'God broke me down to rebuild me': Christian rapper Mack James releases 'My Testimony'
The Montgomery native and Prattville resident has new music that walks listeners through his journey with drugs, faith and learning from God
About 10 years ago, Prattville resident music artist Mack James gave his life to God.
It wasn't a simple gift, and the entirety of Mack's faith didn't flick on like a switch. It came in increments. It came with lessons and heavy costs. The process resulted in a slow metamorphosis for him, his family and his art.
It's now led to a new album called My Testimony, released Monday, which touches on a lot of the issues he's faced.
"My music is my testimony. I use it to reach the lost," Mack said.
One of the songs "The Answer," featuring Colton Spackman, deals with things like suicide, cutting, molestation and PTSD.
"I've got another song called 'I'm Free' featuring Vy Moon, a Christian rapper from Montgomery too," Mack said. It calls for the community's OGs to stand up and put a stop to youth violence.
"Jesus Music" is about the transition from worldly views to music of faith, and "Echo" brings up the question people ask God all the time: Why?
"Knockdown" is about things in church being knocked down. "You've got to be careful today because you've got legalism out there, where the church wants to add on top of what Jesus has already done, with rules and regulations," Mack said. "We've got to be grounded in God, not man, because man will let you down."
"My Testimony" is available online at mackjames311.com. The album can be purchased as a whole, or by individual song.
Mack walks and talks with God
"God just took me on a whole different direction in my life," said Mack, a Montgomery native husband and father of six. "Right now, it's like a blank canvas. I'm just trusting for God to open doors."
And to let some doors remain closed forever.
There are so many things he's seen and done that James doesn't want for his children. He has four kids ranging from ages 5 to 17 with wife Melanie Martines, and two older children from when he was younger.
Mack started on the path to addiction when he was just a child.
"I wasn't raised in a Christian background. I was pretty much born and raised in the streets," said Mack. He split his childhood between here and Panama City, Florida. "I came from that environment."
In his 20s, Mack was creating hardcore explicit rap, and even put out an album. His grandmother wanted to hear Mack's music, but he couldn't play it for her. "At the time, it was something that I loved, but I wasn't proud of it," he said.
Though he's done his best to bury it, there are still people who remember his old music. Some even encourage him to go back to it. "They don't realize that was death, and this is life," Mack said. "I don't want my kids to hear it."
It wasn't until Mack was in his 30s that he even went to church. "When I had an encounter with God, I actually wasn't looking for it," Mack said. "I did everything on my own. I didn't need no help from nobody."
Fortunately, this isn't a story of finding faith through jailhouse religion, though Mack was breaking the law as an addict and a drug dealer. He and his wife were in what Mack described as a broken marriage. Mack also felt the weight of depression, anxiety and suicidal thoughts.
The path back from darkness began when a friend invited Mack and his wife to church. The pastor's message that day seemed directed straight at him.
"Everything he was preaching about was me," Mack said. "Everything that I was going through. Everything I was dealing with at the time. So much so that I actually bumped my wife and asked, 'Have you told this man about me?' Knowing good and well she hadn't."
Mack felt delivered from much of his burdens that day, and during the service he gave his life to God. He went to the altar and silently asked for forgiveness. A man he'd never met before came and started praying over Mack, somehow knowing all the things Mack had prayed about and, one by one, telling Mack that God had forgiven him for them.
"It felt like a blanket being lifted off of me," Mack said.
Mack continued to go to church, but said the process to fully change took years. It started with cutting out foul language in their home. It took a while longer to break the strongholds of pill addition and selling drugs. He was addicted to both using pain pills — 10 to 15 of them a day — and to the money he got from selling them.
"I had battled addition for 27 years of my life," Mack said. "From the age of 12 or 13, I had started messing around with different things."
One day, just before he was about to enter church, Mack took more pain pills. Then he heard a silent voice of God.
"He asked me, 'Do you need these before you come in my house?'" Mack said.
That night, he prayed for God to take the drugs away, because Mack couldn't do it on his own. He felt delivered from using, but he also needed help to stop selling them.
Six months later, Mack heard God say, "Do you trust me?"
"And I knew what he was talking about. He was talking about financially," Mack said. "I quit selling, and then we went through a lot of hardship. We ended up losing our house. We started losing a lot of material things… Little did I know, it was part of the process. What God was doing was breaking me down to rebuild me."
Among his possessions, Mack had built two recording studios on drug money — one in Prattville, which he eventually closed, and then one in Millbrook.
"God told me one day to let it go," Mack said. "That was something that I didn't want to let go of, because that was my dream. I ended up closing the studio completely down, and I just fully surrendered my life to God."
Letting go of materials affected his family. After all, when Mack and his wife lost things, so did their kids.
"But it was so good because through that loss it taught us to cherish things and to realize things that you take for granted sometimes," Mack said.
The journey became much clearer. He joined Prattville Community Church and became a deacon, and then served as a student youth pastor for four years.
"Our kids were able to go into the student youth ministry with us," Mack said. "As God was using me to reach other teens, God was also using us to reach our kids too."
Mack and his family joined Church of the Highlands about four months ago. He also evangelizes and uses his story to inspire youths in detention centers who are headed down the same path he went. He feels called to preach, and is currently looking for a building in which to start a church.
"I just wanted to be obedient to God, and that's where I am now," Mack said. "Whatever I do in life, I just wanted to make sure I'm obedient… All the bad that I've done, He uses it for His glory now."
For about a year now, Mack said he's been feeling God call him back into music. Along with the new album, Mack has started a movement called PMM (Positive Music Movement). Plans are in the works for a few new features, in partnership with different artists.
"I want to try to get the younger generation to using their talents for a positive, instead of negative," Mack said. "But I'm also wanting to reach the older generation that's still making music and try to open their eyes to get the younger generation to following positive movements."