Why Hip Hop Artist Otis Kemp Shares God With People Often Overlooked
By Movieguide® Contributor
Musician Otis Kemp explained how God gave him a platform to share his heart for the Lord with people who are often overlooked.
“I represent the misfits,” Kemp told the “Jesus Calling” podcast. “I represent the people that are looked over. I represent the people that no one wants to take the time to show them how to navigate. I always served people. I always helped everyone else except myself.”
Kemp was raised in southern Florida. Though he knew about God from a young age, he was captured by the world and caused a lot of problems in school while growing up.
“I was just the prodigal son in the private school because I challenged people. I was a child that read the Bible from a young age and having that gifting on the inside, I still had to navigate how to deal with it, and that came with some rough hurt as with people not understanding me in schools. And of course, now when you’re challenging someone, you’re being disrespectful,” he explained.
“I’m like Paul,” he said on Da Fixx Morning Radio Show. “God takes the worse and makes them something for his use.”
Kemp kept his faith close to his heart and allowed it to grow within him. Later in life when he became an established musician and began recording with popular artists, such as Flo Rida, he found an opportunity to share the Gospel.
One day, Flo Rida and another artist, who was a Muslim, randomly started asking Kemp questions about the Bible.
“I began to expound on it, and before I knew it, I looked up again and there were about twenty people in the room,” Kemp said. “And the guy that was [Muslim]… said, ‘Brother, I’ve never heard anybody explain the Bible to me that way.’ He said, ‘I need your number. I want to get to know you and talk to you more,’ and that right there shifted things.”
“I’ll never forget. I said, ‘What am I doing? You know, God gave me this gifting or whatever it is,’ I didn’t understand it, but I knew that I was supposed to be using it for Him. That turning point for me had been a huge curve because it didn’t happen overnight,” he continued.
Even still, Kemp had difficulties in his life. As he continued to pursue music, he landed a deal with Def Jam Recordings and was finally given the opportunity to have some level of job security in music. However, his marriage was falling apart, and with his wife threatening to leave him, Kemp followed her to Orlando, even though his deal was with a studio in Miami.
“It was hard, it wasn’t easy, and I think that’s why God is faithful and He’s blessing me now, because I gave up something at a time where it was just insane to the normal individual,” Kemp said. “And even at that time, I was not at 100%, not even 80%, to be living appropriately, according to the Bible. But my heart was always in a place where I wanted to [live according to the Word].”
Kemp has since continued with his music and found success while also opening a school with his parents to bless the kids in his community.
“Anything you do for the Lord and you present to Him in the right heart posture, He will come and consume it and He will dwell there,” Kemp said. “And so I’m honored that He chose Otis. And that’s something no one can ever take from me, that God has smiled on me, and it’s just the beginning. When you read the Word of God, it gives you all the necessary tools that you need in life.”
Earlier this year, Kemp released his single “Daily Bread,” which earned a No. 1 spot on Billboard’s Gospel Airplay Chart.
CCM Magazine reported, “Inspired by Matthew 6:9-13, ‘Daily Bread’ personifies an expression of daily gratitude that provides a respite from the daily challenges people inevitably face.”
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