Born in Jamaica in 1972 to Ronnie and Erica Myers, I was the third of four sons. In 1977 we immigrated to New York. At ages 5 and 4, my younger brother Sean and I were introduced to the Hip Hop culture. Break-dancing, rap music, and the style of dress fascinated us and we quickly adapted to this young but rapidly growing cultural phenomena.
Having very few religious experiences in my childhood, my first took place on Halloween night, 1985. Sean and I were preparing for the routine Halloween festivities, when out of the blue, our father told us that Halloween was the devil’s holiday and he was going to be dropping us off at church. We had never heard our father mention the devil before and we hardly ever went to church! Dumbfounded, we complied. That night the church showed a movie called The Cross and the Switchblade, which impacted me. I thought, “I wouldn’t mind getting to know this Jesus person.” The conviction however, was short lived.
Shortly after this, my uncle shared with me that he had just discovered that the Sabbath was on Saturday instead of Sunday. Though uncertain why he was sharing this with me, I was surprised because I knew that everyone went to church on Sunday. But life went on as usual and soon this seemingly irrelevant conversation was forgotten.
By high school my brother and I were thoroughly immersed in the hip hop culture. In my senior year, he and I, and another friend (little Sean) had formed a rap group and began entering local high school talent shows. Every contest we entered brought us first place. Soon our classmates were looking at us as stars, prophesying that one day we would become famous.
The Big Break!
In my first year of college, I began to live outside of my parents boundaries. Alcohol, women, parties, and gang fights became the norm. I was not really interested in school because my desire to become a hip-hop star consumed me. Then our big break came. The year was 1993. Our group had expanded to a four man entourage, with Mondo McCann being the latest addition. Three of us were students at Virginia State while my brother attended Virginia Union University about 30 miles away. There was a talent show being held at Howard University in Washington D.C. and we made the two hour trip through snow and freezing temperatures. We entered, along with over forty other contestants, and came in first place. A talent scout who was present approached us with an offer to make a four song demo and shop it in the Big Apple. Within 6 days after completion we landed a major recording contract with EMI records. We were elated. Donning baggy apparel, dreadlocks, and gold nose rings and earrings, the Boogiemonsters, as we were so called, were about to become famous.
My parents had always prized education so it was with extreme reluctance that they allowed us to take some time off from school to pursue our dreams. The fact that this was an 8 album contract totaling nearly 1 million dollars was a big plus.
We did not leave school alone. About 20 friends dropped out as well to join us in our adventure. We rented a spacious 4 bedroom, 3 level house, in which we partied, wrote music, and smoked marijuana until the early hours of the morning.
We began recording our first album Riders of the Storm: The Underwater Album in the spring of 1994. It was against this backdrop that we met “D”. “D” was a backslidden Seventh-day Adventist. At the time, I had never heard of an Adventist.
One night as we were all smoking together the topic of religion came up. Then “D” asked us a question that would change everything. “What day do you think the Sabbath is?” Taking a puff someone answered “Sunday, of course!” We all nodded. Though “D” was not a practicing Adventist, this 19 year-old knew his Bible better than anyone we knew. He began to quote from memory different Bible texts about the Sabbath. It blew our minds. Right then and there the Holy Spirit penetrated that den of marijuana and did something miraculous. Within a month we went from staying up late at night smoking, drinking and partying, to staying up late to study the Bible…and still smoking marijuana. (At that time we believed God had blessed all herbs!)
Within six months of studying, the entire group of over twenty of us, were baptized, “D” included. My parents and older brother Rhoan thought we had lost our minds, especially when we shared with them the things we were learning. Though they were neither religious nor students of the Bible, they tried to disprove it. But our zeal was unhindered. We decided to take the three angels messages and put it into our hip hop music. Making appearances on shows like Soul Train, Teen Summit, MTV, and BET, we proudly held our Bibles out while performing. At our live performances we would often ask the audience “Who wants to know who the man of sin is?” Many hands going up, we would throw out copies of The Great Controversy.
Our record label didn’t seem to mind our conversion either. In fact they were supportive! I remember thinking to myself, “Wow, our producer is agnostic, our manager pagan, our PR rep. is a witch, and they are all behind our music even though we're talking about Jesus.” I later learned that the industry really only cared about sales.
All was going well with our planned way of serving God until we got a very disturbing letter from a fan. In his letter he let us know that he appreciated our music, but was confused that we could have a name like Boogiemonsters and claim to represent God. This question was the domino that set in motion a struggle in my soul that would eventually bring me to a crossroads. I began noticing many principles in Scripture about light and darkness and the dangers of mixing the holy and profane. After much prayer, and a series of miraculous events, the conviction came upon me. I could not effectively call people out of Babylon if I was still in Babylon myself.
Though uncertain of our future, my brother and I gave up the contract, I went to work at Target making $5.50 an hour; and he ended up with the city at $7.00 an hour. My parents, now happy about our fame, were stunned when we told them that God was calling us to forsake it all. To them we had really lost our minds!
Today, my brother is a youth pastor in Virginia, and I am currently pastoring in California with my wife Atonte, and three children. Atonte and I also co-host a nationally syndicated call-in program, “World News and The Bible,” with Steve Wohlberg. My parents have since been baptized into the church. My brother Rhoan and his wife Stacy are presently taking baptismal classes. Now, nothing thrills me more than sharing the incredible Word of God with young and old alike!
Ivor Myers is Co-Host of World News and the Bible with Steve Wohlberg in Central California.
