It’s about time to look at another hip hop artist and how one of his songs can become a sermon or a lesson with a little twist. I have a 1970 Cadillac that I like to take a ride in every once in awhile; and as the night had become cool here in Mobile, Ala., it was a perfect time to take it out. I was just cruising the Saraland community and a thought came to me. I wonder who I could find in the Christian hip hop community with that smooth west coast sound that I grew up on. Through a couple of searches online I came to an artist in Sante Fe, N.M., named Illusent. Many of you may have heard of him, but I had not. I shot him an email and asked if I could use one of his songs for a video I was shooting. After a few emails back and forth, I asked him about doing this article with me, so here we are.

The track we are going to look at and dissect is from his album Pedestrian and it is titled, “Who Am I?” Through a little conversation with Illusent, I found out one thing about him above all: His relationship with Jesus is the most important thing to him in life. Even in this song we see he was brought through the fire only by God’s grace.

In the track, we see Illusent looking for many things in life. He couldn’t seem to find happiness. He asked himself repeatedly, “Who am I?” You actually can feel the emotions in his lyrics. I think we all have asked ourselves, “Who am I?” We absolutely can see the reflections of these lyrics in Ephesians 2:1-10. Paul’s letter to the Ephesians was nothing short of a theology course. These theological truths have set the course for many different denominations, and you can find absolute truth within them.

Ephesians 2: Made Alive in Christ
“As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath. But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”

Artist: Illusent
Album: Pedestrian
Song: “Who Am I”

[Verse 1]I’m just a young buck coming up
Infatuated with girls, and smoking weed
And giving a broken creed of money over girls
Or something to that extent
I ain’t have money so you see the way I went
The days I spent, tryna get both a little quicker
Mixed with a little bit of liquor
I’m just cruisin’ through my neighborhood on my Diamond Back
I lent my homie my earring, I’m tryna get my diamond back
The ace of spades flicking in the spokes
And your boy is flicking on a Newport, cuz I had court
And I’ll say it’s usually worthless
This time they straight hit me with community service
So, my dad taking me to church, yeah, he’s walking with me
But tonight I could hear God talking to me
I’m 14 with thoughts of suicide
I had to come to grips with the bigger question ‘who am i?’
Illusent talking:
Now, I don’t know what I felt tonight at church
I really couldn’t explain it, but I could feel something on my heart
I felt like God wanted to tell me to settle down
Nah, man it can’t be, it can’t be, nah

In the first two verses, we see a great reflection of Ephesians 2:1-3. Illusent sums it up best: “It’s depressing hearing about the sin I was walking in ‘following the course of this world’ and how I ‘lived in the passions of (my) flesh.’ However, these things only satisfied for a season, leaving me broken and longing to feel complete. I was trying to fill an eternal void with things that were temporal, and it wasn’t until Jesus saved me that I would see this.”

That’s good stuff. That is where many of us are today—broken and incomplete. When I hear people say things such as this and then I see the name “Jesus,” I can’t help but get excited. Jesus brings us out of the mess we are in and makes us new.

[Verse 3]I’m sick of the drugs, and the lust, and…However
I ain’t stay on that path to destruction forever
I realized God’s been here the whole time
I could not see, I was so blind
Like Saul from Tarsus, God is awesome
Cuz while I was on my way, I stumbled on Lecrae
And I started prayin’, prayer lead to conviction
Conviction evolved to addiction
To the scriptures, this is me, dude!
I started reading the Word in the Greek and Hebrew
And He brewed something up in my life
And now I stand all glory to Christ, yeah
I am a tool, a messenger, a vessel
And I do it for His glory, nothing more, nothing less, yes!
You wanna talk about victory
Well this is more than a testimony, homie, this is His story

“Who am I? Who am I? Who can’t face the word goodbye”

See it’s all a story to the glory of God
You see, I didn’t follow Him, I had my own agenda going on
But He gets the glory out of this story, this life event
It’s all praise, all honor, and all glory to our Father, yeah

Illusent finishes the track strong. We can look at Ephesians 2:4-10, and where Jesus’ love can raise anyone up from any type of lifestyle. Illusent says of this verse, “Even when my life seemed hopeless, a loving God ‘being rich in mercy’ stepped in and rescued me from myself and my unconscious slavery to Satan. He created in me a new heart, with new desires to know Him deeper (ref. Line: ‘I started reading the Word in the Greek and Hebrew’). All this was done for my joy, and ultimately to the glory of His name! Now being enabled by His Spirit, I am to walk in the good works which God has prepared beforehand” (vv.10).

Here is what we can learn from these verses:
1)  As Illusent says, there is nothing in the world as fulfilling as Jesus Christ. We can search for those temporary fixes, but they are nothing more than cravings of the flesh (Eph. 2:3).
2) We are saved by grace and nothing else. We were dead, and Christ makes us alive (Eph. 2:5).
3) We are God’s handiwork. That is so good to think about. God made each of us, and He does good work (Eph. 2:10).

I warned you these hip hop guys don’t play. It’s real spiritual warfare out here, and I am proud to know these guys are in the trenches with me.

Check out Illusent at Illusent.com.