Dressed in white, he bolts across the stage like a televangelist under the grip of God. A graphic of zombie Jesus adorns the back of his long robe.
“Imma raise hell until I reach heaven’s door!” he shouts. A church choir dressed in all black echoes the message deep into Atlanta’s Centennial Olympic Park.
It’s Sunday afternoon and the final day of Shaky Beats Music Festival. Church has already let out, but Sir the Baptist is just getting started. The gospel-rapper from Chicago performs first today and will be followed by a swath of DJs and EDM hitmakers.
Sir isn’t here to drop the bass, though. He won’t tell anyone to “put their fucking hands up” either.
He has a different gospel to preach.
“What I have a desire to do is put the spirit back in hip-hop, because we lost it,” the 28-year-old tells me after the set. “We only talk about craziness, we don’t really talk about our spirit and our soul and who we are.”
Sir explained that the first time we met a little over a year ago in Chicago. That’s when William Stokes’ name flashed across my phone and he picked me up in his Lyft. A struggling artist, he drove 12-hours each day and slept in his car at night.
Riding shotgun in his silver minivan, we discussed music and mixtapes and Stokes’ own aspirations as a recording artist. We talked about Sir the Baptist, the gospel spin he wanted to put on hip-hop and how Chance the Rapper just invited him into the studio for a session.
My experience wasn’t unique either. Stokes told dozens of riders about his pursuit. Riders like Scott Englert, a creative consultant working for the Grammys in Chicago. Englert met Sir after getting picked up from a work meeting one afternoon.
“He had his laptop like in the front seat,” Englert said. “He played [his music] and right away I was like ‘YO. This is hot, I’m feeling this.’”
The two stayed in touch and in just a few months Stokes was back on his feet and making music a full-time career.