I'll Just Let Myself In
"I’ll Just Let Myself In" is an empowering new podcast dedicated to people who are ready to take a chance on themselves and forge their own path. Hosted by Lish Speaks, each episode explores personal stories, triumphs, and challenges of navigating industries from the “outside-in.” From entrepreneurship to career advancement, self-care to self-discovery, this podcast provides candid conversations, practical advice, and inspirational anecdotes to motivate listeners to embrace their identity, defy societal norms, and pursue their dreams unapologetically. Join us on this journey as we celebrate the strength and tenacity of our guest and hopefully ourselves! It's time to take a chance on yourself and Let Yourself In!
Video version available on the @lishspeaks Youtube channel
I'll Just Let Myself In
Into the Calling: Justin Radford on Enduring Trials and Finding Purpose Through “Profit”
On this episode of I’ll Just Let Myself In, we step Into the Calling with Christian singer and songwriter Justin Radford. Fresh off the release of his new single “Profit,” Justin shares how physical challenges, personal trials, and spiritual battles have shaped his walk with God—and refined his voice for this moment. With raw honesty and deep gratitude, he opens up about answering the call even when it hurts, and how every hardship has led him closer to his purpose. If you’re navigating your own season of testing, this conversation will remind you that the calling is still worth it.
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I think this might be the first time I've told this on any platform. It is exclusive. I want to tell it like it is. I got to tell it how he want me to tell it.
Speaker 2:People are going to come to you and say your song helped me not commit suicide. That's a compliment, but that's heavy.
Speaker 1:Right, standing on the other side with the whole state of Tennessee versus Justin Rafferty. Don't bring no drama my way.
Speaker 2:Don't bring no drama my way. What's up everybody. Welcome back to another episode of I'll Just Let Myself In with Lish Speaks. This is the podcast where we just let ourselves in. We don't wait for any imaginary permission slips or for somebody to give us a seat at some imaginary table. We let ourselves into our God-given goals and dreams. I'm excited because today I have a guest who has a buttery voice is what I feel, maybe oily if you will A voice that is really changing some things I feel in the gospel R&B space. But more than anything, someone who I've come to know is just submitted in his gift, and to me that's the most important thing. He had a single that's actually dropped and you guys will be hearing some of that. But before we get into that, let me introduce y'all to a minister, a writer, a producer, a dad, a man of God. Amen.
Speaker 2:All right, Justin Radford. Make some noise, y'all. Is Radford the right way to say that? All right.
Speaker 1:Justin.
Speaker 2:Radford Perfect, all righty. So, justin, I'm excited to have you here, man.
Speaker 1:I'm excited to be here yeah we're going to talk.
Speaker 2:We're going to talk about your childhood, we're going gonna talk about your music, you're gonna talk about your ministry and, uh, anything else I come up with talk about it.
Speaker 2:Let's talk about it but before we get into that, I have one of the best segments in podcasting. It's called what I'm stepping in and that's where I tell you guys about the shoes I'm wearing for this episode. If you know me, you know I'm a sneakerhead and listen, I got them things on my feet today. A sock Saucony I love you, but I'm busy. Sneakers by J-Tips I love this shoe. First of all, y'all know I love anything colorful. Y'all know I love anything that represents New York City.
Speaker 2:Shout out to J-Tips. I think he has single-handedly revitalized Saucony In fact, most of us were calling it Saucony before he did this collab and so I think he has given Saucony a new life in the sneaker world. He's probably too humble to say that, but I'll say it for him. I knew J-Tips as a sneaker reseller back in the day. I actually have DMs of me hitting him up about sneakers, and now he is off in the rafters. I don't DM him no more. I don't got that access, but I was able to get these from Soul Play Shout out to Soul Play here in Atlanta and I was able to snag a pair. So you know what I always say y'all If you like them, go get you some All right. So, justin man, yes, ma'am, welcome to the couch. Thank you for having me.
Speaker 1:Glad to be on the couch.
Speaker 2:I'm excited to have you and it feels good too.
Speaker 1:It's a nice couch. We try to keep it comfortable around here. I feel like I'm at home. Listen, I love that.
Speaker 2:You are at home. You know what I mean. You are at home, I got you Listen. You are, like I said, a minister, a producer, a songwriter from Tennessee.
Speaker 1:Tennessee. Yes, ma'am.
Speaker 2:What part? You said Nashville, but I said I feel like he's not from Nashville because you told me where you were from and it wasn't Nashville. Clarksville.
Speaker 1:Tennessee Like 25 minutes away.
Speaker 2:Gotcha. So tell me a little bit of what it was like growing up in Clarksville and how your upbringing lent itself to where you are today.
Speaker 1:Growing up in Clarksville it was a lot of church. I'm a PK. Yes, my father's a pastor. Shout out to my father, pastor Charles Raffert. Fifth Ward Missionary Baptist Church, clarksville, tennessee, where the glory of God abides Now.
Speaker 1:So we grew up in church a lot, you know, and that was a big part of my upbringing. But I also had to balance. So I, originally from Cady's, kentucky, moved another 45 minutes down the road to Clarksville and that's where I ended up growing up. So, being from those two places that were neighboring, you know I had how it used to be in Kentucky versus how it became in Tennessee, while growing up with, you know, the PK microscope. But my father and my mother gave me a lot of balance.
Speaker 1:So growing up it was, you know, I fell off my bike like every other child. God no, I stayed fighting, stayed getting suspended as a kid and as a teenager. So it's, you know, they let me, you know, bump my head, learn, because I think balance with growing up in faith-based communities is, you know, we have to experience certain things. I had a good childhood, both parents parents, you know, didn't come from the hood, I was just bad but but uh, a lot of music, a lot of love, a lot of a lot of church services my father pastoring when I was young and my mother. They had a singing group, so a lot of that revolved around family time. Yeah, and the gifts of God.
Speaker 2:I did everything as a kid. Did you always want to be a singer?
Speaker 1:Not at first. I thought I was just going to be a musician. I started off playing drums and I didn't really want to sing at first. He always had to make me you give me a part. In church I was the kid that acted like I couldn't hear nothing. You said Sing your part. What part, you know? I just wanted to stay on my instrument and stay to myself. You know, I was naturally introverted.
Speaker 2:I played several instruments.
Speaker 1:Yeah, piano, bass, guitar, yeah, yeah. So you know that's how I grew up with that. So I didn't see singing at first, I just loved producing. See, singing at first, I just love producing, I love playing, I love instruments. And you know I had to learn how to sing to myself, but I didn't have a singer growing up, me and my sister 10 years apart, so I felt like the only child. So you know, I had to sing for myself, play for myself, yeah, you know, engineer myself. So that's yeah.
Speaker 1:I had to sing right, right, right.
Speaker 2:I saw that you write, you produce, that you play several instruments. When I listened to your sound, you know I had the the pleasure of being able to go to the studio. But enough, we were both at the BMI Trailblazers, gospel, uh award, but we didn't know each other just then. Um, we would meet about two hours after that and those stories I love.
Speaker 1:You can't make that up.
Speaker 2:I was like wait, you were there, but my manager took me over to your studios and I was able to listen to some of your music. Your sound is so unique, thank you, and you also have that down home. I can't sing, so I ain't going to try to do it. But that little raspy thing that you do. But I really do feel like there's an R&B slant, but you can't deny the gospel. Did you ever try to sing R&B? Did you ever try to go that route?
Speaker 1:I did. Yeah, yeah, yeah, if it was up to me, I would have been Usher or something like that, or Jamie Foxx. God had other plans. You know I tried it, of course, but you know it wasn't as smooth as I was trying to be. I didn't know what you belong into. Right, I know I can hear where you're from. You know You're just like the church kids singing covers. Yeah, I can hear where you from.
Speaker 1:You know you just like the church kids singing covers yeah, yeah, can't deny it, can't hide it, yeah, but you know, that's one of the things I find that's allowing me to cut through is, you know, I'm going to give it to you how I got it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:I love every sound, I love every style of music, but I sound how I sound. Yeah, and you can tell who I listen to, right?
Speaker 2:Yeah, and we're going to talk about that too, in a minute, because I want to definitely know who your influences are, both musically and spiritually. So let me pivot into the spiritual side, because you also can preach.
Speaker 1:Yes, ma'am, look at it. Yes, ma'am, I love the Lord. Yes, you know him, you know him, I know him, he know me. Yes, sir.
Speaker 2:Yes, sir, Thank the Lord for that. Let's talk a little bit about your spiritual roots and your ability to be both an artist and a minister. I think it's very admirable. I also think that there can be a little bit of like a fine line. You have to walk right All the time. Yeah there's a fine line you have to walk right All the time. Yeah, there's a fine line you have to walk. So what are some of the challenges that you find with being a musician and a minister?
Speaker 1:One of the many challenges I find is, you know, I tell my friends all the time while we're riding and we're in the studio, you know we're in the music business but it's just not the music business we're in the business of. You know it's souls that go along with this business. So it's you know, when I want to act one way in the boardroom, I can't because I still have to live by what I claim and sometimes I fall short. Sometimes I get it right, but dealing with people is the main struggle for me because you know it right, but dealing with people is the main struggle for me because I want to tell it like it is, but I got to tell it how he want me to tell it. So you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1:Conducting myself is, you know, is one of the many challenges when it comes to dealing with people and opposite other opinions, because naturally I'm saying naturally, but supernaturally I gotta counteract at the same time. And there could be a lot at once, because lord knows and also you know, just um, knowing when to be the artist and when to be the minister. Yeah, there's a lot of times you dealing with the schedules that we have, you know people we get into it just because we're tired, yep, or we ain't eating right, we're not exercising, we ain't getting enough sleep Anything, any little thing.
Speaker 1:You're into it at home or you know you get a phone call to change your whole mood why that matters and affects what you have to turn in.
Speaker 2:So it's a lot going into it, keep you praying yeah, absolutely One of the things I find you know in ministry is the difficulty of balancing your humanity with your call.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:Like I'm, human.
Speaker 1:Exactly.
Speaker 2:Some things. I'm going to have attitude. That doesn't mean I don't love the Lord or you. I'm just human right. Like you said, I can be tired. It could be something going on in my family.
Speaker 1:I'm hungry, I'm sleepy. You know what I'm saying?
Speaker 2:It could be a whole lot going on and I also think when you have a specific set of gifts. You know I was in the music industry, I am in the music industry In this media space. You know there is a certain way you have to present, you have to show up. You know you could be dog tired Every time as we are right now, probably it's late, you know.
Speaker 2:But you have to show up and you have to present. And it reminds me so much of Jesus, because when did Jesus get to be human? Right, he was fully human and fully divine, but he was fully human and there's so many stories of you know Jesus would be out on the water and the crowds would come to him. You know he'd be walking through the crowd and somebody would touch him.
Speaker 2:You know there's so many times where Jesus had to show up and give in a way that I'm sure was difficult, and so one of the things I encourage people to do, one of the things I try to do, is just really make sure that I'm tapped into him.
Speaker 2:I had a series of meetings yesterday and they were heavy yeah like the first one of that was at 5 30 in the morning with a woman that I pray with and you would think you know we get up 5 30, we tired so we just like let's start praying. No, we you know we go on that phone and and she's talking to me about what she got going on. And then I had two other meetings during the day, both very heavy, and I remember telling my husband. I said I think I'm feeling heavy because I'm not giving these people's problems to God, like when you're in ministry and you talk to people, even in the music industry.
Speaker 1:I ain't thinking about it like that.
Speaker 2:Even in the music industry, because you sing gospel music, people are going to lay People in the music. I ain't thinking about it like that, even in the music industry, because people, because you sing gospel music, people are going to lay people are going to come to you. You know, and I believe this for your life, because I believe you're going to have global, massive impact. People are going to come to you and say, yes, your song helped me not commit suicide. That's a compliment, but that's heavy.
Speaker 1:Right, it is, they got to tell you this.
Speaker 2:So I was going to do this. I was at the. You know, your song saved me from divorce. Oh, and it's heavy. And people come to me oh yeah, you made this post, that post, you made it did. And they telling me all their business and I'm realizing, oh, I have to start praying for people immediately after they tell me stuff I got to give ruminating on it all day and night. You know what I mean.
Speaker 1:That's not on me and that's one of the things when you said staying at his feet and seeking him. I had to. You know we have to get up first. Yeah, you know, I got to start my day with God, just to prepare to deal with anybody.
Speaker 2:Yourself, including right.
Speaker 1:Because I do have children. You know I'm a son, I'm a father, have children. You know I'm a son, I'm a father, I'm a brother. Yeah, so before I start, you know I gotta, I gotta get to God because at any point of the day that their phone could ring and it's, and I got to go yeah or anything, you know, I'm saying just anything.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely, absolutely. How has being a dad changed your relationship with me, father God?
Speaker 1:it helps me understand now how, um, how, he could give his life for me, because, if you hear it, what you don't understand until you in that seat, yeah, and you know my daughter. She was born premature so I could understand before then how you know somebody could really lay down their life for me until I would. Now you're going to have to kill me before I let you hurt this little girl and she was born premature so it was even more fragile and delicate, so I was able to see, you know how he could even start to obey his father. For little old me and that's one of the main things that helped me with my walk identify what I need to be be a great father. A lot of people are dads, and fathers they don't make you a good one, so I want to be a good one. I haven't been the best, but I'm getting better every day. How?
Speaker 2:old are you? I'm 36. 36, okay, so you're a young dad.
Speaker 1:I feel like I'm 36.
Speaker 2:36, okay, so you're a young dad, I feel like I'm 40. 40's young too I'm 37. So I was telling the guy on the episode that I had before you. As I get older, I keep bumping up the age for what old is. So when I was 20, I'm like am I 30? Now I'm like 40 and under.
Speaker 1:Y'all do the same thing, especially on Youth Sunday. I used to be able to say 18 to 25 and I got to bump it up with me.
Speaker 2:That young professional ministry getting older and older in every church.
Speaker 1:I had to move from the youth department to the young adult. My dad is 11.
Speaker 2:You have to let that young part go, you up here with us. Oh, my goodness, you have a single out. It's called Profit. It's based on the scripture. You know what is it? Prophet of man.
Speaker 1:Yes, man, mark 836. Yes, mark 836.
Speaker 2:And there's a scripture. There's not a scripture. There's a lyric in that song where you say I had to fall in line with God's plan for my life and you talk about how you was living life crazy. I want you to get too much into your business unless you want to get into it, let's get into it.
Speaker 2:But what do you feel like is the thing that God got your attention with? Because the reason I ask this question is because you know, just because we are preacher's kids or grew up in church doesn't mean we don't have a journey. You know what I mean. Doesn't mean we don't have a journey, you know what I mean. Doesn't mean we don't fall off. Doesn't mean we don't, you know. So sometimes god gotta snatch us back up and say, uh-uh, you know so what was that for you, what you what made you write this line, I think.
Speaker 1:I think this might be the first time I've told this on any platform okay, so it is exclusive.
Speaker 1:When I realized that, that my plan was using off course and I had to stay with God's plan, I went through some things. When I went to jail and I was standing on the other side with the whole state of Tennessee versus Justin Rafferty that's a different type of thing and I was laying in my cell and I looked up on the bunk above me. I seen one cross. I looked to the door, seen another one. I knew right then is if I don't stop now, if I don't change how I approach things now, how my temper was back then, now I'm officially in a place that my father can't get me out of, my mother can't get me out of, and I had the money on me to bail out myself, but no, we didn't even sit for a little bit. Then we'll talk about it tomorrow.
Speaker 1:Then you can see, nobody could get me out of this but God, and to the point where I really couldn't get out. So he had to come on in and I knew then his plan for my life let's let my plan go. Because now, oh Lord, get me out. Lord. Now I'm all for his plan, and you know so it really took me, you know, to lose everything. Yeah, it took that Job experience for me to understand no, no, no, my way don't work. Yeah, oof, that's deep. So he met me in there.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah yeah, and I keep that with me.
Speaker 2:That's good, and I actually was going to ask you this, and this lends itself to it.
Speaker 1:I want you to tell more of your story Recently you kind of wiped your Instagram clean and started over, and I get it. I get it. I had to start over Rebrand.
Speaker 2:But one of the things I just had shout out to Josh Salter was on here we're talking about rebranding but not leaving out the whole story. Like sometimes when we go to rebrand we don't want to tell the part that feels like failure, like that sometimes is the reason we had to rebrand. Like you know what you know and I've been tempted to do that in the past with certain things in my life Like, oh you know what, let me just not. What I realize is so much of what people enjoy about me is from my story, the thing that I thought is for you, the thing that I thought was embarrassing. You know so much of what people can relate to right and you, you need to use discernment, right obviously right you know but two reasons.
Speaker 2:One shame has no place right, there's no condemnation right so when we start hiding stuff, we give shame a place right so that's number one, but the second part of it is when you understand your call. You know that the call is not just for you. So it's hard to really live fully in your call if you make it about you and what you feel or don't feel or what you're embarrassed by, not embarrassed by it off my road because that that's how I was, that's how I feel not to cut like.
Speaker 1:That's confirmation for me. Look, because I and you know it's kind of reversed. So I I tried to put it on you know, I, I got to rebrand.
Speaker 1:Let's wipe the Instagram, wipe the social medias, because God started to convict me on not telling the story. So now let's be transparent, let's tell the story. So I had too many things that you know, jeff would tell me all the time. They got to know what they're getting. Yeah, they got to know what they're looking at, so at. So you know, I was showing a little bit, like you could tell when I got all focused on my page. You could tell when I. You know you know I'm saying so I was like now let's start over, let's tell the story.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you know there's. You know, tell the right story. I love that about you know, so it was kind of reversed for me. So so now I'm ready to tell it, yeah.
Speaker 2:It's going to save people, it's going to help people.
Speaker 1:It really is, because I call myself putting on God, but I didn't want to be found spiritually unfit from turning away from the plow.
Speaker 2:Right, right, right, right, you know. So, in line with God's plan, I'm ready.
Speaker 1:Now I can see it, Not to say it's going to be any easier than it was, but when I lost my mother, I told them to if I don't lose my mind and I make it back and stay with God, it ain't nothing on earth that can take me off of that. I lost my mother. Like half of my existence is in the ground. So, God, if I make it with my right mind, if I make it with you know, still calling on you, still holding on to you, and I ain't a devil in hell or anything that can pull me away. So if that's what it took to get me ready, I take it. It hurt, but it made me, you know.
Speaker 2:Absolutely.
Speaker 1:So nothing Now it's nothing yeah.
Speaker 2:I always talk about my husband, who lost both his parents in about the same calendar year, time-wise maybe a little more. That was before we met. It wasn't long before we met more, that was before we met. It wasn't long before we met, but it was before we met. And when I met him and realized he was still serving God, still smiling, still a joy to be around, I thought I have to marry this man.
Speaker 1:Maybe somebody thinks that about me and I'm going to tell you why.
Speaker 2:Because you said it the hardest thing that can happen to this person happened and he still loves God. That means he's perfect. You know perfect. You're not perfect, but there's something to be said. People leave God for way less. People leave God because they broke up.
Speaker 2:They're leaving for a headache, right, you know, um, this relationship didn't work out and I thought this was my husband. God, I heard you say this was my husband, you know. And so the fact that I love that you shared that, because if you can make it out of the hardest things of your life, it does change, I would assume, and just from my proximity to someone who has lost parents, it changes your perspective on what difficulty even is, and that was the main thing about it is, and I'm sure me and your husband was with God before it happened, and that's why I want to encourage anybody that's watching this and listening, you know, to stay with them, because that is the only way we made it back.
Speaker 1:Of course we wanted to crash out. I tell you that's a part of a club you don't want to be a part of. You always want to. No, it's like some kind of you know, our own little family of grief and so if we can do that but we understand it was power by God, because if it was up to me, I would have fell all the way out with them, even at the funeral. I would have fell all the way out with them. Even at the funeral I would have jumped in the ground with her. If I didn't love my mother, didn't treat her right and didn't understand, then I'm going to see her again. But you know anyway, but that was only because we were already with God. So stay with them and if you ain't got them, profess them as your Lord and Savior and get them and stay with them, I promise you.
Speaker 2:I love that. That's so good. Let's talk about your spiritual influences. I'm sure your mom was one.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:But who are the people that you know, whether it be people you know locally, personally, in your dad's church, or people that you've seen from afar? That just help you spiritually.
Speaker 1:Definitely my father and my mother and some. You see, my father. He talked to me all the time. He talked like I don't care what we was doing. I was so rowdy as a youngster I couldn't even ride the public school system, couldn't ride the bus, no more. He had to take me to school every day of my school career to the day I graduated, every morning, me and him, and he would make me read books. He would tell me about different pastors and when he introduced me to Dr Miles Monroe. So I grew up reading his books and then when I finally, you know, obeyed God and walked in my calling, I actually got to meet him in person before he passed In Detroit we were filming a TV show and to see how he was from the book to in person.
Speaker 1:This is how I want to feel when people meet me, because people forget what you do, they forget what you say sometimes, but they never forget how they felt around you. That's somebody I watched from afar, and also Bishop Joseph Walker in Nashville, tennessee, mount Zion, and I was able to watch him how he interacts with the members and how he deals with people. He's probably one of the main pastors taking selfies first Every time you leave the service, bishop, bishop gonna take a selfie with you. Just how personal he was. Even when I met ludacris, that was the the main thing, that, okay, this is how you respect people, this is how you treat people, and jeff shocker just everybody that's around me helped my spiritual journey grow from way back then to this present day.
Speaker 1:Yeah, because you know, sometimes you the talent is one thing, but you don't know how to act yes oh my god yep, listen, listen, they won't call you back, so definitely my father and watching people from afar, because when god places those people, yeah, it's for me to learn, it's just not for me to, you know, just make beats. It's for me to learn something.
Speaker 2:You talked about me and Luda. You talked about Jeff and Shaka. Were you shocked when DTP, you know, wanted to partner with you, be down with you, sign you? You know, I don't know all the logistics- of the situation but just working with them did that shock you.
Speaker 1:It did. I kind of snuck up on them. I was invited to a writing session at the studio because I actually came through there with Ebony Sun Entertainment. That's how I got to the DTP family and I was just writing songs, working with the engineering at the time and Greg so if you know Ebony's son, you know Greg and so he just walked up to me. You know Greg. He, just straight to the, said what you want to do? I said I want to do this. He said well, what? All you do I write, engineer, I go to listing off. So he said, all right, come back tomorrow, call me. And then I never left. You come back tomorrow, call me, and then I never left. Yeah, that's why I got in producing my R&B, you know, because I was going to be usher. So I was making my R&B music, still producing.
Speaker 1:They didn't know I could sing. They didn't know I came from church. They didn't know nothing. It was just it's a fire young producer in town, let's work with them, let's give them a shot.
Speaker 1:And then one day I made a joke. I was like Jeff, I'm going to walk over with a gospel album like Kanye, and we laughed. He said all right, bet. And I walked off and made my first gospel song in this situation, called Keep the Faith, and it just worked. And then after that they were like, well, this is where you need to be, because I was trying to, you know, not being authentic, trying to fit in somewhere else. And no matter what you do, authenticity will come through every time and for them to see that that's when they really like, that's when they believe in me for real, you know, because they didn't shy away from it being God, for in gospel music, is it's authentic? Yeah, I can feel it. It's just all the time you got to evoke emotion. Yeah, I gotta feel something. Yep, and you know, and that's and that's what christian music, gospel music, is rooted in feeling his presence.
Speaker 2:So, absolutely, you know, I kind of I can surprise them with it well, another thing that people may or may not know about you is that you rap as well, so you got bars as well, right?
Speaker 1:I got a few.
Speaker 2:Give me your top five favorite rappers. They don't have to be Christian hip-hop artists, but they can be. But give me your top five that influence you.
Speaker 1:Top five that influence me. My cousin Skinny DeVille from Nappy Roots.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:That was influential on my sound like from the beginning I would go spend my spring break sometime in the studio with them. Nice Early on Nas is crazy Got to have.
Speaker 2:Nas, All right. Nasia Jones no big deal, no big deal. What he's doing musically is dope live with the live stuff and all of that. Right, Just dope yep 1 with the live stuff and all of that.
Speaker 1:Right, just dope, yep. 1k for you. Yeah, okay, now you put the new sauce on it. Yeah, I'm from down south. I don't care what y'all say, master P.
Speaker 2:Ah, Na na, na, na yeah.
Speaker 1:That's the first album I bought, my mama buying it for me. I wouldn't even owe nothing back, so they're my top five.
Speaker 2:You know, I love it. I pull a little bit from every coast, every every generation, yeah, so, yeah, yeah, I love that. I think you can hear in your sound just how um, soulful you are, um, but also in and the way you come with it, the way you write your lyrics, you can hear the hip-hop influence all over profit. You can hear that. You can hear the cadence. I'm like, okay, I thought you was gonna say drake or kanye, based on you know, but we're trying to say politically correct, so I respect that I just wouldn't, even if I would have said, I would have said it, I just you know got you, got you, but I definitely hear that.
Speaker 2:So so, like I said, you got this single out right now and for you right the whole. The whole way we release the music has changed in the last several years, right yes um you got everything from pre-save to surprise drops to you know, you put a music video with the, or what we call now a visual visualizers lyrics. You know what do you do when it came to profit and the message that you wanted to give right? What was your mindset like on the release? What was your goals?
Speaker 1:for the release. What are your?
Speaker 2:goals for the release, because we're still rolling out right now.
Speaker 1:The main thing with the release was being transparent and authentic, and because I do listen to who I listen to and watch what I watch, I wanted to tell the story in a way that hadn't been I'm not going to say hadn't been showed yet, but you know, I really want to pick scriptures that you know can be acted out or that you know it's something to it, like you know what I'm saying. What is the profit of man to gain the whole world? Like that? Right, there is a conversation piece in itself. You know I wanted to sing music and write things that people could identify with and talk about.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so with the visuals is, you know I got certain vices that I dealt with personally and that I'm sure I'm not the only one that wanted the money, wanted the women and had the alcohol and the different temptations. So that's, you know. I wanted to show that in gospel, because sometimes in Christian music you better know it. So sometimes in the Christian space they shy, like you say, we shy away from telling the story. Nah, let's show it. And you know I didn't make this up. This is what I dealt with, this is how I got through it and this is how I'm getting through it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, according to the word. So I see me in it. So let's act it out, let's bring it to life and tell it in a different way. Like we, that content day we got another visual that's coming out of you know we, you know I feel like. I feel like I'm an actor. You know what I'm saying on the inside. You know we really doing things that you know what I'm saying playing with samples and narrations and just you know, just expressing ourselves differently and it's more of a cinematic approach. Yeah, you know, because that's.
Speaker 1:I want to tell it different I love it, I love it.
Speaker 2:You play several instruments. Tell us which instruments you play and tell me what.
Speaker 1:which one is your favorite and why I play piano, organ, drums and a little bit of bass on my right on bass, yeah, yeah, but my favorite is gonna have to be piano. This is my predominant instrument, but I started out on drums. I went through something during covid that messed up my motor skills and, uh, spinal cord and things like that.
Speaker 2:Oh, man so I can't play Brother, you've been through some things. What Listen? The albums are going to be fire.
Speaker 1:So I can't even play drums like I used to and it bothered me and the only thing that kept my hands. I had church every week so I was still able to move. I had to move.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:You know playing the drums with my leg and certain things, just you know. So every instrument has been equally important to me now because I almost lost it with just a range of motion. So I don't care what it is like in some of the live shows, in the content, I don't care if I'm playing a tambourine, I'm gonna play it right like it's the best thing ever, because I almost couldn't put my hands together and give him praise. It's funny as things that we say sound like that, like it ain't funny until you almost couldn't put them together. You know, and I anyway, don't get me.
Speaker 2:Is it something that you can't talk about?
Speaker 1:I really don't know. It's uh, I was working at Amazon at the time and you know we, I was working at Amazon at the time and you know we, hey, that's when COVID I had caught COVID, but I didn't have any symptoms. So I'm just, I'm all right. I went home one day to change clothes and I just fell. I was like I'm tired, I'm tripping. Went to work the next day because I was, you know, I was almost a man at Amazon. So I was working in the dispatch department, moving on up.
Speaker 1:So anybody that knows dispatch, you know we catching the packages coming down the line, we put them in carts, we running them out to the cars For all the flex drivers. We just running all night and I tried to chase a cart that got away from me and, like in my head, I was running but I couldn't get my feet together. And that's when I was like okay, something wrong for real. And you know I just kept dealing with it, trying to deal with it. And then I got to go on a few of the tour dates with Greg and them and that's when the walking got worse. It was so bad he used to have to give me some of his medication just to deal with the pain, until they had to take me to I think it was Morehouse School of Medicine.
Speaker 1:I used to have it go on Saturdays when it was closed, and then that's when I they called it chronic bilateral something, something, something something. It was some big name. I mean, you know, essentially, as you were saying, it started in the nerves. But it's mean, you know, essentially, as you were saying, it started in the nerves, but it's like you know, it just affected certain things, certain ranges of motion. So that's what happened. I'm still dealing with it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So, seeing me walking here and sit on the couch, there was a time I couldn't have put the left one in front of the right to sit on the couch the right way.
Speaker 2:So let me tell you I'm hearing what you. First of all, we pray for healing in the name of Jesus.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, he done healed me, he made me better. I'm about 75.
Speaker 2:But what I hear is that, like these guys, jeff, greg, they really been down for you outside of the music stuff.
Speaker 1:Right because yeah, yeah, I ain't think yeah. Because they say it's just not the music we got to manage your life and they really turned into family and uncles for me.
Speaker 2:I was getting ready to say, because they have to manage my life.
Speaker 1:It's time, you know.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, how important is it? Or what we know is important. What kind of advice would you give up-and-coming artists when trying to choose a team? When trying to, you know people are approaching them or maybe even poaching them, Right people? Are approaching them or maybe even poaching them. What advice would you give them on how to choose the right people? I feel like you and I have both been blessed. We've chosen well in our collaborations and endeavors, but what advice would you give?
Speaker 1:The advice I would give is pray first, pray, pray, pray, because everybody's story might not turn out like ours. I just jumped and I've had bad contracts along the way, but if I was to tell my younger self or those coming up, pray first and just do the work, put it out, release it and God ascend the people that you need for your team. Because if you get a team and you're not doing anything, what are we doing Now? You run the risk of other people, other influences, other things, telling you maybe to go against some of the things that God told you to do, and just because they're further than you, they'll be able to influence you in certain ways. So know what you need your team to do, pray for the right team and when God give them to you, honor them, respect them, work with them, because a lot of people I see just don't work with their team.
Speaker 1:Just because somebody else can't do it for you, that don't mean they're supposed to do it for you. I don't pick people anymore. God got to send them.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, yeah you know, I like to tell artists as well artists, personalities, whatever right like, if you look at you sign to someone who has already has motion, or when you do a deal with someone who has already has motion, right, their lives won't change a whole lot if you don't make it. Their lives will change a lot potentially if you do and your life, your lives, will change a lot potentially if you do, and your life will certainly change a lot if you do.
Speaker 2:And so signing with whether it's me with Holy Culture or you with ETP, and then expecting them to do all the work, is silly. They already got their money. They're already doing well.
Speaker 1:I'm trying to make it easy on them. I don't want them to have to do what you used to have help your team. I just can't sit there and look at them and do your part, like today. Even when we came here, we was at the studio, we went to the podcast, we celebrated. Later the single came out, we got to work, we got to honor the relationship. Ain't no way I was going to miss this, yeah.
Speaker 1:I appreciate that man, I appreciate you being here and that's going to help them be able to make it easier when they make certain calls.
Speaker 2:Correct, yeah, when we do certain things.
Speaker 1:Oh, I remember you, I saw you. Yes, we lit some holy cup.
Speaker 2:they can, you know, pass that along to and it's about doing the things that you may not always feel like doing. Like we were at an event together the other night and I was dog tired man, I had a long day I was far from home, you ain't able to tell I'm tired. The only person to ever see me tired is this my husband, everybody else I'm. I'm lish, right I'm here for a reason if I was gonna be a stick in the mud, I could stay home.
Speaker 2:If I was gonna be, dull and uninviting and not warm and welcoming. I could have just went home, and sometimes I do. You got to know when you don't have it to give. That's important. There are times when I'm like I don't have it to give. I'm going to sit this one out. But what I've learned is I cannot expect anyone to be more excited about my career and more than my career, and more than my career, the call that God has put on my life. He didn't call them.
Speaker 2:He called me. Now they care enough to be a part of the process. But he called me and it's so funny because one of my biggest influences in this. Unfortunately he is a crash out and I can no longer support him in this season of his life. But I learned this from Kanye West when you think about how Jay-Z took over Rockefeller right and everybody else who was in that realm you talking Beanie Siegel, you talking.
Speaker 1:Petey, you talking.
Speaker 2:Foxy. You talking Memphis Bleed, you talking Tierra Marie and you talking Kanye. The only person to me now this is my outside. I wasn't anywhere near their industry at this point, but the only person who said my career is in my hands was Kanye West. Not only did he become as big as Jay-Z some could argue that in his height he was bigger. Then Kanye West put out ugly foam sneakers and we all said we had to have them.
Speaker 1:Had to have them.
Speaker 2:Yeezy's Because he said I'm not waiting on Jay-Z, and I feel like sometimes people get to they sign with, they collab with, they do a deal with an entity that is bigger than them, and that's probably what made Jay-Z respected more.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:With the entity that is bigger than them, and then they expect that entity to do all the work. But that entity is good. Why would they be?
Speaker 1:They tell me all the time. I can't want it more than you. You can't, you can't, no matter what, just go get it, yep. And I learned that you take it from one to five. We take it five to ten. Yep, yep, yep. We got to do the five, yep.
Speaker 2:I think about that all the time and just lots of people Like my influences are not necessarily Christian. Like I think about DJ Khaled, I think about Oprah Winfrey. These are people who were already successful when they said, nah, we got to take it up. Oprah already had finished her career with a 20-something-year-old show. She said I think I want to start a network. Dj Khaled had already worked with everybody in the game and he just thought shot and we the best, and being all over TikTok and being all over, whatever.
Speaker 2:And now he had all these crazy deals. You know, they could have been like I'm good, I'm straight, I got my paper, you know. But they decided, nah, I'm going to give my all, and I think you know to be a legacy artist, to be a legacy act, to be a legacy. Whatever you're going to be, you could be a legacy plumber.
Speaker 1:But that's what helps the next generation.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:You know, because they work, they at the studio just as long as we are, if not longer, yeah, some days. And that helped me realize, like people, they can quit, they can retire if they want to. Mm-hmm, they not even quitting. So, what I look like. No, no, no, no. We got the baby steps. You know I got to work hard. Become a thousandaire, cool millionaire, cool billionaire.
Speaker 2:Let's go, but I, you know, I can't, you know, saying he can't want it more than me. Yeah, and not only that. I think a lot of times in the christian space sometimes we just don't act in excellence, because it's like, oh well, we just show, you know christian best everywhere.
Speaker 2:Well, yeah, yeah but I appreciate the artists of today because there's so many of y'all who are like killing it, like visuals, excellent vocal, you know taking care, taking care of their voice. You know what I mean. Being excellent in that way, showing up excellent, being innovative and trying new things, and I just think it's such a just give you your flowers. It is such a, a jewel in the crown of the kingdom because we can show our young kids yo, you don't got to be whack to be a christian. Like some of my biggest influences are people who I saw in my local church who were just cool. But let's take all the deepness off of everybody.
Speaker 2:I wanted to be a christian because I saw a christian be cool and I said, oh, I don't gotta be corny to do this. Well, well, maybe I will study the Bible Literally. That's what I thought at 13 years old, you know, and so I just appreciate attention to detail. I appreciate you telling your story from a real place and I'm super excited to see where your career goes from here. I want you to sing a little bit of your single that's out right now. Just give us a little taste.
Speaker 1:All right, let's do it, just give us a little taste.
Speaker 2:And then I got one more question for you after that.
Speaker 1:All right. So this is my new single Profit. It's out right now. You can go get it on all platforms Wherever you listen to music. I'll be there and follow me at IamJRatford on social media and we can let's talk about it. So, uh, yeah, what does it profit a man?
Speaker 1:to gain the whole wide world and just lose his soul. Yeah, and lose his soul. That's the favorite part of my verse uh lord, I follow you, god, wherever you go. I tried it on my own a couple times before Chasing this world and material things. Wake up in different cities still feeling the pain that I felt last night. But last night felt, right, sin, way too high what it cost this time Living my best life. Money power real high. She was just my type type, had to change my life, profit profit.
Speaker 2:I love that. Listen, y'all go check out profit. Uh, you'll hear it here on holy culture as well, but go ahead and stream it wherever you get your music stream it also lock in, lock in with justin. Follow him on social media. Um, I have had the privilege of hearing some of the other music. If you love, if you like profit, you're gonna love what he got to come um I know you got visuals coming out.
Speaker 2:Uh, again, I just want y'all to really to really lock in with this, with this brother, because I really do believe that he's a big part of the future of gospel music and of this rhythmic gospel music that we have that's coming out right now. I ask a lot of people, when they come to this show, one question to end it out. And that question is in the grand scheme of things, what do you want your legacy to be?
Speaker 1:Oh, you're going to hit me like that your legacy to be oh, you're going to hit me like that. In the grand scheme of things, what I want my legacy to be is you know, I I want people to be be able to identify with the transparency of the journey, like, if I made it, you can make it. If I failed right here and you identify with that, I did it for you.
Speaker 2:Do better.
Speaker 1:And you know that I did it for you. Do better, because I think about that a lot. It's funny that you ask, because I want to live a life that when I am gone, I want some people crying that I'm gone, because I don't want you to be like that's what he get, I'm glad he gone, like no, I want a packed funeral. I want people to be like he loved me, he had my back, so that's how I try to live and I want, I want to teach somebody something.
Speaker 1:Or he showed me how to do this, or he gave me my first shot, my first song was recorded with him, or, you know, he played for me for free, anything, something that I can give for you to keep, not for me to get anything from it. Like, take a little of this with you and you do it bigger. Yeah, you know, I just want to leave, you know. So, whatever that is, it had to be music. I want you to remember me and miss something that we shared. That's what I want to do. I want you to remember me.
Speaker 2:That was a great answer, ladies and gentlemen. Justin answer. Ladies and gentlemen, justin Radford was here and check out his new single Profit. Wherever you get your music. This has been another episode of. I'll Just Let Myself In With your Girl, lish Speaks. I'm so grateful that you spent some time with us. If you watched us on Holy Culture, sirius XM channel 140, their YouTube or listen on the station, thank you for checking us out there. If you've watched this on my YouTube channel, lish Speaks, thanks so much for checking it out there. Lock in with me at Lish Speaks on all social medias LishSpeakscom if you want to see all the things I have going on and if you want to write us an email. Speakers at LishSpeakscom, we'd be happy to hear any feedback that you have as I always ask of you please leave us a review.
Speaker 2:If this blessed you, share it with somebody, let them know what we got going on over here, because we are a community of people who are walking through our God-given doors. This has been another one, and I'm going to see you same time, same place next week. Peace y'all. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.