Interview with Yaves On Upcoming Nov. 3rd Release “Prince Among Thieves 3” 

Can you tell me about the inspiration behind this upcoming album?

“It’s part of a three part series called Prince Among Thieves and this is the third installment. The whole concept of the series is to encourage believers to really stand out and understand that we’ve been called to be unique and to be original, and that can be through music, your job, your career, civil service, in your neighborhood, or in your community. Essentially, a believer should always look different. That’s the whole concept of being a ‘prince among thieves’. So, the inspiration is in my day-to-day life; I’m a believer so that leads my decisions. Whether it’s in my music or teaching, it’s my Christ centered view that guides me. I stand out from everyone else around me. That’s the premise of the whole project…”

“We are at a time were I feel like people are shying away from being outwardly a Christian. I feel that way especially for music. A lot of artists say they aren’t Christian rappers – they’re just rappers. This is just me speaking, I want everyone to know that this isn’t against any artist that says they aren’t Christian rappers. I just feel like if your message is about Christ and your lyrics point to Christ then you’re a Christian rapper. I feel like it’s okay to be that. I feel like I am a Christian rapper because that’s what I rap about. I rap about Christ and that’s my message. It doesn’t take anything away from my professional career because I feel like I could jump on any track with a secular artist and still be just as good. I don’t have a problem with the title. At the end of the day people are going to title you whatever they are going to title you. But, the goal is to please Christ and make sure He is exalted. If someone calls me a Christian rapper and I say I’m not, it’s like I’m not pointing to who gave me the talent to begin with.”

Where did the idea for a three part series come from?

“It grew naturally. The first one gave me a good foothold. At that time Slingshot Media Group had a couple of artists and we would do a bunch of shows in clubs. That’s how we got the whole concept of thieves because we were the only Christian artists that were in secular clubs doing shows. We started doing the shows and being out all the time. Then we released the project and distributed over twenty-five thousand physical copies in the Midwest. As believers, that was really important to us because we were able to infiltrate a world that shies away from Christian message, yet they were gravitating toward it. Then, with Prince Among Thieves 2 it was mostly online and people were downloading it with another forty thousand streams. So, we had over seventy-five thousand records downloaded or bought and we were like, ‘We have to do a part three.’”

Why did you take a hiatus before making the third album?

“I got married. I had to plan a wedding and I didn’t want to try and focus on music, touring, writing for other artists, and making an album when I really had to focus on getting my household together. That was just a priority for me. I never thought music would be my number one priority, but then I fell in love. I know that marriage is my greatest ministry right now. I know my wife supports me 100%. It’s crazy, we were in Jamaica by a waterfall and no lie, a guy comes up to us and says, ‘Hey you’re Yaves right?’ For us to be in Jamaica and someone in another country recognized me, my wife got to see that music was more than just a hobby for me and that it was ministering to other people outside the US. So we would go places people would recognize me. One time a young lady came up to me and said she was going to have an abortion until she heard the song Butterflies. She said she was going to name the baby after me no matter a girl or a boy. I think for my wife was like, ‘Wow, music is such a big part of my life and ministry.’ She was my biggest encourager to get back into music. But, I took a break to just chill, relax, have fun, and travel the world and that’s what I did.

“I definitely think everyone should take some of those breaks and reassess where you’re at. I think as artist you have pure intentions but your intention may just be to share the gospel and then you try to get placements on websites and you quickly become more than an just an artist. You have to find the balance between ministry and artistry. And understand how to separate that and balance it. I think that break helped me reassess and where my heart was. Was I doing it just to be heard or was I doing it as a ministry that God has called me to?”

What do you want your listeners and fans to take away from this project when they hear it?

“I want them to be believers who don’t apologize for being Christians. That’s what I want people to take a way from this project. When you’re a Christian, it’s okay to stand for holiness, it’s okay to stand for righteousness, it’s okay to abide by the word of God and let that be your standard. We don’t have to be quiet because we might offend someone. But again, we do everything in love. I want people to be excited to be a believer. I think we kind of lost that a little bit we try to conform and be like everyone else for the sake of being popular.”

Is there anything else you’d like people to know about this project? 

“Each one is a different project with incredible artists. One of them we teamed up with Forgiven Boutique on, the other with DJ Giovanny and more. You really have to download all three to get a feel for which one you like the most.”

YAVES TO RELEASE ‘PRINCE AMONG THIEVES 3’NOVEMBER 3, 2015
YAVES RE-EMERGES WITH NEW MIXTAPE PRINCE AMONG THIEVES 3, WITH 3 VERSIONS OF THE PROJECT BEING SLATED TO RELEASE TO THE PUBLIC.