“Beacon Light is a rapper from Michigan who loves Jesus and wants to honor Him with his life. I like loud music.”
On March 28th Beacon Light released a new album, Loud Drive Home. The album is about “Having fun with your friends in the car. Driving around and listening to loud music.”
“When I do projects, I rarely start with a concept first.” To start recording a new album, he starts with individual songs and let them guide his course. “As I was creating everything, I stepped back and said, ‘What do all these songs say to me right now?’” At that time, he figured out the theme for Loud Drive Home. Then, “I basically made the title track off of that concept.”
Loud Drive Home’s album art was created by illustrator and graphics artist RJ Vergara. “I saw that he did the “Dive” cover for Social Club and I was looking for someone who had the ability to do that.” When Beacon Light was a kid, he used to draw. He made a sketch of what he wanted the cover to look like to give to Vergara. Then, Beacon Light “found pictures of little rappers and hip-hop looking guys. Literally clip art looking images and I arranged it and put their names of what artist I wanted to be where.”
The album cover includes illustrations of each featured artist, including Canon, KB, Joey Jewish, and Steven Malcolm, among others.
“The point of the record is riding around with your friends and my story of falling in love with hip-hop in the car.”
“Salsa De Fuego” was Beacon Light’s first single from the album. He was inspired to write it while flying to Guatemala to visit sites of Compassion International, a nonprofit for which he speaks. “Basically, I had this beat that my friend had, and it was called Black Widow, that was the name of the beat that B-Coe made. I just started writing and everyone was talking about sauce, all that stuff… Now everybody would say that they’ve got the sauce.”
Being on a flight to Central America, he decided to mix it up and say salsa instead of sauce. “I wanted to put a different spin on sauce and not just have something that’s super cliché.” When he shared his writing with close friend Steven Malcolm, “He was like ‘Yo, let the kid get a verse bro.’ So, then he got on it.”
“When you’re down, God will lift you.” This message of encouragement is what Beacon Light wants to share with his song “Stay Up.” He recently said on Instagram that if he listened to what people said about his music, he would have quit. “One of the most encouraging comments that I got was Dillon Chase texted me and said, ‘Hey man, it’s just really encouraging to see you leveling up when other people probably would’ve counted you out.’”
“Regardless of what people are saying about you, if God has called you to do something, that is gonna get done.”
When Beacon Light was suggested by collaborator Spencer Kane to make a song about people “sleeping on him,” he was uncomfortable with that idea and was afraid people would see him as arrogant. “I’m not really one to complain, ‘People are sleeping on me bro.’ I just don’t care that much.” He decided to make the song “Sleeping on Me,” about people not only sleeping on him, but also sleeping on God. “There’s all these dead people walking around acting like Jesus isn’t Lord, but He definitely is.”
The album concludes with “Infinity,” featuring Canon. An interlude precedes it, sharing “the reflection of an artist that’s about to give up.” Beacon Light says that at the end of the day, God is what matters more than anything else, including a career in music. “It’s a point of worship that I just need You and I don’t need anything else.”
“You think that you’ve got stuff going. I’m trying to be on another level that exceeds the earth. I want to be focused on something that’s eternal.”
Overall, Beacon Lights wants to inspire listeners to “Turn your music loud. Turn your faith loud. Live unafraid to share your faith and share Christ with people.”
Outside of music, Beacon Light loves to spend time with his wife and daughters. He also enjoys basketball, claiming to be one of the best players in Christian hip-hop.
You can follow Beacon Light on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
You can get Loud Drive Home on iTunes, Amazon, or Google Play. You can listen on Spotify.
