Gospel Rapper “KJ-52” Releases A Book On His 44th Birthday

Happy birthday today for the KJ-52 rapper! The winner of the Dove Award celebrates his 44th birthday by making his debut as an author with the release of “What Happened Was ….,” a compilation of stories from his life, or, as KJ-52 puts it, “a testament to what God can do with a misfit.”

“Over the 20 years of doing music full time, I’ve accumulated a lot of unique experiences,” KJ-52 says. “My hope and desire with my new book and the new album is to share a conversation with you, the audience, about some of my greatest triumphs, joys, and failures. ‘What Happened Was…’ is a compilation of true stories from my childhood, music, songs, touring and more. And each story comes with its own soundtrack to help you experience exactly what I was feeling when I was going through that moment.”

The book is accessible on Amazon and www. KJ52.com in ebook, audiobook, and physical format, with a piece of the same name on iTunes, Spotify, Apple Music, and all other digital formats.

Also available on audible and iTunes, the audiobook version streams on Spotify and Apple Music as a special edition. KJ-52’s offers its original 1994-97 demos to fans on Spotify and Apple Music as an exclusive treat. All items can be bought at KJ52.com for one-stop shopping.

Writing and publishing this book has been KJ-52’s dream for many years, he says, a dream that finally took off when KJ-52 asked his longtime friend to share some memories, with one conversation turning into another.

“They all seemed to start with the phrase, ‘What happened was….’ I started compiling all of those stories into a journal, every time I’d come up with one, I’d jot it down until I had pages and pages of ‘what happened was…’ type stories,” he says. 

“This book should feel like a conversation between me and you because that’s literally what it is,” says KJ-52. “It’s not a tell-all/gossip book. My only two requirements of any story that I included was: is it positive and does it have a resolution? This book is a testament to what God can do with a misfit.”

The music companion piece, an eight-song Christian hip hop/rap musical collaboration, produced by Poetics, features appearances by Xay Hill, Dre Murray, V. Rose and others. 

KJ-52, who is based in Cape Coral, Florida, is a Guinness world record holder in freestyling and has garnered six Dove Award wins to-date, including taking home honors for song of the year for “Do Yo Thang” and “Never Look Away” and multiple album of the year wins for “Five-Two Television,” “KJ-52 Remixed,” and “It’s Pronounced Five Two.”