From peer pressure, to lack of airplay for his songs and even being booked for events, gospel reggae artiste Minister Blessed has experienced several challenges along his journey. However, despite those setbacks, he managed to persevere and take his career to higher heights.

“Some have ridiculed me for my beliefs, while others tried their very best to steer me down the wrong path. A big challenge was learning to cool my temper ... walking away from physical fighting and learning forgiveness. Musically, it was initially difficult to get my songs recorded and then when I did another challenge was to get airplay. It was also a challenge to be accepted on the gospel scene because gospel reggae was still a fairly new genre,” explained Minister Blessed.

He also spoke about avoiding peer pressure, gangs and promiscuity. Regarding his decision to give his life to Christ and become a born-again Christian, Minister Blessed said he followed the blueprint established by his Christian parents.

“My parents Michael and Margaret Blake ensured [that] I was attending church frequently, singing in choirs and going to Christian camps. However, my main motivation for baptism at age 10 was inspired by me trying to win back a girl’s heart, as I knew how much God meant to her so I figured taking this step would get me in her good books. While that didn’t work, it took me about four years to realise that I really needed God and had to get to know Him for myself. I recommitted my life to Him and haven’t looked back since,” he said.

When he decided to pursue music professionally, Minister Blessed realised that it wasn’t a walk in the park. He shared some of the challenges of getting attention from production entities and the rejection he faced.

“There weren’t many production label options for a gospel deejay in 2001. I sent in all sorts of demos as a solo act, duo, collaborations with singers, rappers and other deejays but nothing that I tried seemed to be good enough. I handled the rejection by switching my focus from recording to doing more live performances; and through seeing and hearing me at concerts, producers began to reach out to me, including those who had rejected me in the past,” Minister Blessed confided.

In 2001, he won the Jamaica Youth for Christ Deejay Talent competition at the local and regional levels and then the all-island competition.

“Winning the competition opened a few doors for me to appear on Genesis and Gospel N Motion which were the two major Jamaica Youth for Christ events back then,” he recalled.

Seven years ago, Minister Blessed relocated to a small island called Guernsey where he resided with his wife and children. Quite recently, they relocated to Manchester, England.

In August he released a six-track EP titled I did it Anyway, which had physical CDs for sale. The EP is now available on all digital platforms.

entertainment @gleanerjm.com