Kodak Black, rapper pardoned by Trump, accepts ‘Jesus as my Lord and Savior’
Rapper Bill Kahan Kapri, popularly known by his stage name "Kodak Black," was one of 73 people granted pardons by former President Donald Trump before he left office earlier this year. On Sunday, the rapper announced his acceptance of “Jesus as my Lord and Savior."
The announcement from Kapri comes days after Christian ministers Kevin Louidor and Annia Icart, who both attend King Jesus Universal Ministry, prayed with the artist at a gas station in Florida last Tuesday.
On Facebook, Louidor also shared how shortly after they helped the rapper pray, God protected their lives in a grisly crash.
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“TESTIMONY! GOD SAVES! On our way to our church King Jesus Universal Ministry with my sister in Christ Annia Icart, we went to stop by the gas station and we happen to meet a popular rapper Kodak Black and the Lord used us to minister to him and his crew, and Kodak gave his life to Jesus Christ!” Louidor wrote.
“Then after we was done, we started driving to church and the presence of God filled the car, and we [were] praising God and out of nowhere [I] start[ed] speaking in tongues and declare may the angel of protection be with us! And soon as I finished saying that the car lost control and we got [into] a car accident. We know the enemy is not happy of what took place because we brought a soul to kingdom so he retaliated! Victory is won! Jesus is Lord!” he declared.
In a video of Kapri saying the prayer, he declared to God, in part: “I pray right now that you forgive me of all of my sins, and I receive your forgiveness and I believe that Jesus Christ died on the cross for my sins and He rose from the dead. I accept you, Jesus, as my Lord and my Savior. Come into my heart, clean me up. Use me for your glory. I believe that if I was to die that when I wake up, I will be in your arms. In Jesus' name, I am saved. Amen.”
On Sunday, Kapri, who previously identified as a Hebrew Israelite, shared the video of his conversion in a post on Instagram. He captioned the video, “GOD VS THE DEVIL WHO SIDE YOU ON FA THE WAR?”
The Christian Post reached out to King Jesus Universal Ministry, Louidor, Icart and Kapri for comment on Monday but none of them were immediately available.
Icart, who is of Haitian heritage along with the rapper and Louidor, shared on her Facebook page that shortly after the accident, her mother received a call from a pastor in Haiti who said he had been praying against “death.”
“My mom Caroline received a phone call after the incident from a pastor in Haiti. The Lord revealed to him a fatal car accident with me in it the day before the accident happened. He was praying against death since the day before! PRAYER WORKS,” she wrote.
“God gave my brother Kevin Louidor and I life. We shared the love of God. We are not blaming anything on anyone. The Lord will locate you and have people praying for you when you don’t even know it! I say this to say, obey God. You do not know whose life depends on it. Peace and blessings,” she added.
Kapri, 24, whose second album, Dying to Live, peaked at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart in 2018, was sentenced to nearly four years in prison in 2019 for making a false statement to buy a firearm. In September 2020, he sued the Federal Bureau of Prisons claiming torture and religious suppression while he was at the Big Sandy maximum security prison in Kentucky.
Court documents say Kapri was transferred from a Miami prison to Big Sandy in October after he was involved in an altercation with another inmate which resulted in the injury of a prison officer.
Shortly after he arrived at Big Sandy, Kapri alleged the guards put a "gang beating" on him in retaliation for the injury of the Miami prison guard and "flicked" his testicles during the ordeal.
He further alleged that he was routinely mistreated by guards without cause and was once placed in a four-point restraint for six hours while wearing a backless paper gown with no access to a bathroom. He alleged he defecated and urinated on himself while the guards made jokes.
He was later transferred to a prison in Illinois, and Trump's pardon would come a few months later.
In their statement on Kapri, the Trump administration called him a “prominent artist and community leader” whose pardon had the support of numerous religious leaders, including Pastor Darrell Scott and Rabbi Schneur Kaplan.
“Before his conviction and after reaching success as a recording artist, Kodak Black became deeply involved in numerous philanthropic efforts. In fact, he has committed to supporting a variety of charitable efforts, such as providing educational resources to students and families of fallen law enforcement officers and the underprivileged,” the White House statement said.
“In addition to these efforts, he has paid for the notebooks of school children, provided funding and supplies to daycare centers, provided food for the hungry, and annually provides for underprivileged children during Christmas. Most recently while still incarcerated, Kodak Black donated $50,000 to David Portnoy’s Barstool Fund, which provides funds to small businesses affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. Kodak Black’s only request was that his donation go toward restaurants in his hometown,” it added.
