A near-fatal motor vehicle accident was what drew Jim Radical to Christianity.

“I decided to give my life to Christ because it was my calling and purpose. When I realised the talent I have, and the fact that God saved me from death after I had gotten hit down by a Coaster bus, I made the decision to serve him and give him back the talent that he gave me to do his work and share the gospel through this talent of mine,” Jim Radical said in an interview with the
Jamaica Observer on Thursday.

The reggae/dancehall/gospel deejay who took a near three-year break from releasing music, dropped his latest single
Another Episode on January 12.

Another Episode was produced by Orville “Dajourney” Williams and released by Dajourney Productions.

“The song is really reintroducing myself to the gospel fraternity, while showing my lyrical potency to potential fans and fans alike, and just to let everyone know that Jim Radical is back,” the artiste shared.

He continued: “The message behind the song is simple, that Jim Radical will always be the lyrical and versatile evangelist spreading the gospel of Christ to the masses in a way that they can relate.”

Jim Radical believes that his style of merging non-traditional gospel rhythms with the message is reaching his intended target.

“Of course, it is! [I]t reached me. Reggae/dancehall gospel was what influenced me to take my Christian journey seriously, allowed me to embrace my culture without feeling outcast or a sinner, and, most of all, letting me realise that there is a place where I can express myself through my culture in the church,” he reasoned.

Jim Radical said that the gospel can be used to draw persons closer to Christ at a time when the country is seeing an upsurge in crime and violence.

“I believe that the churches needs to leave their four walls of comfort and take it to the streets with the gospel. All respect goes out to the traditional churches and their ways of teaching and preaching the gospel, because it has its place. However, we are living in a time where tradition is not effective anymore. Social media is the order of the day and young people’s attention span is getting shorter and shorter. So, with that being said, I believe that we need to embrace our culture in the churches more by incorporating the gospel with our reggae/dancehall to bring the young people to even start listening to gospel music again. Once we have their attention we can take it from there. The truth is all we need is to sow the seed of the gospel in their heads and the Lord will do the rest. There is so much more that can be said about what we can do to make the gospel more effective in these times. But, really, we need to start here first and then take it one step at a time,” said the artiste, whose given name is Gemoll McLean.

Jim Radical worships at the Carpenters Memorial United Brethren in Christ Church in Golden Spring, St Andrew.

In 2018 he released an EP titled
Higher Calling, which won the Sterling Gospel Music Award for EP of the Year in 2019.