Bronal Gary knows that when most people hear the word "rap," Jesus Christ doesn't leap to mind.
But Jesus is at the heart of Gary's gospel rap.
When Gary decided to get serious about his music, he knew he wanted to focus on "music with a positive message and something that was Christ-centered."
Ben Piggott, the director of the William C. Sims Recreation Center, said he thinks that Gary's songs have the power to inspire young people.
"This guy's rap is positive rap," Piggott said. "It has a message to enlighten the kids…. His songs tell you to be somebody."
Gary, 35, grew up in Happy Hill Gardens and had been a regular at the Sims center for some years when Piggott became the center director 18 years ago.
One of the things that Piggott appreciates about Gary is that he never stopped coming around to work with the young people there even after he went off to college.
"He always had that drive to want to give back," Piggott said. "I think Bronal's gift is his compassion to try to help others."
After Gary graduated from Parkland High School in 1992, he went to Campbell University. He majored in trust management and minored in financial planning and graduated in 1998 with a bachelor's degree in business administration.
In high school, Gary ran track and played basketball. He continued to play basketball in college and, in 2001, he was drafted by a minor-league basketball team in Alabama. The league folded, though, before anything came of that.
Gary, who is not married, works as a communications specialist for BB&T. He travels around to businesses -- mostly in North Carolina but sometimes as far as Washington and Florida -- to talk to employees about their 401(k) retirement accounts.
On his own time, he performs as Bron G in clubs and churches. He has put out three CDs. His latest is called Christ ClassicJazz, which he produced with the help of other local musicians.
Gary traces his love of music to his father, Bronal Martin, who was a member of the gospel group The Mighty Wonders. Martin, who lives in Florida these days, said that, as he is immersed in traditional gospel music, the idea of gospel rap took a little adjustment. That said, he thinks his son is doing something good with the positive-rap trend.
"He's keeping pace with the world," Martin said. "I like the message."
Gary has been writing poetry since elementary school. Asked what he wrote about then, he said, "Fruit." He said that whatever he was doing -- eating, getting ready for school -- became grist for his poems.
Gary, who lives near Reynolds Park, goes to ChurchAlive of the Triad in Greensboro. As a child, he went to church regularly. But it was just something he did, he said, until he contracted spinal meningitis when he was 12.
"I almost died," he said.
As people talked to him about God and prayed for him, he began to see things in a different light.
"I made a conscious decision to live for God," he said.
He sees his music as a ministry. Rap has a reputation for touching on such topics as drug dealing, guns and people destined for jail. Growing up in the Happy Hill community, Gary said, he saw such things. Stories based on those experiences show up in his music. But he doesn't glorify them.
"Everybody is preaching something," he said. "I choose to preach things that edify."
■ Kim Underwood can be reached at 727-7389 or at kunderwood@wsjournal.com.
■ To hear Bronal Gary's music, go to his MySpace page at www.myspace.com/brongee.
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