Sean Slaughter: Beat Box King

CBN.com He’s been known as “the beat box king” since he was a boy. And for years, he was also considered a thug.

In the words of Sean Slaughter:

“My name is Sean Slaughter, and yeah, I was a thug.”

“The definition of a thug is somebody that gets anything he wants by any means possible.
I was the type of person, if I wanted that girl, I’m going to find a way to get her.  If I wanted that liquor, if I wanted them shoes, if I wanted that money, I’m going to find a way to get it because I want it.  And basically, what I wanted is respect.”

“I was always finding myself doing the wrong things at the wrong time with the wrong people.” 

“As a young dude, I just found myself angry.  I just had a lot of misconceptions about the world and about people. And I didn’t know how to relate to people.  I didn’t know how to talk to people.”

Sean was raised in the church by his father, international gospel artist Alvin Slaughter, but the church left a sour taste in his mouth.

“I hated church life, I hated Christians, I didn’t want anything to do with that.”

And he didn’t get along with his Dad.

“You know, me and my dad never really had a solid relationship.  It wasn’t that my dad didn’t love me, but number one, he wasn’t there. And then number two, when he was there it seemed like because I wasn’t churchy or churchified or like the church or really was interested in what he did, that brought some kind of division.”

“And plus, my dad doesn’t know anything about sports.” 

“You know, my dad, when he grew up, he grew up in a religious atmosphere where sports was a sin and going to the movies was a sin. So all of a sudden, his son is in the paper every single week playing football, and he’s maybe come to one game.”

So Sean just continued doing his own thing.

“Everywhere I went, I found the thugs.  You know, I go to college on a full football scholarship, and who am I hanging out with?  I’m hanging out with the drug dealers and the woman beaters and all this type of stuff.”

“There was some really crazy things that we did.”

“Of course we drank and we smoked and we broke into people’s apartments. Kicked down the door, you know what I’m saying, and make them stand to the side while me and my boys robbed them blind.”

“And it’s horrible.  It’s not stuff that I’m proud of.  Some of the stuff I don’t even like talking about.”

With this kind of lifestyle, he couldn’t keep up his grades, so he lost his football scholarship and was kicked out of college. Sean saw this as an invitation to pursue his other love, rap music.

“There was a time I was producing for a group called Wu Tang Club. I did five beats for them. I grew up loving these cats. They were one of my idols. It would be like somebody loving Celine Dion and gets to produce a song for her. I’m loving where I’m at. I’m in the studio, I’m exactly where I want to be.” 

“And I’m still smoking, drinking, hanging with crack dealers. Still doing dirt. My goal was to make money. That’s all I really thought about.”  

“I think secretly, maybe hidden, I think I wanted to prove my family wrong.” 

“I think I wanted to prove that I could do this without God.”

But it wasn’t as easy as he thought it would be.

“It wasn’t a comfortable time for me at all.  We had fun and we partied and stuff, but it was hard to sleep. We didn’t know what was going to happen the next day. I was very fearful.” 

“I was very angry, I wasn’t trusting of anybody or anything.” 

It wasn’t long before Sean couldn’t take it any more.  So to kind of escape everything, he started traveling with his father.

“Now when I started traveling with my dad, I was doing about 150 dates at a time, a year - 150, 180 dates a year, every single weekend.  Gone.  I’m in church a lot.”

“I’m doing sound, I’m in the hotel drinking Bacardi, then doing sound for him; or at an all night session doing weed and then doing sound. But this is where the change began.” 

“I began to lose my taste for the world.  I would go back with my friends. Now I’m questioning, why are we buying all this beer?  I’m questioning, why am I going to the studio with all these cats? I’m questioning why are we breaking into this person’s house for?  I started questioning myself.  I start to kind of be like, man, this isn’t right.” 

“I think the Spirit of God began to deal with me.” 

“I just was tired of being afraid. I was tired of not knowing where I was going in life. So I told the guys, I told my home boys, I’m leaving the group. They began to threaten me, saying I’m going to come kill you.” 

“That’s when I really became fearful for my life because I  knew, alright, this dude’s got a gun, I’ve got a gun, and if we’re going to handle this thing, we’re not going to throw fists.  We’re not going to sit here and yell at each other.” 

“So, I went to my apartment and I prayed. I said, ‘God, you got to get me out of this thing. I don’t know what I’m doing. I don’t know who I am.’”

“I said, ‘You get me out of this thing, you got me, I’m yours.’” 

“And from that day forward, not only did God not allow me to get shot, but God began to change me. He kind of softened my heart.  He really put a love in my heart that I never had before and he began to change my mindset, my attitude.” 

“He gave me peace. Took away the fear. Took away the self doubt, not really knowing who I was at the point.” 

“He began restoring the relationship with my dad.”

Now Sean has a family of his own.  And he’s found the key to being the best husband and best father.

“I didn’t know the Bible could speak to my life.  I thought it was an old religious book.”
 
“I didn’t know that the Bible was God’s word.  It was showing how God works through the lives of people, and I didn’t know I could find myself in the Bible.”

Today, there’s no trace of thug in Sean Slaughter.  You can hear his music on radio stations across the country, but he’s not so interested in being known as a famous rap artist anymore. He just wants to be known for his love of Jesus Christ.

Sean smiles and does impromptu rap: “He wiped me clean, he wiped my slate totally gone - now me and Christ, you know we got it going on. It’s your boy Sean, and I’m telling you the truth. Christ can change me, he definitely can change you.”