THE COOL CHRISTIAN
BENNETT RAGLIN/BET/GETTY IMAGES
“It doesn’t feel preachy. It doesn’t
come off as holier than thou, but
speaks to people’s circumstances,
experiences, and just life in general,
just like regular hip-hop.”
FOR A LONG TIME, Lecrae didn’t
think Christianity was cool himself. He was born in Houston, Texas, to a single mother and moved
around a lot as a kid, to Dallas,
Denver and San Diego, where he
lived with his grandmother. He
spent most of his teenage years
making mischief.
“They nicknamed me ‘Crazy
‘Crae,’” he told Complex magazine
in 2012. “I would just do whatever,
whenever, however. I’d get drunk,
HUFFINGTON
03.09.14
jump out of a third-story balcony.
So I just lived reckless. I think
I just didn’t really know what I
was living for. I was just living for
whatever happens today and that
was the extent of it for me.”
“He was a heavy drinker, party
animal, he was a ladies’ man,” said
Torrance Esmond, an old friend
who is now the executive producer
at Lecrae’s record label, Reach Records. “He used to just do the real
silly stuff and you’d be, like, ‘Dude,
what are you doing? Why are you
driving 125 miles an hour down
I-94 on Friday night?’”
Lecrae’s conversion to Christianity was gradual. When he was
17, a friend from high school invited him to a Bible study.
“I went, and I had never seen
Christians who dressed like me
Lecrae visits
the 106 &
Park studio
on Oct. 17,
2013, in New
York City.