James Dollard was raised in the Eastside of Atlanta and grew up exposed to a lot of drugs and violence. He thanks God for his mom, who is a Christian, and always served the Lord. He says that her faith kept him from getting too deep into his surroundings, but that eventually, he was influenced by the streets outside his home. There came a point where James had the opportunity to go to college in Carrollton, Ga., and he saw it as an opportunity to start over. However, after some time he went back to drinking, partying, smoking weed and…

James Dollard was raised in the Eastside of Atlanta and grew up exposed to a lot of drugs and violence. He thanks God for his mom, who is a Christian, and always served the Lord. He says that her faith kept him from getting too deep into his surroundings, but that eventually, he was influenced by the streets outside his home. There came a point where James had the opportunity to go to college in Carrollton, Ga., and he saw it as an opportunity to start over. However, after some time he went back to drinking, partying, smoking weed and not being productive overall, which led to him dropping out.

At that time he says his focus was getting money, which put him back around drugs and violence. He recalls shoot outs, police raids and chases happening all around him. In hindsight, he believes this was God trying to get his attention. Not too long after what he calls a crazy event involving a gun, he met a Christian rapper named Young Noah. He says Noah spoke to him about the situations in his life and encouraged him to walk away from it and pursue his faith. The next week everyone involved in the crazy gun incident was arrested. James says, “By the grace of God I wasn’t there. It was my final wake up call.” James says he realized the life he was living was detrimental, so he decided to team up with Noah and start a ministry called, “Dirty Work.” Using rap and community service to speak to others about the pitfalls of urban life they began to tell people about Jesus.

After attending a City Takers Experience with DJ Network, featuring Lecrae and Tedashii, James was inspired by the mission of City Takers using hip-hop to draw people to the truth. After that night, he kept attending City Takers events and hanging around the team. He felt that City Takers had his same heart and mindset of being real and telling people that only a life with Jesus is the answer. He says that’s when he wanted to start serving with the ministry. He wanted to bring what he had been doing with Noah to help serve even more people. He thanks City Takers for offering friendship and accountability. James says, “I’ve seen God do amazing things with the ministry and my life personally.” James explains that the heart he has now to go out and serve people in the city and wherever God sends the ministry, compared to everything else that he’s experienced in his life, “there really is no greater feeling.”

Plain James is a hip-hop artist who has been serving as an urban missionary with City Takers for a year. He is passionate about teaching the Bible to new converts and going anywhere and everywhere necessary to reach people with the life changing Gospel of Jesus Christ.