Okay, fam. I believe we are live now. I think that's working. Yes. So let's just check this
and see that we're live. Oh, yes, yes, yes. That is good chicken. Good to see. Hey, everyone.
Massive welcome to everyone and massive welcome to the man, Ricky Paul. So good to be with
you, bud. How are you doing? Yeah, yeah. Doing good. Thanks, bro. It's been awesome. Just
chilling in Rotorua and yeah, ready to get this get the show rolling. Oh, get the show
rolling. That's exciting. We have we've had to be a little bit dynamic on our on our sessions
today and our tech today. If I touch anything now, Facebook says you're banned. You're naughty.
You're in the naughty corner. But that's that's OK to be in the naughty corner just
for loving Jesus or valuing freedom. And Ricky, honestly, just so stoked to be with you. So
stoked for everything that's happening in your world. And be great if you want to pray
for us and then we'll we'll get it get it get it on. So it is. So, father, we just thank
you that you're here. We just thank you that you're amazing. And just thank you for every
person that's pressing in, that's tuning in live right now for those who are about to
watch the sessions in the near future. We just pray a massive blessing upon everyone
right now and even people who are needing healing in their backs. Jesus, we just pray
right now that backs be healed in your precious name. Just come sit in this meeting, Holy
Spirit. And do you unleash your name? Amen. Amen. Amen. Well, family, for those who don't
know Ricky yet, I'm going to say you're in for an absolute treat. So I think this is
your first time connecting with Ricky. So you're in for a real treat here as well. But
I just I'm just thinking a great way to start this chat would be would be kind of going back
into the day of how I first ever heard about Ricky Paul was back in the day. And I don't even know
if this group exists anymore. But do you remember the group Glory Dots? That's right. Yeah, Facebook
group Glory Dots. It was a pretty cool group. And it was just basically a Facebook group for people
in New Zealand who were hosting miracles and just seeing God doing cool miracles. And so we're
posting and they're dropping miracles. And it's like, well, who's this Ricky Paul guy with the
craziest miracle stories ever? And so it's just it was a fun group. It connected a lot of us
Kiwi revivalists around the country. But I thought it'd be really cool to start
just by hearing like a classic one of your stories that just they were just I mean,
they just lit me up. I just have you got a classic story that comes to mind of just seeing
God at work in your town? Because what we're going to do is going to go on a journey of just
seeing God at work in your life and the music industry. But you got one that stands out.
Um, yeah, I think first when it comes to mine, what happened was, I was overseeing an alternative
education school of some sort. And whilst doing it, there's this young teenager dude,
or there's a whole group of young boys, teenage boys. And yeah, you know, all for the mongomob
is a red town, mongomob gang affiliated town. And yeah, what happened was,
I was a bit more raw then, like just busting words and knowledge on anyone and everyone that,
you know, I just, I had a different lens back then where I just wanted to tick off, you know,
God, yeah, I accomplished my works, you know, five words of knowledge, and I was just works based
going for the works based acceptance type of model. And yeah, so there's this group,
and there's one guy would always trash me. So he's like, Oh, no, your God's not real,
your God's not real, all that stuff. No, no, he is real. He is real, bro.
This kept going on for a number of weeks. And what happened was,
um, the boys start, they wanted to have a showdown type of thing. I'm reading hard,
I'm reading Elijah and all that stuff with the prophets at that time. And so I go to school,
or to the class, and the boys like, Oh, Rick, your God's not even real.
Tawhirimatea, which in New Zealand, well, there's overseas.
is the god of wind to the native people.
And so what happens is they're like,
Tāwhirimātea is way better.
The god of wind's way better than your god.
And so I said, oh, yeah, yeah,
but that Tāwhirimātea, the god of wind,
only blows wind, you know,
or farting, as we'll call it in New Zealand and stuff.
And he goes, so I said,
that's the only wind he's good at blowing,
is out his bottom.
So they're, whatever, whatever, whatever.
So one of them goes,
I bet you that your god can never,
you won't show up in wind type of thing.
So I said, oh, okay.
So I told the guys to close all the doors,
close all the windows, close everything up
so there's no wind or breeze coming through,
turn the air conditioning unit off.
So I asked them, six of them,
can you guys feel any wind or breeze?
They're like, nah, nah, nah.
So I said, okay, you call upon your god, Tāwhirimātea,
and ask him to blow wind in the class
and we'll see if he shows up.
So they're like, yeah, yeah, yeah.
So they go forward, Tāwhirimātea, blow wind, blow wind,
we tell you to blow wind, all that stuff.
They're doing it, screaming, yelling at us,
just giggling away.
I look quite cute, actually.
So they're doing all that, yelling out and that.
And I was like, bro, I can't, I can't feel it.
I can't feel it.
And so that goes on for what felt like a minute or two.
Then they go, oh, you, they're getting angry.
You ask your god to do it.
So I just, I said, bro, go up on that stage.
There's a little miniature stage in the corner
of the community center or the classroom at the time.
So I get them to go up on the stage.
And so I just say, you know, Jesus, just, you know,
blow a bit of wind in here, type of thing.
And then all of us start feeling this breeze
going around our legs.
And three of them, three of the five or six boys
just start going, whoa, I can feel it, I can feel it.
But the boy just hardens his heart.
So he's like, I can't feel nothing.
Nah, nah, I can't feel nothing.
And so if some of them are like, yeah.
So they sort of throw it off too,
because you're sort of like the leader of the group.
So they sort of shove it to the side.
Nah, nah, nah, actually, we can't feel nothing.
I was like, you fellas are lying, you fellas are lying.
You can feel that.
So what happens is I say, do it again then.
So they do it, nothing happens.
And then in the spirit, I feel,
I see an angel flying up over me
and I felt the angel internally say to me,
move out of the way.
So I said, boys, there's an angel coming.
So I move out of the way and a gush of wind just goes,
whoa, through the youth center, through the classroom.
And most of them feel it.
I think he still felt it, but he was just in denial.
So he's like, nah, nah, nah, I didn't feel nothing.
And the boys are like, nah, nah, we felt something, bro.
So he talks them out of their experience and stuff.
So he sort of hardens his heart.
Fast track two weeks or so down.
And what happens is he gets caught up in,
he steals a motorbike, this boy,
and he's in a mad police chase during school,
I think it is from memory.
And what happened is he's going around town,
the cops catch him, but he's so full of adrenaline,
he tries to jump this area on the road
and a logging truck comes and smashes him.
But he goes flying in the air, falls off,
basically paralyzes himself from,
I think from the back down, back or the waist down.
And so two weeks go on,
and my boss at the time in the organization
is a bit edgy because of all the miracles
that are happening, and she doesn't want a bar of God.
So they keep telling you,
oh, that fella keeps praying for us,
he keeps praying for us.
So I keep getting warnings,
you're not to pray for people, not to pray for people.
I'm like, they asked for it, I'm not forcing it,
you know, nothing.
And so what happens is the young guy calls my boss
and says, can Ricky come and pray for me
in the hospital during work?
So she comes up to me and she goes,
Rick, again, I won't name him.
The young guy would like you to go and pray for him.
I was like, oh, for real?
And she goes, yeah, like during work,
this is the only time I'll let you pray for a client,
but that's only because he requested it.
I hope you didn't influence it.
I said, no, I haven't even talked to him.
So I go out there, go to the hospital.
As soon as I'm in there, for some reason,
I've never really prayed like this.
I felt a little, I don't know,
I wouldn't know the feeling,
a bit firm and a bit, not stubborn,
but a bit staunch in the faith.
So he's looking at me,
he starts explaining his mother's there.
She just says, you know,
he's paralyzed from the waist down.
He would love for you to pray for him.
So then I look at him and I call him by name
and I say, I thought the guy that I prayed to is his name.
isn't real. And he looks at me and he cries. And then he just
says, I think he is real. And I, for some reason, I just Yeah, I
just was a bit firm with him. And I just said, Why is he real?
And he just said, I because all the stories that I hear around
town, like when you pray for people, things happen. And then
he starts weeping. And then I see Jesus in the spirit on the
opposite side of his bed. And I say, Well, Jesus and I, yeah, I
would have came across rude if I was watching it. If I was him,
you know, like, and I just said to him, Jesus on the other side
of your bread, what beard? Why don't you tell him what you
want? And so he just starts weeping. And there's probably
one of the most emotional prayers. I've got prayers I've
ever witnessed. And he starts crying. And he just goes, he's
just sobbing, Jesus, I'm sorry for what I've done. I'm such a
bad kid. I know you probably won't want to heal me. But
Jesus, I want to be able to play with my friends. I want to be
able to run around. I want to be able to ride motorbikes again.
And if you can do that for me, I'll believe you're real. And
it's just stops. And then I say, Is that your prayer? What you
know to him? And he goes, Yep. I put my hand on his head. And
then I just say, Lord, I agree with him. And then I felt
massive electricity just through my hand, goes through his head
right down to his neck, and his legs start shaking, crying and
stuff like, and he's like, I can feel my legs, I can feel my
legs, I can feel my legs. So he starts buzzing out. And I, his
mum came in, she's weeping, saying thank you and all that.
And I feel to leave them. So just say, you know, call him by
name, just letting you know, I'll see you back at school. And
then within two, three weeks, he was in a wheelchair, but they
just slowly built him up. And then, uh, yeah, he just, he's
walking now. Mischief, mischief went back to his old ways. But
you know, like, he, he can't deny that God moves and moves
in power. And so he tried to mock the youth again, when I was
youth pastoring at the time and just said, Rick, God's not real.
And then I just stopped him and just said, Bro, you remember
what happened to you? And then he goes, Oh, yeah, no, he's
real. He's real. You can stay in there. Like you'd always mock
the church kids. Yeah. You guys are all right. You guys are
right. That's the first one that came to my mind. Yeah. So
I'm awesome. So cool. Yeah. So cool. Wow. So yeah, um, I, I
hear stories that that, you know, these miracle stories
hasn't haven't really stopped. Like, yeah, across your journey.
So and even even into recording studios and, and things like
that, you want to, you know, let us in on what's recording
studios and all the all the inner workings? What's happening
right now?
Yeah, yeah. So obviously, yeah, for those who don't know, yeah,
work in the recording industry. Yeah. Sorry, Ben. Yeah, I was
just gonna say just kind of, as you're starting that be great,
great space now just to kind of share your what you're doing in
the industry. And then also tell us about your album. That's
about to drop and, and how you know, like, what's the results
of it? What's happening with it? There's a lot of buzz around at
the moment. So be cool just to hear that and then hear as well
what's been doing in the studio.
Yeah, so I don't want to chew too much of the time. But in the
last five years, Benji is well aware as many of my close mates
and it's public, I share the testimony, but it'll just chew
so much of the time. But basically, I had a crazy rough
patch, just morally foul made a fool of myself, but held myself
accountable. And just journey that whole process. And coming
out of that, before COVID hit, I was struggling to find a job,
like some people and in that I just cried and I said, God, I, I
got no skill, you know, all I know how to do is teach and
preach and all that stuff. But because I'd stood down from
ministry and was on a journey of healing, and reconciliation,
restoration and all that stuff. I just knew it wasn't time for
that. And so I just said, God, the only thing I know how to do
is make beats. And so if you can use that, and you open the doors
up for that, I'll just jump in on that and literally in three
seconds, like, straight immediately, my phone goes off
and a guy, a very famous guy in the New Zealand music industry
says, is this Ricky Paul? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And I was
actually in a tearful, quite a heartfelt moment with the world.
So it was that fast. I was doing it, I was trying to like, oh,
yeah, yeah, yeah.
this is right yep yep yep the manly voice back on so oh i'm just letting you know we've got a brand
new artist who's about to blow up in new zealand and your name running around in the circles that
you're the best and so we'd love for you to come in and produce the guy's single so fly out there
and i'm a bit nervous and um yeah so what happens is that he just as soon as we get to the recording
studio i'm thinking it's a done deal but he says to me you've got to play you just if you can play
three beats if we don't like any of those three beats that you play um you're on the next flight
home because money is time and we can't afford to sit around listening to beats and all that
stuff we'll do and so i'm nervous and i'm like oh for real so i'm laughing i'm giggling i'm thinking
they're being sarcastic i mean you know playing their old jokes but the guy looks at me and goes
nah like for real if you haven't got the heat or the fire or the beats the good beats then
you're on the next flight so i was like oh sorry i thought you were joking so like no no time's
money time's money so i'm like oh just so i'm while i'm processing that and setting up i'm
asking god for wisdom and so i just i just felt to ask him hey um can you just play me what you've
already got because i've got thousands of instrumentals of beats and i don't you know i
could play a country western song but you're going for a techno album so if you just show me
what you've got then i'll be able to i guess narrow down my beats of choice so he does it
within five seconds i'm like yeah cool sweet i'll play the first one the um recording studio everyone
in the recording studio is oh you know losing it and then guys are you'll play the next one
i just want i just think you've fluked it you know like so i play the next one
and uh everyone just goes nuts again play another one third one everyone goes nuts again and then
uh the guy the manager the artist manager goes up because the guy had already the artist had
already finished the album and i was only coming in to do the single so he grabs a vivid and puts
a vivid right through the whole thing and then he says we're doing a whole a brand new album and
you're producing the entire thing right now come on so you've got a whole week to make an album so
technically we did it in a day and a half and that won him an award and uh opened up a few more
doors for me locally and yeah so that's how i sort of got back in yeah yeah class tracking oh man
that's that's wild and um yeah so if we just jump back to sam's question as well you've been in the
space now or even actually your your album now like let's hit that like what's happening with
your album now sounds like there's lots of buzz i just bought a vinyl which is kind of cool
um pretty stoked on that yeah yeah so um so i went i went uh the album's probably about two
years old for me so it's taken a while and um for those who don't know like how i because i
always get told even when i became a christian earlier because i used to make music for famous
people even before i become a christian but the church that i attended at the time they had the
theology that oh you know um mindset that oh right you gotta lay that down at the altar and burn all
that and um you're making the devil's music so and that's all i knew you know so i was like okay
cool yeah i don't want to make the devil's music and so so all that to say is i started getting
bombed with that but then i just um i think it was danny silk uh from bethel reading bethel
california and so um i just heard a bit of message that sort of set me free and
i just went hardcore and basically he just said if you love making music it wasn't to me
personally but uh it was just a podcast i think if you love making music or you're a producer
um oh you know and you want to make music for whoever snoop dogg and all that stuff then go
do it and he didn't say snoop dogg but worldly artists secular artists and so i thought oh whoa
christian's allowed to do that so um i just basically had went for a massive journey of
healing in that and walking that out and so i just jumped straight and throw it straight over the edge
and so uh part i guess part of the journey was me learning how to navigate our poor says that
you're both the king and the priest and so um you know realizing what your priestly role is to the
church to the body of christ which to me even though i haven't preached uh much over the last
four or five years that is definitely i guess my gift that i have towards the body of christ the
way that i serve the body of christ but in the marketplace or in extending the kingdom
uh and my kingly role uh is the music industry and so
So everything I do there may look devilish,
even the cover, because it's a black on black cover.
So I've had some Christian mates say,
oh man, black on black, that's so evil.
It looks so dark and it gives me a freaky feeling.
I'm like, oh man, so that's a whole nother topic.
I can do a whole sermon just on all that stuff.
But yeah, so basically I went in,
it's called the golden era and the golden era,
for those who don't know,
hip hop is a 90s, 2000s sound.
And I just felt God say that he wanted me
to revive the golden era.
And so I just jumped in and caught it,
the golden era, season one, the golden era album.
I even caught it, you know,
that and so just finding the golden people.
And so I just honed in on that and a lot of artists.
And I have a lot of international artists on the album,
but I took them off because I felt God say,
I wanted you to start with the New Zealanders.
Go and find what they call the legends in rap or hip hop
from the 90s, 2000s and revive them.
So I just went on a massive mission to get them,
which it's very hard to collect those.
And so people in hip hop, that's where the hype is
because it's quite a hard album,
near impossible album to pull off in New Zealand
with those names on there.
And so I've just had massive favor in doing that,
but yeah, that's called the golden era.
And so God, like a lot of other Christians,
has just been speaking to me,
downloading Revelation to me via the whole 2-2,
the Kia David stuff and, you know,
magic on that.
It's due to be released, isn't it?
On Tuesday, right?
Which is the 22nd of the 2nd, 2022?
Yeah, 2-2, 2-2-2.
Here's a fun thing,
is that we're booked in for a C-section.
We're booked in for a C-section for Alana
on Tuesday as well.
Oh, wow, wow.
Oh, that's crazy.
Yeah, so that's kind of exciting.
I've been thinking about your date there as well
as we've kind of been building towards that.
Yeah, I was pretty dumb because like,
oh, it's cool at the same time.
Kanye's decided to drop his album
on the 22nd of the 2nd, 2022, you know?
Ah.
So I'm trying to,
I'm lucky that New Zealand is like 16 hours
or whatever it is ahead of them.
So I may go, stay, go number one for like 10 hours
and then he'll just swipe me off.
Yeah, yeah.
But it's cool, yeah.
So that's the golden era.
And going back to Seb's question,
in amongst those recording sessions,
I've sat down with a lot of the artists
and a lot of them are gang members and stuff.
And real, they can come across,
some of them are real street guys,
like actual gangsters that get into the whole,
try not to divulge, you know,
but shooting and stuff and real crime.
And I've just had to learn how to navigate in that too
when I was sitting around people who just pulling out,
cocaine and large amounts of money and guns and stuff.
And so, yeah, I just, one, I don't act like a gangster.
Two, I know I'm not a gangster and I just keep it music,
but it's awesome because a lot of them always ask,
and it's quite an organic thing
as we're back in the days or several years ago,
I would always go in there again with the whole,
oh, I've got to see God move.
And, you know, sort of force something with the gift.
And yeah, but they just come in natural and just,
hey bro, like, what are you doing on the weekends?
You know, like, do you go to the strippers or something?
I'm like, nah, bro, nah, I don't do that.
Oh, well, what do you do?
I just, oh, I go to church and stuff.
Hey, for real.
And so they'll just give their whole view of God
or the slave master.
So yeah, a different God, if we put it that way,
but their view of him.
And so it's just amazing that God would just put me
in that place.
And by then, usually I'll just, you know,
with wisdom, kindness, just say,
hey bro, you're just letting you know
that that's the wrong, that's a different God, bro.
Like, you know, that's,
you and I are talking about a different God.
And so then I talked to him about,
told him about Jesus and, you know,
if you haven't seen Jesus say it, do it,
then it's not from God.
So I just give them a little,
the difference between him and the prophets
or him and Moses and those under the law.
And just sort of, it's crazy.
Like a couple of my mates,
one of them is watching now,
he's an Indian.
engineer, recording engineer.
Yeah, hey, bro, I don't want to call him out.
You know who you are? And so, yeah, so he would go into the
sessions after me on some of them with these. I don't even
like calling them gang members, but artists. And so you just
say, bro, they're talking about God and how God is kind. And
he's different to how our dads raised us, you know, even though
they'll give us a hiding and all that stuff. So it's really cool
to see God do that. But I've been in other sessions where God
will break out by healings. And there was one where I was asked
to produce a movie soundtrack, a big movie soundtrack. And so as
I went into the recording session to produce, someone as a
joke just said, Oh, this guy was a pastor, get him to pray. And
so I was like, Oh, yeah. So I sort of quickly pounced on it.
So so yeah, I'll pray. Okay, everyone take your hats off.
They took their hats off. And so you had two CEOs of, I won't
say which labels, but very big labels. You hit one of the guys
who's part of the director's team and all this stuff, because
they wanted the movie obviously, to match the visuals and the
soundtrack to match all this and all that. So they all took their
hats off. And so I was a bit shocked. I was sort of joking.
So they all got their hats off. I've got the photo on my phone.
But some people will know who a lot of these people are if I
show the photo. And so I just closed my eyes. And I just
prayed what I would think is a normal prayer. So Holy Spirit
come. And to be honest, I just try to do a generic one. Because
it caught me off guard that they were that easy to, you know,
sort of like, set up for prayer. So be set for prayer. So I just
said, Jesus, I just pray that you come, you know, that you
guide all the musicians that we have an amazing thing that the
movie does well, and all that. And one guy starts crying. And
he's a famous thing. And he just starts saying, man, I haven't
felt that feeling since Sunday school, when I used to go to
Sunday school as a kid, I don't believe in God now. But when I
was in Sunday school, it's that same feeling. My parents went to
this whole like talking with this funny language like
tongues. So another guy goes, another artist goes, I've heard
this stuff. So I'm sitting there, and I'm not really
engaging. I'm just sort of, again, still buzzing out there.
They let me pray for the session. And so another artist
comes in, he walks in. And he just looks around and people are
just still talking about the language. And he just goes,
yo, this feels like a church in here. But what's been going on
there just feels like a church. My mom's a pastor. So this guy
and I didn't even know the guy was a pastor. He goes, I was a
pastor. It feels like a church. And it feels like one of those
ones where people fall over one of those churches.
So I'm just sitting there. And so one guy goes, Oh, you know,
since you were a pastor and all that stuff, like, what are we
feeling? So I just start talking about the Holy Spirit and all
that stuff. So we're meant to start recording around 10
o'clock. It's nine, we didn't stop talking about God till
about 1130. And then what happened is one of the artists
goes out for smoke. And we're meant to do this hardcore
swearing track, you know, like quite an explicit type of track
is what they wanted for the certain scene, or the end of the
film, I think for the score or whatever. And so the guy comes
back and he comes, he walks in and goes, I think I've got the
chorus in 10 minutes. So he goes in there and he starts singing.
I don't really want to sing it too, because some people might
go, Oh, he's talking about this guy and all these people. So
he starts singing basically about God. And he starts talking
about how he had a moment in his life where God felt like God
wasn't there. But if anything, he's here closer than what we
think, top of the thing. He hasn't felt that since Sunday
school, he was the first one that identified that God wasn't
out something. And so he starts weeping and other guy, the big
one of the big CEOs walks in the main guy of this big record
company in Australasia, New Zealand, Australia, all that
stuff, Southern Hemisphere. He comes in because it's the first
movie to come out of this, you know, with a big multi million
dollar budget of this sort around music. And so he walks
in. And some people, the guy, the other producer that was in
the room said he'll probably trash it because it's talking
about God. And I was like, Yeah, and I naturally thought,
Oh, yeah, they probably won't. So he walks in, and he hears
the chorus going over and over. And he starts going off by
bombing his head. That's a smash. That's a hit. That's going
on the movie and that's going to be right at the very end because it sounds like it's a good way
and a happy way to wrap the movie up and all this stuff and so he just goes yeah we're going to make
that a uh like a single or single and um yeah so it just yeah we just see god do amazing things so
whenever those guys get me in now they always want me to um pray this is actually one of them
morning is that coming through yeah oh it's all done oh yeah it is coming through now
i'll just sorry mate
there's one of the guys there actually yeah that's hilarious that's so cool man
you're talking about me bro
sure totally yeah so yeah so just see god move healings get some international uh people uh
artists uh when i meet them in new zealand and stuff we'll just divulge you know or share that
they were in a christian family and asked if i believe in god and all that stuff and then god
will give me words of knowledge for them and uh see god do wild things yeah yeah i mean you're
you're in the thick you're in the thick of the music culture you work with a lot of the big
names and labels which is pretty exciting are you like are you allowed a name drop and just say who
you've been working with in the sense of like where your music goes because as a beat artist
people don't necessarily know that those are your beats but they're all over the world yeah um
um yeah i'm mindful that most of the guys wouldn't on this may not even know the rap
realm you know yeah yeah this is jesus culture yeah yeah um um yeah there are some rappers
these ones i'll name some that weren't in around so they go oh let's certainly pray for snoop dog
but like but yeah i've got uh songs of uh snoop dog with um yeah uh who else would be big ones
big singers um uh shucks i can't even think of any
yeah but there's yeah heaps of rappers heaps of rappers singers um reggae artists world renowned
reggae artists yeah multi-platinum guys yeah so and what i i mean what i love about that and what
i love as well about your journey is you had this process where you know it's like this dynamic of
the sacred and the secular being separated um to the point that there's no longer any influence
christian influence in the secular realm but now god's saying you know hey jump back in that space
and just the fact that you're carrying jesus so beautifully so powerful you pray and the atmosphere
shifts in that moment to the point that it shifts the whole ending and actually the culture of the
movie shifts um from what you're carrying into that place and uh yeah i guess something i love
just to hear a little bit about your thoughts is you know how how are christians in that space
of music uh able to start shaping culture now yeah like it's um
i do i do actually encounter a lot of christians in
sorry in the music industry um uh some of them you know i guess trapped in it caught in it
in the cycles and so there's there's one guy who's a there's a pastor as well um
and he he got he got um you know he sucked into the whole sleeping around part of the
um music industry and sleeping with multiple women and so he always tried to encourage me
because he felt bad that i was so good in some ways yeah and so
it's sad you get a lot of wounded christians they and like if uh because the church i guess um you
know not just for example like like david garrett how they've pioneered the whole band um keyboard
drums bass and all that stuff that whole movement when you get guys like me or other people other
artists who you know use beat machines or something it doesn't god's not in that music you know so
there's no place for them to creatively express so therefore they're like okay the church don't
want my gift so i might as well go out there you know but yeah i'm saying that they go out into
i guess the world of the secular market and they get smashed and so um for me i've just had to learn
even though it wasn't the recommended route for me to get there um because of
my previous journey when I come out of the last five years and hitting absolute
rock bottom. And I just sort of learned my boundaries.
I learned boundaries a lot. Yeah. Yeah.
It was a dumb, I wouldn't have chose that way to learn it, but I've learned.
And learning the boundaries when I'm in those circles, we have got, you know,
woman galore around alcohol, money, cocaine,
drugs, all that stuff.
The moment I feel my heart pull or I get tempted to try it,
I quickly put it down. I've learned to put a boundary.
There's a gracious moment where I just have to hop down and say, Hey guys,
see you tomorrow. Done my job. Like, you know, and all that stuff.
And they actually, they actually respect you for a day.
And so in doing that,
a lot of some Christians have come clean on me and just, Oh bro, you know,
it turns into like repentance sessions and profiles like you,
all that stuff. And, but the church don't like me, the church judged me.
And so, um, you know, the devil will happily receive the church's rejects,
you know? So like,
so they just get stuck in that cycle. And as much as I'm,
I guess I'm caught in there to set the captors free, you know,
it's also to set the Christians free as well. Not saying that I'm,
I'm the same. I get it, man. Yeah. It's crazy how many are in there,
but some of them are scared to be honest. Um,
but what I shared to some of those guys or some of my friends in the industry
is they actually respect you. They don't like the whole Bible bashing component,
you know, like forcing yourself or your theology or,
but they respect you a lot more. And they actually, um, if anything,
they enforce the boundaries on your behalf too.
Like I've been in moments where gang members or artists will force cocaine
or certain drugs on me.
And other artists who know that I'm a Christian will go in there and just say,
bro, don't, don't hear the offer him that that guy loves God, bro.
And if you miss his life, I will miss you up.
So they end up, they start fighting on behalf of my righteousness, you know?
That's awesome. Yeah.
That's so cool.
Yeah. That was awesome, man. That was so good.
So cool, man. I, you know,
it's something that something that I've kind of seen a little bit recently. Um,
and I know you're, you're dabbling in the space a little while, but, um,
but for example, just this kind of merging of, um,
merging tech business, um,
within the music industry happening right now, like the Snoop dog, you know,
you sold $44 million worth of NFTs, um, and this week,
uh, which is a little nuts. Um, I know you've got,
I think you've got some, um, NFTs in the work as well. And so, you know,
what's, um, you speak to what you're seeing and that just at the trend of the
emergence of, you know, as, as, as culture explodes, as,
as things explode, uh, how, you know,
business is kind of taking a forefront inside and said the music industry and,
and, and tell us about your NFT project too.
Yeah. Yeah. No, cool. So my one's still, uh, I guess we're still, um,
I'm sort of, I'm still deciding, I guess, what route I want to go with, um,
my NFT, but, um, yeah, it's amazing. Like if anything,
you know, mindful in my heart goes out to those who have hit a,
a hard place financially or they've lost their jobs and all that stuff.
And I guess, you know, the world, uh,
in the world's economy or whatever, you know,
economic system that isn't working to or looking to good, you know,
or too bright. But, uh, for me,
like I've just taken a whole different stance and if anything,
I think it's we're in the best times to make money, you know, like, uh,
I'm really, really excited, um,
about all these opportunities and obviously NFTs are another opportunity for
people to make a lot of money.
It's beautiful for the artists or for guys like myself. Um,
because I guess the same way that cryptocurrency,
I don't know if a threat is right word, but it sort of is like,
as a threat to the banks, the banking systems,
it's the same way that NFTs are to the recording industry, um,
because it cuts out all the middlemen. And so, you know,
you're no longer an artist who's going to keep you bound and own all your
property, intellectual property for 10, 30 years, you know?
You now get to put that out there and make all the money and connect with all
your fans.
The middleman.
Yeah. It's awesome. Awesome to see like, you know, just the,
when you start having the decentralized conversation, you know,
anything starts to be possible.
Specifically for artists, music artists, digital artists, physical arts, is really the best part about the NFT space is putting power back to the people and cutting out some of the bureaucracy within the industry.
Yeah, all those greedy corporations, it's crazy what they lock you into.
They're even worse than the banks.
Yeah.
Yeah, so it's just a beautiful space. And so I was blessed to get some of Snoop Dogg's NFTs before he actually...
No way. That's awesome.
I got like eight of them. I got them for like $30, those ones, I think.
What are they worth now?
They're worth heaps.
Give a rough ballpark on what they're going for now.
I don't know. So he made $44 million. Was it $44 million?
Yeah.
I just knew, yeah, I've got some gold. I just haven't even looked into it.
One of the articles I saw about it said they're running for about five grand each, which would be like, you know, 0.45 Ethereum.
Yeah.
So that's cool. So part of the ideas that I'm throwing backwards and forth, I nearly got ideas from my bro Ben Runciman that was on here earlier.
Yeah.
Hey Benji.
Yeah man, he was on a little while ago.
But also with Benji as well, I've thrown ideas in and around doing for my album, possibly like 22 or 25 NFTs.
And because I've got this track that to me embodies the full revival thing that I felt God told me to do in the New Zealand hip hop industry.
And so I've got guys who are, I guess, currently, I was going to say killing it, but there's a street that are doing well for themselves.
Today I'm trying not to get through the whole urban thing going on, language, but also the greats, you know.
And so to put them all on one track, and I've always had like a common prophetic word from people, from known prophets to say that I'll be one to unify generations and stuff.
And so that was one thing that I said, God, if that's the call of my life, let me create a song that has all of them on it.
So I got three generations of artists all on one track, not all of them, but a heck of a lot of them.
And there's like 18 of them, I think, and all on one song, which is huge.
Three or five mix, which is quite a beefy song.
But yeah, it was 23 minutes, 22 minutes, actually.
I didn't realize, but it was 22 minutes long and I narrowed it down to 12 because it was just overkill.
The length, I have someone sit there for 22 minutes.
So, yeah, so I did that.
But all of that to say is that that is the song that I'm wanting to put on the NFT.
And so everyone in New Zealand will probably understand how big this track really is, because some of them haven't heard from these artists in many years and artists.
And so, yeah, putting that into an NFT and the idea, this is me just even verbally processing.
And as I mentioned with Benji and Ben, to make the different scales of exclusivity, you know, like these guys will own the track, listen to the track for whatever it is, $100 and 12 of them will pay whatever, $5,000.
And they'll get to have ownership over the song, get a percentage of the streams, the sales or it's really endless.
But also they become like my 12 disciples.
Yeah, so to put like a mentoring component to them is what Benji was encouraging me to do.
So I haven't got that far yet to the NFT, but those are ideas that I'm really looking into.
It's just because I'm still doing the vinyl.
There's such a lot of work and I don't have a team.
It's only me doing it.
So, yeah, I'm doing a lot of the back behind the scenes stuff to get the album really pushing and pumping and stuff.
That's awesome, man.
Hey, I know that we're going to actually be, what is it?
We've got it coming up tomorrow.
We'll be with Eric Skelton, who's actually running a massive NFT project, which is going to be really cool.
So we'll unpack.
If you didn't know what an NFT is, we'll unpack that more and more.
Rookie, real quick, because we've got to bring it in for a landing now.
Some people might be in this place with like hearing about NFTs and crypto for the first time and not really understanding it.
I just love it.
to share the story of one of your youth who rocked up you know the last time you saw him
you were you know doing some counseling because he wasn't in school one of the next times you see
him he rocks up in a Lambo this kid from Kawaro tell us this story and especially with the dynamic
of you know like emerging technology is worth paying attention to yeah for sure for sure like
um i've seen it happen maybe three four times over in the last couple years um just the
opportunities that i've missed hey man it's it's gut-wrenching but the first one that benji's
referring to is so i'm from a small town and while i'm youth mentoring i'm in the high school whilst
in the high school part of my role is to um was to reintegrate uh the youth um either back into
training uh some form of education type of a thing just to you know because they'll be
absent away at home you know and truant and all that so i i called up this one kid say bro come
to the high school and uh we'll sit down we'll do like an action plan you know how to get you
back into school find your job or some training you know go on a course so he comes in and he
sits down i get to know him a nice kid and i'm thinking why is he truant you know he's got no
what i would think um no issues at home you know or major issues and so he just starts going off
so if you just give me a thousand dollars i can make you a rich man and i was like what do you
mean i'm not giving you a thousand dollars i'm laughing with him you know straight up straight
up there's this thing called bitcoin and i remember at that time seeing it on the internet on
whether it was bebo i can't remember like there'll be little pop-ups of this new thing called
bitcoin i remember seeing i'm telling him nah nah nah don't do that bro that's that's a scam
that's a scam what people are even calling it nowadays you know that's a scam they're still
calling it a scam and so it's probably one of the most successful scams so he's going you should go
you should go do this and so um i'm like nah nah nah they're just trying to steal your money
and he says he says if you come on sir give me a thousand dollars i'll make you rich you won't
regret it so no i can't do it sorry buddy you're gonna have to do you're gonna go i have to find
you a job so he goes he gets so he says that's why i'm here is i'm on i'm telling you that i'm
gonna go to new world uh for those international just like a grocery store 7-eleven would they
call it a 7-eleven just yeah just just grocery store grocery store and so um they'll go over
there he said he'll go in there and he'll make 10 000 us dollars which i think at the time he
in fact it didn't probably take him six months to make and he's going to dump that 10 000 us
dollars into bitcoin and so i keep i'm trying to talk him out of it don't do it bro don't do it
bro you'll be sorry you know all that stuff and um yeah so he does it so i have to write him off and
tell the ministry of education he's not interested in coming back to school he's going to get a job
in new world and invest money so may have what felt like a six months or a year later um he's
dating one of our girls in the church and so um one of the girls who's our youth leader upcoming
youth leader starts saying rick do you remember that i was like yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah i remember
him he's rich ass now like what do you mean he's rich ass oh he's got like a lamborghini and stuff
he just bought his mom uh a house in koto uh now he's going to go buy them a house in
in auckland and he's going to buy his own house in auckland he's going to buy him a hammer i'm
thinking whatever and so so she she says no for real for real and so i end up seeing him
and he rocks up in the baddest car ever and i look at him and i just say bro what's this because of
those things those bitcoin things and he goes yeah yeah and i don't i can't remember i i don't
know what bitcoin started at but i'm it was literally new and he'd done ten thousand dollars
u.s dollars into them they might have been three cents i don't know zero below the decimal i don't
know like wow he killed it and so he just yeah he just he's still in auckland now just
yeah i think he might be 23 24 now and yeah he did say though is that if i ever
did a missions trip and took young people overseas as an offering he didn't come to church nor did he
to my knowledge receive christ but he said i love what you do with young people that
and if you ever want to take them overseas i'll pay for their tickets yeah so cool man
that's amazing but it haunts me
i know that thousand dollars yeah
Like, I don't know his number or nothing.
I'll probably, I'll give you a thousand dollars now, bro.
You know, like, yeah, yeah.
But yeah, just people, I just want to encourage you.
I know it's frightening to try and, you know,
to invest into something that you don't understand.
But yeah, just, it's worth it.
It's worth it.
And it'll just keep going up, you know, like, yeah.
And you're listening to the right people.
Yeah.
That's cool.
We're going to bring it in for a close here,
but Leonard Ravenhill said the opportunity of a lifetime
must be seized within the lifetime of the opportunity,
which is a real thing.
You know, you do actually miss out sometimes.
So that's what we're excited about
for the rest of the summit,
helping everyone align, position,
get ready for the opportunities that God's presenting to,
you know, like, Ricky, I just love the story so much.
You know, like just hearing some of your story,
opportunities are available now to shape culture.
Opportunities are available to carry the presence
of the Holy Spirit into your marketplace city.
Opportunities are available now to be creative.
Opportunities are available now to, you know,
to steward your personal gift,
to, you know, to be that person of influence
in your sphere of influence.
Opportunities available in tech and business,
all exploding.
So really, really pumped for the next couple of days
with everyone.
And we'll be jumping, we'll be live like straight away.
I'm going to basically send Nick the Zoom link,
and then we'll just be jumping straight back in here.
But Rick, do you want to pray for us?
And we just want to say thanks again, man.
Such a blessing.
And everyone's just absolutely loving this.
So yeah, and I see a few questions here about NFT.
So watch for tomorrow.
We're going to be breaking that all down.
You'll get it piece by piece and blow by blow,
and you'll understand it a lot better.
So yeah, if you want to take it away,
and once again, thanks so much, man.
Sweetest.
Yeah, no, it's an honor, Benji.
Sebastian, it's an honor.
So Lord, we just thank you for this awesome time.
We just thank you for this amazing family.
And Lord, we just, yeah, we just partner with you.
Holy Spirit.
And yeah, we just love you.
We just love you.
And man, yeah, joy.
Lord, I just release joy upon everyone.
And yeah, you're just so amazing, Jesus.
And just bless each and every person.
May they be equipped.
And Lord, that you encourage them to step out in faith
and to just, yeah, be amazing and just own it.
Yeah.
I don't have to laugh too much.
Yeah, joy, joy over you all.
Come on, man.
Come on.
Oh, thanks so much, bro.
So stoked.
Such a blessing to hear stories from your world.
Always light me up.
And always stories I've never heard before as well.
It's like exploding so much goodness.
So thank you so much for what you're carrying.
And I'm excited for my vinyl.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, for sure.
I can sign it too, bro.
Yes, please.
Yeah, yeah.
All right, cool, man.
See you.
See you later.
Thank you, bro.