We had the great pleasure of interviewing Christian rap duo the LinkBoyz. This pair of emcees has one of the biggest life-changing testimonies you’ll ever hear. The group formed while in prison, and both members have struggled with addiction in their lives. Consisting of 3D and J7, the LinkBoyz are now using their story to spread the gospel to prisons and those heading down the path they found themselves in.
For those who don’t know who the Linkboyz are, how would you quickly describe who you are and what your music sounds like?
Linkboyz is a Christian hip-hop group that started in prison. One day, 3D was in J7’s cell when the Holy Spirit came upon him and told him to grab J7’s dictionary off the shelf, open it, and read the first word that 3D sees on the page. That word was Linkboy, and it defined it as people who were hired in the 1600s to carry lamps at night to light the streets so people could find their way home.
While this was going on, 3D and J7 started performing Christian hip-hop songs in the prison church. The attendance grew to full capacity because everyone in the prison wanted to see them perform. Everyone from drug addicts to gang leaders were giving their lives to Christ at these services.
Who are you as individuals (testimonies), and what are your backgrounds in music?
3D:
My testimony consists of growing up in a broken home, and my father leaving me at a young age. Not having my father around and the proper guidance, I made a lot of poor choices in my teenage years. I started hanging with those I thought were the cool kids and wanted to fit in with them. I got involved with drugs and committing crimes, which eventually led to addiction and being in and out of prison.
My beliefs in Jesus Christ started early because my mom and stepfather made sure we attended Sunday service. I had two kids at a young age. I was only 16 when my son was born, and even though I wanted to do good and be better at being a father than my father was, the choices that I was making led me to prison and DCFS. They took my rights, which led to many years of depression and even suicide attempts. I struggled with drugs for 20 years, but I knew that God could take this from me, and he did. My kids are back in my life, and I have been clean and sober for five years.
I started rapping at the age of 16 because my older cousin did. He was someone I looked up to, and he wanted me to do it with him, so I did. I’ve always loved hip-hop music. I feel like I was a natural when I first started writing because I naturally knew how a song structure was supposed to be. Over time, I would get better and craft my gift.
J7:
I grew up in a home where my parents tried to raise me right. I made a lot of poor choices at a young age and started doing drugs and alcohol. My best friend Michael and I would hang out every day. We were like brothers, and we were never separated from each other.
One night, Michael and I were hanging out, and we both started drinking. I have way too much to drink, and I blacked out and don’t remember much of anything until I woke up in the hospital. When I woke up in the hospital, the first thing that I could think of was trying to hustle the doctors to get some pain medicine. The doctor came in with a weird look on his face and said to me, “The only thing that you need to be worried about right now is that your best friend had to be airlifted to a hospital because he is currently on life support.”
My dad later came into my room with a sad look on his face and told me Michael had passed away. They charged me with vehicular manslaughter and sentenced me to eight years in prison. While I was in prison, I was living a life of sin and getting high, but I’m blessed to say that God met me there with Grace, freed me from the shackles of addiction, and I have been clean and sober for almost seven years. I now go back to the same prison where I did time because I am the assistant pastor there.
I’ve always loved hip-hop, but I never really started writing hip-hop until 3D got on the stage in prison. He had me be his hype man, and I thought to myself that I could do this as well. I prayed to God, started writing lyrics, and worked really hard to develop my craft. Unlike 3D, who has been writing hip-hop music since a teenager, I started only about seven years ago.
You both were incarcerated. How did you meet, and how did you decide on music together?
We both met at the same prison because we were doing time there. We were on the same cell block, and we were both getting high together. Around that time, another prisoner came from another prison (Brother Barry), who was highly devoted to God and was doing God‘s will. He got a message from God that the prison where we were, the church, was going to be filled to the max within 90 days. Around this time, we both started praying and reading scripture and wanted God to help us get clean and closer to Him.
J7 started a youth event in the prison church and called it Breathless Warriors. One day, Brother Barry heard about 3D being able to rap well and asked him if he would write a couple songs to rap at the church service. 3D agreed and approached J7 and told him he was going to write a song based on the breathless warrior’s vision God had given him. 3D persuaded J7 to be his hype man on stage and reluctantly agreed.
J7 and 3D were both taking college courses in the prison at the same time. One of the courses that they offered was poetry. J7 realized that a verse in poetry and hip-hop is similar, so he used that to start writing hip-hop lyrics. The next month came the youth event, and this time they were both on stage performing a song they wrote together. Everyone enjoyed it and couldn’t wait for the next month to see the next one.
The talk on the prison was that the youth event was amazing and powerful, and more and more people came in to see what was going on. Many gave their lives to God around that time, and many people got saved.
At the time, 3D and J7 were going by the name Moondust, but 3D didn’t really like it. One day, while visiting J7 in his cell, the Holy Spirit came upon 3D and told him to grab J7’s dictionary off the shelf, open it up, and read the first word that came to his eyes, and so he did, and that word was link boy. Amazed at what it said, 3D read it out loud to J7, and it said that a link boy was someone who was hired in the 1600s to hold lanterns or torches at night to shine light on the streets to help people find their way home. In awe of the supernatural phenomenon, 3D and J7 made a vow to God and to their selves to start a group called The Linkboyz.
How long have you both been out of prison, and how have you turned your lives around?
J7 had been out for seven years, and 3D had been out for three years. Is it ironic that at the time of this interview, the years match their artist names?
We are both married, have children, own our own homes, and both have jobs. We are both involved in our local churches, and we both do a lot of ministry through inner city, outreaches, rehabilitation centers, and halfway homes.
What is the best part about using your gifts to be creative?
We both genuinely love hip-hop, and we love bringing quality Christian hip-hop to the space. However, Linkboyz Ministry is more than just about us making quality music. I think what sets our ministry apart from others is that we also help empower other artists. We work with a lot of artists and help out a lot of artists in many ways. We don’t want to just be known as a ministry that is solely out for ourselves. The LinkBoyz love giving back to artists and other nonprofit organizations. We love it when a song resonates with someone and opens the door for prayer and communication. We love to serve when we can because we think about our Lord Jesus Christ, and now he served, and we try to use that as a pillar for our ministry.
What is the hardest part about being an independent creative?
We would say it would probably be not having a lot of time or experience in our ministry. We both have families and wear many other hats in our lives, and we don’t always have the time to make as much music and content as we want to.
What is the best testimony you’ve heard from someone regarding your music?
Years after we got out of prison, we got a phone call from a guy who was an atheist. He was in the same prison as we were, and he told us that we were one of the reasons why he started believing in God. He said it was the way that we carried ourselves and the way that he could see God working in our lives.
What is the 5-year plan for the Linkboyz?
We’re hopeful that we can do this ministry full-time one day. We’re hopeful that this is a realistic five-year plan for us where we can quit our regular jobs and be able to do this full-time.
We plan on continuing to release singles until we can find more time to release full albums.
Another goal that we have is that we plan on traveling from prison to prison to speak to the ones that are still stuck in the system, to let them know that there is hope in the future if they put their trust in Jesus Christ.
Listen to the LinkBoyz Below:
This post was originally published on this site be sure to check out more of their content.
