God got a hold of P. Lo Jetson, and now the self-dubbed "Dapper Christian Rapper" is crossing the country bringing positive vibes and the truth of the Gospel to anyone who will listen. From Brazil to Europe and Canada, his music has been hitting the tops of the charts, but now with his new single, "Dance All Night," he's ready to level up yet again. We talked with him about his mission, vision and values.

You are by no means new to music, but there are a lot of people just starting to get to know you through what you’re doing. Tell us about yourself and how you got your start.

About four or five years ago I was doing secular music for a deal through Universal, but I started going to church and getting to know God, and God saved my life. Once He saved my life, I had to come to a decision. I hadn’t heard of Christian rap. I didn’t know anything about it, but I knew that I didn’t feel comfortable doing the music that I was doing, since I had developed a relationship with Christ.

I called my manager back at the time and I felt like I had to let go of the contract. She just thought I was crazy. I remember sitting on the floor in my house and I told God, “I want to do music. It’s always been my passion and if you help me, I want to be able to reach people through music.”

I wrote one song and the first song I wrote was titled “What About Jesus.” A lot of people like it, but I thought it was one of the songs that didn’t really have enough. It wasn’t structured like a regular song. I just started rapping about Jesus nonstop because I had never heard anything about it. From there it just began to take off in my life and I began to do events all across the country, and begin to connect with people and it was happening over a short span of time, like five years now, and I’ve seen it grow.

I’ve noticed you’re on the road a lot. Talk about going from recording your stuff early on after making that big decision to really getting this momentum of people bringing you out of shows.

I started out with a free project. It was The P. Lo Jeston Project and I just pushed it in Mississippi a lot and it started getting attention. The first time someone reached out to me was someone in Texas. We got in a car, we drove to Dallas and I remember pushing out 12,000 copies of this CD for free out of my own pocket trying to get it out to people. They were like, “Let me deposit into you,” and I’m like, “No, we just want you to check it out. Let me know what you think.”

From there people started inquiring more and it started being more than just the project or the Mississippi following. It started being a Texas following then Alabama following. It started out with us just doing it locally and then locally someone knew someone in another state and they said, “There’s this guy back home. You should really check him out.” They passed along the word and we’re here today and I’ve been a lot of places doing what I do and I love to do it.

A big passion of yours is the youth. Talk about your experience ministering directly with young people.

I love young people. I actually serve as a youth leader at my church. Young people have always been my passion. Matter of fact, before I even started Christian rap, that was one of the things that I was telling God. I just really wanted to impact this generation of young people. Like I said, I hadn’t heard of Christian rap and when I started doing it, that was my target audience because I knew that music was heavy and people were listening to it a lot. The young people, they would take some music. They were like, “I’ll listen to it once and if it’s good, I want to hear it again.”

I know that if I can get to young people with a message of hope at a young age, they’ll grow up in that. My main focus was let me get to these young people as soon as possible and I’m always trying to find a unique way to reach them because technology is moving so fast now that I always try to stay up with times.

I’m the one presenting the gospel. How can I do it in such a way that it’s clever and creative for them and that they want to stay grasped because our attention span sometimes is so short. Young people are my core audience and I do conferences across the country. I do anything for young people from children up.

Just a couple of weeks ago I did something for a children’s department where the highest age was probably about seven. Some people would shy away from that, but I look at that as an opportunity to allow God to push me in a place where kids can receive it. It’s from kids all the way to young people to adults that God is blessing me to impact.

You mentioned that you really came into this not knowing anything about Christian rap. Who is the first Christian rapper you ever listened to? 

The first one I ever heard was Lecrae, and I know this sounds crazy, but I didn’t really hear – how I heard Lecrae was through a friend before I had even come to God. I had done a whole project without hearing one Christian rap artist. I didn’t even know there was a community of Christian rappers until I was in my first project that I gave away, and then once I listened to Lecrae I started getting into people like Da T.R.U.T.H. and Ambassador and all these other people who were pioneers in what we do now.

When I started out listening to the Lecrae project, it made me want to know are there other people who are doing this. When I researched it I realized there’s a whole Christian rap world, that a lot of people are doing it. That gave me such great encouragement because they’re letting me know that people are doing this and this is an avenue which can be traveled.

You’ve got a new single out, called “Dance All Night.” It’s awesome. It’s a lot of fun. It’s upbeat. It’s joyful. Really this is your first thing you’ve come out with since 2012.

As far as a digital release, you’re correct, since 2012, and I know a lot of people are like that’s such a wide break, but what I do is I like to wait on God and when He gives me stuff I’ll move on it, and “Dance All Night,” He gave it to me. “Dance All Night” features TJ Pompeo. It’s a thrilling Christian dance record. It gives people the liberty to express their love for God and appreciation through the art of dance and it focuses in on the fact that through Jesus God has given humanity a great opportunity to develop a relationship with Him and love.

With “Dance All Night,” we took Gospel, hip-hop and pop, and we had a fusion between all three of those and we created a sound that simply encourages worship. “Dance All Night” gives you that energetic, that fun feel and that’s what we were going for so people could have freedom and fun in Christ.

You had a Facebook post after you had finished recording the song and you said you had tears in your eyes, and you were overwhelmed basically just with anticipation and just how much you feel like God has already spoken to you about that song. What are some of the things that you feel like God has spoken to you about particularly your ministry that are ahead or that He’s even doing now? What are the glimpses you’ve seen?

That’s amazing that you mention that post because when thinking back to that now, God has nearly blown my mind in space and time. Before we even released “Dance All Night” on radio, it had went No. 1 in Canada. Brazil picked it up and it went No. 1 in Brazil. This was all before the release and then the UK picked it up. 

With me, I was in multiple countries before the release had even came out. There was sometimes it was new territory for me. People would contact and I would do stuff for these countries and they would have to translate it for the people there and it was blowing my mind because when God gave me “Dance All Night,” He let me know that this was the record for me, so whatever I need to do, position myself in such a way to be prepared for what was coming.

After one thing led to another and it was radio, then it was No. 1. There were avenues and doors opening up for bigger shows and platforms. That Facebook post – I thought about this the other day and talked with my wife. I told her, “God is so faithful because back then I was just listening to a rough version of it and He was dealing with my heart and so much amazing things. I know that this is just the tip of the iceberg.”

That’s awesome to see when God will show up like that. This year you won Mississippi’s Got Talent. Talk about that experience.

It was amazing. Mississippi’s Got Talent. That was in March. It was put on by Ashley Sanders. He’s from BET Sunday Best season five. He put the competition on for artists and anyone. What was so amazing about it, it was open genre. It wasn’t just Christian. You were competing with every genre anybody from country to hip-hop to dancers. 

I entered and it was such a blessing. Right before the event I was listening to my pastor’s podcast and 10 minutes before I needed to be there I hit my head and I was out in the yard for like 3 minutes. It was really bad. I just grabbed an icepack and my kids prayed, and I was driving down the road with an icepack in one hand, trying to steer with the other hand, and my wife was coming from work. I get there and I’ve got all this going against me and I just get there and pray. God told me before I got in the car with the icepack you’re going to win tonight as long as you press in.

I got in the car and I went and I was going through and I was crying all there, my head was killing me, and I remember right before I got up to take the stage, the headache went away, instantly went away. I went up, got down to the final list. They chose me and it was just an awesome experience. There was a cash prize involved, but there were a lot of connections made.

One of my judges, actually the BET Sunday Best winner from this year, was a judge. It was just an awesome experience to be able to meet these people and win that contest. I was crowned grand prize winner from Mississippi’s Got Talent this year.

It looks like you’ve got a number of shows on your Facebook and stuff like that. What’s coming up next for you now that the single is out? Where do things go from here?

We just started a “Dance All Night” dance contest via Facebook and Instagram. What you do is you get the single and then you dance to it and then you upload it to Facebook or Instagram, whatever you want to do. It’s from September 14th to October 3rd and you’ll hashtag it #DANContest and we’ll see those videos.

What you’re competing for is a dance all night prize package. What that includes is an iTunes gift card, a limited edition dance all night t-shirt and a pair of HD headphones. We’re giving it away because we appreciate the support from people supporting the single so much and radio, stuff like that, so every time if someone asks, we’re plugging that.

I’ll be at Flavor Fest 2015 and that’s happening October 8th thru the 11th. A lot of big things on the calendar right in the same area. We’re going to be doing a lot of work, but it’s all to push the single “Dance All Night.”

That’s awesome. For anyone who’s never heard you before, you talked about mixing up styles. You did remixes. You did that “I Luh God” remix thing on your SoundCloud there. It’s awesome. So how do you describe your music to somebody who’s never heard you before?

To someone who’s never heard me before, if you were looking for – I sometimes make this quote and it’s just want I call myself and it kind of helps people to understand me more. With me, I call myself the dapper Christian rapper and people are like what is that? Fashion and stuff means a lot to me, so a lot of times when you get me, you get a total package.

I was recently telling someone you get the rapping and the fashion and when it comes to my music, you’re going to get a blend of stuff from me. You’re going to get an artist who’s passionate about Christ. You’re not going to get one lane genre. I’m not going to be the hard rap. I’m going to be a blend. I’m going to be that pop. I’m going to be that idiom. There are going to be worship records from me because I’m a worshipper. I often just want to be able to share my gift with people.

When you say what is P. Lo Jetson? Who is P. Lo Jeston? I’m a believer, a husband, a father. Like I said, the dapper Christian rapper. I just seek to share a gift of hope to the world through music.

What’s awesome is when you know exactly what you’re called to do and you can share it pretty easily. That’s important, especially to be successful in that mission. You said you’re a husband and father. Tell us about your family a little bit.

My wife, we’ve been married five years now. She’s awesome. She actually makes me better. If someone wants to know who’s behind P. Lo Jetson, I always point to her. I have two daughters. Their names are Kaitlyn and Riley. They’re my team. We function. I always tell people all the time. When I think of basketball, we have a starting five. It’s God, me, my wife and my two daughters and we make it happen.

I couldn’t be where I am now without them, so I’m so grateful to them and all that they do to help me further the gospel and also the artistry that I have within P. Lo Jetson.

How can we be praying for you in this season and your family?

Be praying for me that God continues to guide us. We’re definitely, as a family, in a season right now where we’re totally dependent on God. We recently made a big move, with a new church home and stuff like that, just following God. We heard God’s voice and just trying to pray for us, me, my wife and my kids, that we’re constantly before God and that He continues to favor us.

I tell somebody all the time I never want to make an idol of what I do. I always want to be close to God, so if you’re praying for anything, pray that I always keep God in His proper place and then everything else will fall in line. Just about the ministry and the music and that God blesses us to continue to reach life through it.