It was a Sunday morning in 2013. I was 23, tasked by my mother to pick somebody up at the airport, bring him the seven-minute drive to our house in Shannon. My best friend, MuRli, came too.<\/p>\n
My mother had met Pastor Jason Livingstone in Kent. She loved his preaching so much, she wanted her friends and family to hear it\u2026 I was being a good son picking him up from the airport.<\/p>\n
We hit it off. He was a professional athlete before becoming a pastor \u2014 young at heart, beautiful physique, very kind, warm.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Coming from Croydon, South London, he knew all the street culture we were into. Like we\u2019d known each other for years. We were super-connected, and we enjoyed that conversation very much.<\/p>\n
Usually, you let your mom do her thing \u2014 she and her friends weren\u2019t our scene. But this man, so warm and kind, we thought, let\u2019s see what he has to say\u2026<\/p>\n
That afternoon, our living room full, and I just remember great words. As a Born Again Christian, I love the word of God, the words in the bible. I really care when the preaching\u2019s sound.<\/p>\n
At some point, he picked me and MuRli out, said: \u201cGod is ready to give you everything you ever wanted. But what will you give him in return?\u201d We didn\u2019t know how to answer.<\/p>\n
At that time, I was desperate to become an artist; I just didn\u2019t know how. We\u2019d only seen glimpses of rap music then in Ireland \u2014 Rejjie Snow, doing big things outside of Ireland, was the blueprint of what success looked like.\u00a0<\/p>\n
It all seemed so far away. I\u2019m from the West of Ireland. I knew I wanted to do music full-time as a career, but that C word seemed unattainable.<\/p>\n
As far as making rap music that connects with people, MuRli and I were trying to figure it out, shooting in the dark, trying different styles, cadences \u2014 the net out so wide you just don\u2019t know what\u2019s going to work.<\/p>\n
For five years I\u2019d been going to bible study \u2014 five years of hearing from God. Pastor Jonas\u2019s words were confirmation of what our own elders had been telling us. People had faith in us for a long time \u2014 hearing it from a stranger felt big, real.<\/p>\n
Whereas before, this music thing\u2026 were we dreaming? Two lads from parishes not Dublin, where the industry is.\u00a0<\/p>\n
It just seemed so incredibly unlikely that we were going to go anywhere. We\u2019re unlikely anyway \u2014 despite the odds, our parents made it out of Africa, despite racism they faced when they got here \u2014 first black faces some people had seen.<\/p>\n
And rap music! We didn\u2019t have a guitar, didn\u2019t make what was in the charts. We weren\u2019t Westlife, or any of what had worked before.<\/p>\n
![\"GodKnows:](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/4796162_2_articleinlinemobile_18092025_God_Knows_Jonas_Shannon_CoClare_0054.jpg\" "\\"GodKnows:")
GodKnows: “It just seemed so incredibly unlikely that we were going to go anywhere. We\u2019re unlikely anyway \u2014 despite the odds, our parents made it out of Africa, despite racism they faced when they got here \u2014 first black faces some people had seen.” Picture: Eamon Ward<\/p>\n
In 2012, I\u2019d done a freestyle rap on the radio, the lyrics included \u2018Electric Picnic would never pick me\u2019 \u2014 I truly believed we were so outside the \u2018normal\u2019. Clare-based producer John Lillis called, said he was taking me to Electric Picnic. I thought it was nice, but an anomaly.<\/p>\n
What Pastor Jason said gave us bigger wings. But left us with a question: what were we giving back to Him? We continued on living, to be honest.\u00a0<\/p>\n
But every time we hung out, parked outside each other\u2019s houses, talking for hours, that question lingered. Some days we broached it, others we lightly breezed past it.<\/p>\n
Months later, Boom! Our Eureka moment: If God, who made the world, is ready to give us everything, we\u2019re going to give it all back.\u00a0<\/p>\n
That meant dedicating our lives to be selfless in a culture that can be selfish, in a career where it\u2019s not cool to be a Christian, in a country where religion has done immense damage.<\/p>\n
We decided to call the group we were already rapping alongside, \u2018Random Acts of Kindness\u2019. A young rapper needed help writing music, so we\u2019d help him.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Someone needed a lift; our resources were there. Lots of people want to be creative, but don\u2019t have an outlet. We were saying, \u2018here\u2019s the umbrella, come under\u2019 \u2014 our church helped us with that too.<\/p>\n
John Lillis encouraged us to make an EP. In the summer of 2014, Stuart Clark of Hot Press said, \u2018Isn\u2019t it amazing an EP funded by Clare Arts Council is so good?\u2019.\u00a0<\/p>\n
That got tweeted around, then MCD reached out and we supported Snoop Dogg two dates on his tour \u2014 our breakout into the music industry, professionally, in Ireland.<\/p>\n
Pastor Jason\u2019s words were an anchor. Other words he said later: \u201cWhatever you two do in your music is going to be important.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
We were the first hip hop group to win the RT\u00c9 Choice Award in 2017, the first outside Dublin. It doesn\u2019t mean we had chart success or became pop stars.\u00a0<\/p>\n
But it\u2019s important in a world where, because of my colour, people on the far right try to take away my Irishness. Being the first in something is vital: young men and women can see themselves in me.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Just as a \u2018culchie\u2019 can see me and say \u2018you don\u2019t have to be from Dublin\u2019. Knowing there\u2019s a bigger call helps when things get hard, knowing God has put me here for a reason. It feels like everything in my life has been a long 24 hours, emanating from that Sunday.<\/p>\n