We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Legin a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Alright, Legin thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. It’s always helpful to hear about times when someone’s had to take a risk – how did they think through the decision, why did they take the risk, and what ended up happening. We’d love to hear about a risk you’ve taken.
About 10 years ago I decided to leave my job as a youth pastor and a pursue a full time career as an independent faith bases/positive hip hop artist and professional speaker. I had my wife, Tia’s, full support, and she was pregnant with our second child, our son Josiah. Our daughter Shekinah was about to turn 3. We planned for 6 months, and after that put in a 90 day notice to my job to give them time. We started raising money to support the vision, and felt like things were working out well. However, my mother in law currently has aggressive cancer she was battling, and as soon as I took the leap it got much worse. About 6 days into going full time, my grandmother was found on the floor of her home with a brain aneurysm and they told us she probably wouldn’t make it. Our car started to break down incredibly fast and unexpectedly. Everything seemed to be going wrong. We raised and saved enough to make it for a few months, but everything seemed wrong, even after planning, praying, and prepping for so long. So with a wife, a 3 year old daughter, and a new son, I had the added pressure of making this new endeavor work with a lot of new family trauma. I promised my wife and God that I’d always provide, especially having an absent drug addicted father who didn’t, I couldn’t let anything happen to them. That Christmas my mother-in-law passed, my grandmother was still hanging on, and I was still raising funds and earning what I could to make it happen. The car continued to fall apart and I was constantly in the shop. One day I was at the shop and down to my last in the our back up account, and they handed me a bill that drained it. I went outside with tears and looked up to Heaven, questioning God because I thought we had a plan. I told him “I need to know, please, right now, if I’m doing the right thing. I’ll quit and get a job if I need to. But I need a sign.” No lie, before I could say “Amen,” my phone rings, and my friend DJ Noble called (we never really call each other) and he said “Bro…please don’t think I’m weird…I’m not one of these people and I don’t do this type of stuff…but I really feel like God told me to call you and tell you ‘Don’t give up, I’ve got you right where I want you.’ Does that mean anything to you right now?…” That call saved my life and calling. I didn’t tell him what I was going through, what I was risking, but I kept going. Fast forward, I’ve been full time at this for 10 years, my son’s ENTIRE life, literally. I’ve performed on stages across the US, UK, and even in Kenya and South Africa. I co-founded the Safe House Project (www.safehouseproject.org) to protect children from sex-trafficking and abuse. I produced some tours, released multiple projects to a growing audience. I’ve spoken at schools, churches, conferences, and prisons. I’m about to release an EP called “God is Iconic” on 2/23/24. More important than anything, my family is healthy and whole, my children are doing well, and my wife and I just celebrated 17 years of marriage. The risk was, and still is, worth it. God is Iconic indeed.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
I fell in love with music as a child, wrote my first rap in the 4th grade (nerdiest rap ever, about the stock market for a school project over Naughty by Nature’s OPP…it was private elementary school, don’t judge me lol). Friends introduced me to Wu-Tang and I was enamored by RZA. I told my mom at one point I wanted to make beats and cut grass to save money to afford a Roland JX-305 groovesynth and started making beats. I started to write, produced and co-prdocued a few groups through high school. I gave up music after graduating not seeing a future in it. Went to college and dropped out, started selling insurance where I learned networking and salesmanship. Eventually my father, who had been absent since I was 5 years old, came back into my life and asked for forgiveness. It took me 9 months, but I finally called him and forgave him. That was out last phone call…right after that call he passed away. I felt lost…I’d wanted a father my entire life, and got him back, only to have him taken away again. My grief, and my girlfriend at the time, now my wife, Tia, led me to God. I gave my life to him and learned the forgiveness I gave my father, God wanted to give me for how I’d lived. Eventually, I was introduced to Christian hip hop, and I saw people who would rap rap, but giving a message of living right, family, respecting women, instead of the death threats, misogyny, and exploitation that filled the art and culture I loved so much. I started making music again but to give people hope, encourage others to forgive those that hurt them, and to glorify God. I never stopped. As I started to get invited to also speak at places, I took that seriously too, as I’d always been a good speaker (my mother was a professional speech teacher).
That’s the background of it all. What I offer today is good music, messages and content that speaks direcly to people who need to be encouraged, to forgive, and to know they’re not alone. Legin is my name Nigel spelled backwards, and it just means God turned my life around. I want to help my listeners do the same.
I’m most proud of what I’ve been able to do independently; drop a lot of projects, produce some of my own tours, travel to South Africa/Kenya four times total for humanitarian/concerts, found an organization to fight human trafficking (started in South Africa but spread to the United States as a national organization) called the Safe House Project, fight for racial reconciliation in my city and in churches, and I’m currently producing an independent documentary film about all of it called Legindary.
Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?
Yes, my goal is to help people turn their lives around. Maybe that’s through encouraging messages and music, maybe it’s through a challenging thought process, maybe it’s through honest connection and helping people know their not alone in their trauma and can seek counseling and deal with things. I just want to help. My biggest heart is for fatherless men, not excluding women, but it’s just an epidemic of men not handling their responsibilities. If it wasn’t for my grandfather’s example, where we moved when my mother left my father, I don’t know where I would be right now. He showed me the manhood that many of us never see. So I want to do my best to show it to others in my story, my family, how I love my wife and children, to help people turn the narrative around. Music, Messages, Merch, my Podcast, and Content all allow me to do that.
Are there any books, videos, essays or other resources that have significantly impacted your management and entrepreneurial thinking and philosophy?
Yes, one book in particular shaped my thinking very early and it’s called “Everyone Communicates, Few Connect” by John Maxwell, a worldwide leadership expert. It helped me learn the different between talking to people and connecting with them. Every time I’m on stage either performing or proclaiming, what I’ve learned in that book helps me connect with my audience. When I walk into a room and greet someone, I know what to do in that initial interaction to break down barriers and earn trust and it’s because of that book. In fact, it so inspired me, that as a speaker and artist, I went and got certified with John Maxwell’s organization as a speaker and trainer so I can impact more schools, prisons, churches, or anywhere else like that. I highly recommend that book.
Secondly, the Bible. The Scriptures show us the life of Jesus, who He is, Who He claimed to be, and how He lived. How He treated people, the least of these, the lowest and the highest, the rich and the poor, men and women. People have their opinions on Who He is, and I’m a proud Christian so hopefully that tells you where I land, but I think it’s important to know that the biography of Jesus written by the people who knew Him say, versus what culture, entertainment, and people who want Him to agree with them versus the other way around say. When you examine how He lived in full grace and truth, how He treated people, His motivations, and what He actually did and said, it changes you. I strive to live and treat people like that, no matter where they come from or what they’ve done.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.legin.tv
- Instagram: @legintv
- Facebook: @legintv
- Linkedin: @legintv
- Twitter: @legintv
- Youtube: https://youtube.com/legintv
- Other: https://tiktok.com/@legintv
Image Credits
Damien Ramirez Anthony Savage Annette Holloway