ARTIST OF THE MONTH - January 2005

KJ-52

Written by Jeff Hathaway, Music and On-Air Scheduler for The Voice Africa

Regular listeners of The Voice will already be familiar with the unique stylings of the man who calls himself KJ-52 (that’s pronounced ‘five two’ as his last album title highlighted!). Since the implementation of our A-List back in July last year, he has rarely been off the list, with songs such as Back In The Day and Bounce With Me featuring heavily on our playlist.

So what makes KJ-52 so unique? Maybe it’s the tight, well-produced urban sound. Maybe it’s the way he mixes wildly self-effacing humour and celebrations of forgiveness with deadly serious reflections on subjects like divorce and suicide in his lyrics.

KJ has found a way to make his music at once unquestionably accessible while allowing it to offer profound insights into life and, most importantly, faith.

"I use humour as a means to open the audience up to the more intense things in some of my songs. After all, 70 minutes of hard core heavy hitting on big-time issues is tough to take, at a show or on disc. By interjecting levity into the mix — literally and figuratively — I give us all a chance to take a deep breath. It makes the hip hop experience much more authentic, ultimately, in the same way that not blinking at the rougher edges of our culture does. Mind you, you don't have to scratch very deeply, even in the whimsical songs, to find deeply serious subject matter."

Perhaps KJ’s strongest asset, apart from the obvious compassion for his audience that drives his music, is the absolute respect (and delight) he brings to the hip hop form. KJ is clearly a student of the genre who has found a way to integrate the best of its various roots, while crafting something that is genuinely groundbreaking. There’s a near reverence in KJ when he talks about his place as a rapper in the hip hop pantheon. “Hip hop is a black house,” he explains, “and I’m a guest in it. It’s more than just an art form, it’s a culture, and I’m humbled to get to be a part of it.”

So what’s next for this 2004 Dove Award winner? A new album (no less) is due to be released on February 1st entitled Behind The Musik, featuring appearances from Rebecca St James, Jeremy Camp & Donny Lewis. Listen out for his new single on The Voice from February.