How do you go from getting kicked out of high school to getting a degree in biblical counseling?
Marcus Gray, known onstage as rapper FLAME, will tell you it’s a long and winding road, filled with God’s supernatural grace.
At age 16, the St. Louis native was on a destructive path marked by gang culture and rebellion. Gray was partying, causing trouble at school and experimenting with drugs.
Then something hit him—literally. An 18-wheeler smashed into the car he was riding in, critically injuring half of his body and shaking him to the core.
Knowing he wasn’t leading the life he was made for, Gray turned to his wise grandmother, a strong believer who taught him about repentance and redemption before she died of a heart attack the following week.
The journey that ensued found Gray going to church, where he eventually accepted Christ before he turned 17.
Now a married man with his own music label and a list of accolades including a GRAMMY nomination, FLAME is chasing after the calling that surfaced once he became a Christian.
“My interests changed; everything changed,” FLAME said. “I wanted to utilize the arts to communicate the Gospel. Not just to make music. It was more message-driven.”
On Sept. 27, FLAME will share his message from the stage at Rock the Lakes Erie—a youth-focused music festival that hinges on sharing the hope of Christ.
The Sept. 27-28 BGEA event will also feature music artists Kari Jobe, RED, TobyMac, Lacey, Michael W. Smith, Nate Feuerstein, Dennis Agajanian and the Tommy Coomes Band. Each night, Franklin Graham will deliver a Gospel message aimed at drawing people to the same love and redemption that FLAME discovered as a teenager.
“Anything with BGEA, I’m excited,” FLAME said. “I look forward to events where people want a good show but they also want substance and content as well. Those are things that get me excited.”
FLAME says to expect a high-energy music set with lots of audience participation.
“It’s also thought-provoking and it’s fun,” he added. “I try to bring Gospel substance where people are thinking through what God has to say about life, about the human experience, about salvation, and communicate in ways that are relatable, that aren’t so lofty you can’t understand them.”
Above all, FLAME wants to communicate that anyone can have a fresh start when they let Jesus into their lives.
In his song “Start Over,” he talks about dealing with shame and guilt:
(Thinking) how can God forgive me after knowin’ what I did (can He?)
After knowin’ that I hid from Him, and I stayed away and backslid
“That song is really just causing people to think more accurately about God,” FLAME said. “He’s a God who says, ‘You can come back to me. I know all of your sin. I know all of your secrets.’
“That song is for a Christian who may have stepped away. It’s also for the non-Christian who may feel like they just need a fresh start, period,” FLAME added.
“That hope, that freedom is found in a person, not in a religion or set of ideas. It’s found in a person and that person is Jesus.”
