After many days of scheduling, I finally cornered the ever busy Doc. who also is a Gospel music Rapper, his name….Dr Sankty..well that name keeps sweeping me off my feet until I got to meet this “too hot to handle, fire spitting rapper…..it was a revealing experience, we had a swell time at the E CENTER chatting, laughing, grinning, chewing chips and doing God’s business . Sit back and enjoy The Gospel according to RAP.
As I wanted to start my interview, some guys recognized him and came over to greet Him; well this gospel rapper is quit popular…. I never knew! Poor me. Then he said “oh we use the same phone model (he had an LG phone and I had one too, in fact that was what I used to interview him… (We all laughed) then he said, looks like BB from afar that’s why I bought it (of a truth, the phones look like BB, except you look closely you won’t know that it’s not a black berry)

Gospotainment: so lets get down to business, some people like me are yet to get that name correct, is it DR SANKTY?

DR SANKTY: YES! That’s it.
Gospotainment: what’s behind the name, how did you come about it.

DR SANKTY: it came from the word SANCTIFIED. Back in the days I used to DJ for gospel shows, parties and stuffs. So some one just came up and was like DJ SANCTIFIED! And I was like Waoowo! That was cool! That was how the name came about and of course when I started rapping I shortened it to SANKTY, then we now added the doctor part.
GOSPOTAINMENT: that was when you left school naow? Hey folks! this guy is a medical doctor, I wonder how he juggles both….

Download Say No To Rape produced by Dr Sankty

DR SANCKTY: hahah!, well God is my strength, yeah of course (all laughing)

GOSPOTAINMENT: so you used to DeeJay, what happened, why did you stop?

DR SANKTY: ehmm my vision just changed.

Gospotainment: oh the Lord spoke to you saying “thus said the LORD My Son SANKTY ‘Stop Deejaying!’(All laughs).

DR SANKTY: I just got tired of it; I have been rapping all that while, so the rapping became more pronounced.

GOSPOTAINMENT: the rapping became, more dominant….Ok. How did you start your music career, I mean how did the gospel rap thing start?

DR. SANKTY: gospel rap for me started in 2000, I got a clear instruction from God saying I should stop listening to secular rap, and I was like WHY? I didn’t at the time know that there was anything like gospel rap. Though I knew of Kirk Franklin and co, but I didn’t know that there was real gospel rap out there. And it was a struggle at first to put away the secular stuff but when I did, I was immediately shown or opened up to a whole new entire world I never knew existed before, I got really very interested in it, so that became my paradigm. I was the person with the most number of gospel rap tapes and CD’s, I was the go-to guy for everything. So People where like ‘he has all the funky stuffs to get a gospel party going’. That was how I started DeeJaying.

GOSPOTAINMENT: what would you say is the perception or acceptance of gospel rap in Nigeria?

DR. SANKTY: There is still a lot to be desired and to be achieved in that respect. I mean, even in the secular rap, people are just beginning to accept it in Nigeria; they are really just beginning to go with it. Same too goes for gospel rap and also because of the number of people, who are into it. The two major artists we have in the gospel rap sector in Nigeria; BOUQUI and Roof Top MC’s. There need to be more, so as the acceptance of rap generally begins to get better, they begin to also embrace gospel rap as well, but we have a lot of gospel rap artists, I have heard a lot of guys that are crazily spitting fire for the Lord. So it’s just for us to become more organized, make our own noise and…
GOSPOTAINMENT: blow our own trumpet……

DR.SANKTY: yes,

GOSPOTAINMENT: You know..yesterday I went to see a friend in Unilag, then she said to me, am going to give you some songs, and I said “ok” then she sent me the song in Bluetooth, and it was gospel rap in English and Yoruba and this guy was good, he was so good that am like ‘woaoowoh! if Dagrin was anything, this guy is better. (All laughs) that brings me to the point that there is a whole new world of music in gospel rap. Ok let move further to serious things.

GOSPOTAINMENT: How would you access the industry now, in terms of cooperate endorsements and deals. Why is it that the corporate world is not endorsing gospel acts as their brand ambassadors, models and all that?