Interview with Yaves The Street Pastor

Published on September 18, 2010

Hard work, diligence and faithfulness do pay off. It’s proven evident in the life and ministry of our next artist The Street Pastor, who graciously took time out to do an exclusive interview with Holyculture.net regarding having signed a new distribution deal with Vevaci Entertainment/ Universal Music Group.

Shine: Well P, let me first officially thank you for taking this time out speaking with Holyculture.net…

Street Pastor: I love ya’ll man. I told ya’ll from the jump every since back when ya’ll was Illspot.net and ya’ll was looking out for me back then. As things progressed it would always be love. I always appreciate how ya’ll never been biased or star stuck but have always showed equal love across the bored. That’s an awesome thing and a lesson that I learned, to never count anybody out or treat anybody different.

Shine: Definitely. Also I want to say congrats on the new deal. You guys have been diligent and faithful so on behalf of Holyculture.net congratulations. So how did the deal come about?

Street Pastor: The craziest thing about it is that it came out of nowhere. When I initially got the phone call I thought it was a prank call. (Laughs) It took me at least an hour into the conversation to even realize like “Wow, this is really about to happen.”  I got a call from the A&R of our label DJ Layne Luv and he was like “I got Universal on the line.”  I’m thinking Layne is playing around so I’m like “Whatever.”  (Laughs) So he gives me the number and he’s like “Call the guy and make sure you click over so I can be on the line with ya’ll”. So I’m like “Alright whatever.”

Street Pastor: So I call the number and it was Armar’rae Hill on the line. Armar’rae Hill, he’s an artist himself. He used to work with so many people in the industry, he’s a producer, he’s a writer, he’s a pastor and actually he’s the CEO of a company called Vevaci Entertainment. So Vevaci Entertainment is pretty much the middle man between us and Universal Music Group Distribution. So what happened was that Armar’rae and Layne had been building a pretty good relationship, and Armar’rae had been hearing about my ministry and how I’ve been traveling across the country and rocking at colleges, rocking shows and secular venues.  They had been hearing a buzz about these cats from out of the Midwest, and they were like “We need to check out some of there music.”

Street Pastor: So they went on Youtube and checked out some of our videos and heard some songs on Youtube.  They had never heard any of our music prior, which is crazy for a label.

Shine: Right.

Street Pastor: They never heard any of our albums, they never heard any singles, but only heard about our buzz in the street, about how the Midwest was behind us and how California was behind us and how all of these small pockets across the U.S. were behind us, with no major backing, and they were like “We need to snatch these guys up really soon.”  After I got off the phone with Armar’rae from sharing his heart and his vision about how God had called him to seek out the remnants, I tried to be cool about it. (Laughs) I was like “Well you know were going to pray about it…”

Shine: (Laughs)

Street Pastor: But deep down inside I’m going crazy! (Laughs) I’m outside. I’m in the hood screaming “Yo, whats good, we did it!” But I told him let us pray about it, maybe a couple of weeks or whatever and they sent the contract that night! So I read over it and let the camp read over it, and the good thing about the deal was it wasn’t just like they were pulling in me but they pulled in the whole camp and made it a label situation. That made it a lot better for me because I always said I wanted to bring up my whole team, my whole label as opposed to it just being me.

Shine: So you get to bring all of Slingshot with you?

Street Pastor: Yes sir! The way the deal works is that anything that comes out of Slingshot will be distributed through Universal Music GroupDistribution with our partnership with Vevaci. It’s an awesome thing.  We still remain our own entity and our own vehicle but now it’s like we got big brother to help us push it out there and get it out.  It’s an awesome thing to be able to keep 100% creative rights cause that’s one of the big things everyone was worried about.  A lot of people have been asking “Are you still going to do Christian music?”  Which I kind of took like a slap in the face, but I guess people are so use to people getting on and getting big then switching it up.  I’m like “Naah, switching up is not the point of us doing this.”

Shine: Right, you got picked up because of what you were already doing.

Street Pastor: Exactly, so why change it?

Shine: I was reading in the press release that you weren’t heard about because of what you were doing in CHH, but because of your mainstream appeal…

Street Pastor: Right.

Shine: How important do you think it is for cats to get outside of the box?

Street Pastor: Well I will say this. (Pauses) Everybody has there own lane and has a certain audience that God wants them to reach.  There are artists who are called to reach the church and Christians who are really big on theology.  Then you have artist who are called to reach those who may never want to set foot inside of a church, because God wants to give everybody an opportunity to have the Gospel presented to them.   I think it’s more important for you to recognize what it is that God has called you to do specifically, and don’t try to down somebody because there not doing what you’re doing.  That’s one of the worst things we can do as the Body.  If anything, we need to encourage our brothers because again, it’s all about the Body and the Kingdom of God.

Shine: In layman’s terms for those who may not be familiar with what a distribution deal, can you explain that for the readers?

Street Pastor: Our deal is a lot different than others because we are keeping 100% ownership, publishing and creative rights.  A lot of people don’t get that. So if Slingshot wants to release a national release that’s all over the world we put the album together, then we meet with Vevaci/Universal and we say we want the album to go to all these different places, we need these many copies and we want it released on this date. Long story short is that we put together the project and they get it everywhere it needs to be so the whole world can hear it.

Street Pastor: Another thing about the deal is that it covers books and movies also.  We’ve got cats in our camp that write, direct and do movies. We got a lot of material inside of our camp that we’ve been unable to unleash because we haven’t had the resources.

Shine: For those who may not know, who’s all apart of the Slingshot crew?

Street Pastor: We’ve got Kambino aka “The Bully” (Laughs) according to Preach Dat Fire from Hollafest Radio. They call him the bully now because he bullies every track that he’s on.  My right hand man J-Flue, you’ve got Trev-Eaz. You got the youngest in the camp who is Lord Have Mercy. Then you have Young Church, Priest, DJ Juan, and DJ Layne Luv. Priest just dropped an album called “Revealed” and there are other artists that we are working with, yet these are the actual artists who are signed. These guys comprise the Slingshot Movement.

Shine: Have you discussed what’s going to be the first release off of this deal?

Street Pastor: My city had been pushing for a Street Pastor project because they hadn’t had one in so long.  I’ve been dropping mix tapes like crazy. But I really want to drop a Slingshot compilation project first just to let the world know about my brothers who I’m with and about the movement/ministry in general because that’s what’s going to set the foundation for what’s about to happen in this next historic decade.

Shine: I was told to ask you about the shoe store? (Laughs)

Street Pastor: (Laughs) Everybody’s has been asking about Sole Classics.  It’s pretty much a high end shoe store here in Columbus Ohio that has exclusive shoes and exclusive clothes/street wear.  Things you couldn’t really get at a regular store. The website is www.soleclassics.com . Were really big on ownership and having our own and being able to sow back into the community and it’s an awesome opportunity for evangelism too.

Shine: Are there any final thoughts you’d like to leave with the readers?

Street Pastor: Really just keep us in prayer.  Pray for an increase in our integrity and an increase in our humility.  I want everyone to understand that this situation is for us the whole Body of Christ, not just a Slingshot thing. It’s an opportunity for us to effect the lives of millions of people all over the world and we need ya’ll support. Get the albums, go to the website, buy the music and enjoy the music. Whatever you need were really big on reaching out to people. Keep us in prayer as we pray for ya’ll.

Shine: Well P, thanks again for taking time out to give us this exclusive and to you and your crew, continued success.

Follow Street Pastor at www.slingshotmovement.com or www.twitter.com/thestreetpastor

Written by Shine

Follow Shine at www.shineis.com or www.twitter.com/shines140

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