• Christian artist Tedashii returns to Baylor, where he found his faith

    Tedashii

    If you listen to Christian radio, you’re likely familiar with Lecrae. The chart-topping artist is one of the biggest music stories of the year, his “Cinderella rise” having been propelled by coverage everywhere from Rolling Stone to The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.

    But what do you know about Tedashii, Lecrae’s opening act for Friday’s concert at Waco Hall?

    First, you should know that the artist is a Baylor alumnus (sic ‘em!); second, that he wasn’t always a strong Christian. Born and raised in Houston, Tedashii grew up in a religious (but not necessarily Christian) household. After being accepted to Baylor and walking onto the football team, the 18-year-old Tedashii decided that in college, he was going to do the things he couldn’t under his mother’s roof. “My plan was to be the most popular and the most well-known student that school had ever seen, from a party scene and from an academic scene,” he said. “I was ready to hit the world by storm.”

    Tedashii had his plan; God had another. Two months into his freshman year, another student – a complete stranger – approached him on campus. “’Hey, I heard the way that you interacted with your buddies, and I heard some of the jokes you guys told, and just how you carried yourself. I think that the Bible would call this sin,’” Tedashii told FamilyChristian.com last year. “I got super offended, pushed him … and walked off upset, because here was this guy judging me.”

    Not long after that meeting, Tedashii got injured, lost his scholarship and was preparing to head home. “My world was crumbling. It was crashing down,” he said. “Literally as I’m hanging up the phone with my high school girlfriend, because she was breaking up with me, this guy walks by and sees me and he said, ‘Man, you look like you need to talk to somebody.’”

    “This guy” was the very person Tedashii had shoved away and dismissed.

    “He said, ‘These things are going to pass. You’re going to be out of college, and you won’t be a football player. But you’re going to still be a guy in need of a savior,'” he told The Indianapolis Star. That was the moment, Tedashii says, that he became a Christian.

    “We are friends to this day,” Tedashii said. “He was the best man at my wedding and, man, he’s just a dear, dear brother in the Lord.”

    This new friend was also the one who encouraged Tedashii to incorporate the Christian message into his rap music. Today, Tedashii writes about his vulnerabilities and about trusting God during trials, such as after the sudden death of his young son in 2013. He also creates music for the Village Church in Denton, Texas. Last summer, he even collaborated with another Baylor alum, David Crowder, on “Angels and Demons.”

    Sic ’em, Tedashii!

    [Tedashii opens for Lecrae Friday night at Waco Hall; tickets are available now.]

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