced me to the LeCrae. I had just got 212 put in my car and somebody had introduced me to LeCrae and I'd never had heard rap that was Christian that was actually good. I never gave it a chance. Once I actually heard that, I started trying to find out who else is doing this. Once I did that I started getting into it.

When I started writing for myself again, I wasn't actually trying to record. I was just writing to write and God just kind of uses you and He just opens doors when you're open to Him. He has led me to writing and doing music. It's been a journey.
 
How many years now since you started writing and found your way into this calling? How long has that been?

Since I've started with this whole Christian rap thing, it's only been a couple of years. But writing, that goes way back, way back to middle school and all that kind of stuff, but that wasn't Christian rap. That was just me rapping and hanging out with my friends. It's kind of new for me.

You mentioned you noticed growing up a connection between your hip-hop listening and spiritual life. Talk about the power of lyrics and music on a person's faith and as you see it.

Some people say, "I'm just listening to the beat," but I think music affects our spirit and I think you listen to some of the stuff--you listen to Three-Six Mafia, you listen to some of this hip-hop that's angry and when you're done with it, you don't have the fruit of the spirit. You're not gentle. You're not kind. You're not ready to love anybody. 

I would see it affect my spirit and my demeanor. I want to walk in the spirit and it's hard to do that when you're listening to "tear the club up", "punch somebody in the face," and all this kind of crazy stuff.

Employed by the King is the brand new album. Talk about the concept, that title and the theme there.

It all ties back into Kingdom Work, which is the name of my second album. Pretty much the idea is if you're using your gifts for God's glory, if you're using the talents that you have for him, you're working for the Lord. You're employed by the King just like it says in Colossians 3 that whatever you do, work it with all your heart as working for the Lord, not for man. It's the Lord Christ you're serving. 

Whatever setting we're in we could actually really be working for the Lord primarily, even though we might get a paycheck from a certain place or the government or wherever you're employed by. The main person you're employed by is God. You're representing Him and you're a light and you need to shine.
 
That really speaks to what you do with being a part of a church and being a part of counseling. It's all one thing. You have many different hats you wear, but it's probably safe to say that you don't really segment it that way. It's just all one calling. Would you agree with that?

Yeah. To me being employed by the King is not just that 9 to 5. It's when I'm loving my wife, when I'm forgiving people who've done me wrong. It's when I'm serving at church. It can be anywhere and I can mess up.

It can be when I'm talking at somebody in the car. I could be doing the wrong thing, so really I think it's all times and it's with anyone. It's not just your job. It's your life.

You've been busy since you've gotten into this. How have you found in that short time that you've developed and grown as an artist since your first album, Real Talk No Less?

This last album I actually recorded it--I did all the recording and I mixed it and edited it. Now I took it to my guy that also edited it and mastered it, but I guess musically I've gone from pretty much going into a recording studio and somebody else doing everything to I'm actually opening up pro tools and I'm messing with it. 

I'm a music fan as well, so I'm listening to different artists. My musical taste has grown and I've started to develop more and more of a library of Christian music to the point where that's almost all I listen to. Christian rap is almost all I listen to.

Are there any artists outside of the rap genre within Christian music that you particularly like?

I'm all over Hillsong. Me and Clarissa went to a Hillsong concert in Miami where -- like we're on the DVD, Live in Miami. You're not going to know I'm on there, but I'm on there. I'm really into music. Actually a lot of days before work I start -- like one of the first things I do in the morning is I get up and I put on a Hillsong DVD. We have 7 or 8 of them and as I'm getting ready, making my smoothie, I'll do that before I end up praying or reading or whatever I do in the morning.

That's how I start out, so I'm really big into worship music. That's one of my favorite times at church when people are singing and they're excellent. They can't just be authentic. It has to also be excellent. When it's excellent, it's like wow. I really can connect. I really can feel God's presence in those times.
 
Do you have a particular track or song or single off of this new album that you're hoping gets some traction or a certain one that maybe is a favorite?

That's a touchy question. The one that's the most radio friendly is "One Mo' Gynn." You see a lot of guys that are leaving their families behind and that song is really trying to speak out to those guys, so that one's important to me.

"Hello," I really like that one as well, so that's really -- to me it's more like encouraging those believers, those people who are in the battle lines and maybe getting weary, maybe getting tired, maybe not feeling like doing the right thing, but it's like we can keep doing this. We can keep doing this. Also, "Inna Way." Those are some of my favorites and they're the first three on the album.

How can people be praying for you and your family and your ministry?

Just pray for a purity of heart and authenticity. Whatever God wants. If God wants big things to happen and that's not the case, if I'm authentic and if I'm not a snake in the grass--saying God, but really I'm thinking me.If I have a pure heart, then that's really what I need and that's more important than sales. That's more important than influence. That's more important than all those things because really like I say on my website and whatever, Christ follower. That's first. Hip-hop artist, yes, sure, but Christ follower, that's the first thing.