“My music is very transparent and very honest. I don’t feel any way about wearing my heart on my sleeve and I think that’s what separates me from a lot of artists who are in the game at the moment.”

Daniel Owusu, better known as hip-hop artist Serene, is “someone who has come from a place of brokenness, someone who has come from a place of hurt and who has experienced a lot of hurt in life but essentially [is] not losing hope in sight of who God is…”

Serene was born in London to Ghanaian immigrants and went to church weekly with his family growing up. As he got older, he got involved in negative influences and activities such as gangs and the U.K. knife culture. One day in 2008 he was at his brother’s house and when he was leaving his brother told him to look at the nature and acknowledge who God is. His brother also gave him a CD of sermons from Paul Washer and when listening to the sermons, Serene heard the speaker talk about why Jesus died for him.

“It wasn’t until realizing the need for God’s mercy, the need for the atonement, it was something that was never well communicated to me… I guess God used that to draw me to him.”