By Suelika N. Buchanan
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Pepper Ranks 25,
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Jervin Rouse a.k.a. Pepper Ranks who was known in the 90’s as the small boy with the big voice was born in a village in Basseterre, St. Kitts.
Like many Kittitian Reggae/Dancehall singers, he was greatly inspired by Jamaican artistes and his style of performance was compared to Bounty Killer.
He began performing at age 10, on various high school shows and gradually moved up to national shows, as he got older.
He entered five competitions and had his fair share of losses before he won his first competition, which was the last competition he entered, in 1999.
The organizer behind the show was Clive Christian of Epic Records and Ultra Sounds Recordings based in Miami, who signed Pepper Ranks to a five-year contract, after his performance.
“Apparently, he was the promoter behind the show and after I sang my first song he came onstage on the microphone,” Pepper Ranks recapped. “And said, ‘The next time you hear of this guy he will be on Epic Records’ and after the show, he approached me with a five-year contract and I signed it.”
In 1999, he came out with his first album, “Hard to kill” which was the beginning of many great and exciting avenues that was the “all Kittitian dream.”
He began performing regularly in Caribbean Countries, especially Jamaica, Canada and the United States, performing with some of Jamaica’s greatest dancehall deejays, such as Benie Man, Bounty Killer, Lady Saw, Merciless, Capleton, Silver Cat, Sizzla, Tonto Metro, Buju Banton, Terror Fabulous, Simpleton, Bionic Steve and Snagger Puss.
He was basking in this glory at age 18, and at that moment he felt like he was on top of the world.
“I felt like I had it all, I had what most people thought was all,” he said. “I was the ladies’ type and I had 54 girlfriends.”
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| Ranks and his wife T’wana happily married |
He admits that he have tried marijuana before, but was never addicted to it, “I grew up in a Christian home and most people would tell me it’s good for performance to take away stage fright but that was never a problem for me, I tried it experimentally,” he said.
He was scheduled to record his follow up album in Guyana; a year later after his first album was released. This album was expected to come with a hardcore image following, “Hard to Kill” and was called, “Too hot to be stopped”.
However, Pepper Ranks acknowledge that he began feeling empty inside and was asking himself what’s next?
“Sometimes I would come off a stage after performing on a show that had the biggest crowd, and made the most money and I received the most cheers, and I would be thinking what’s next after all this?” he confessed.
Apart from his musical career he is also a qualified Chef. He worked at the Bird Rock Beach Hotel where he met an individual named “Steve”.
“Steve told me that he would keep on praying that I will never succeed, until I met Christ,” Pepper Ranks said. “After he told me that I was contacted to do 50 shows, but only got around to doing one.”
He continued: “There came a time when these Rastafarian men were having a show and I was invited and I performed two songs with Sister Marcia and I sang another one which I made up on the spot. The song was supposed to be mocking Christianity but I ended up mocking Rastas, each time I said Jesus the people heard Selassie I, but I was hearing Jesus.”
He said that after the show the Rastafarian men hated him because he had “dissed Rastas.”
Around this time the Producer in Guyana was contacting him often about his travel plans for recording his second album and he was also scheduled to perform with Red Rat.
“Then I got myself into some trouble, one of my many girlfriends, the dearest one to me, cheated on me and lied about it,” he said. “I received some inside information and saw her and the guy together and I went after them with a gun.”
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(L-R) Fritz Jones (keyboardist), Devon Griffin (drummer), Shanita Richards (vocals) Rahsaan Wattley (vocals) Craig (bass player) and Pepper Ranks (front kneeling) all in Trinidad for a Concert. |
He continued: “It was a day I dreaded, I was on the verge to killing both of them and I ran after them with a gun. They ran into the police station and I followed them, I wasn’t afraid of what was going to happen to me.”
Pepper Ranks said that he was cautioned by the police and was free to leave when three days later he was outside the man’s house where his girlfriend was with a gun in his hand.
“I had this bad man attitude that I had adopted because I use to be around a lot of Jamaicans, I didn’t fear death,” he said. “So I was waiting by his house at 3 in the morning, kicking his door down like how I saw people operate in Jamaica.”
Pepper Ranks added that the girl came out the house and that they spoke and that later on he prayed to God that if he would give him the girl back, and let everything go back to normal that he would become a Christian.
His prayers were answered, “She came back to me and everything went back to normal like nothing happened,” he said. “And I told her that I was going to Church on Sunday because I had made a promise to God.”
That Sunday at the New Birth Gospel Tabernacle Church, Pepper ranks and his girlfriend gave their hearts to Christ.
Pepper Ranks and his girlfriend separated and after becoming a Christian he thought about his fans being disappointed and about his five-year contract with the label as well as the guy who called him everyday from Guyana to record his second album when he was deciding to become a Christian.
“After I became a Christian all of that ended, God took care of everything,” he said.
Pepper Ranks was once a hardcore dancehall artist with more girlfriends than the law should allow. He was “blinging” the “bling-bling” and with explicit lyrics, such as his second album concept, “Too hot to be stopped” he was on top of the world.
He said he was too hot to be stopped, however, he was stopped by the unstoppable Jesus Christ, and according to him, he is now a born again, fire baptized, devil stamping, demon driving, holy ghost flowing, tongue speaking, God-seeking, anointed and appointed radical, digamous Christian.
Now at age 25, he’s married and his wife T’wana, who recently gave birth to their first son Jayden, which means “God have heard”.
“When I look back at my life, I saw someone who should have made the move a long time ago, I saw a lost person who didn’t know where he was headed,” he said. “When you reach to Christ nothing else matters, when I got save I saw the light.”
He continued: “The Christian life is good, you will only know until you make the decision, heaven is a prayer away, to go to hell is to reject a prayer, and the only thing people would be missing out on is hell and death.”
Even though Pepper ranks thought that he was done with his music, God had other plans for him and he is presently in the works of producing an album and music video called “Don’t Worry” that should be completed by July of this year.
He has also released several singles and his song, “I believe” featuring Rahsaan Wattley is now the number one hit in the Unites States Virgin Islands Gospel Charts.
He is signed with a label in Trinidad/Bahamas called The Lion of Judea and Lion of Zion, with a side contract with Christafari in California.
Songs produced on those labels are “Don’t tell me”, “Don’t worry”, “War” and “I believe”. He also did other songs like “Let him in” with Sherwin Gardner, “I need you” with Avrilette Francis, along with his wife T’wana, “Give him praise” featuring Konris Maynard and “My Friend” with Chosen Instruments.
Pepper Ranks uses his life experience and testimony in his preaching whenever he is invited to minister at a Church or Crusade.
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| Posing with a friend after conducting an interview in Trinidad. All Photos were provided/Pepper Ranks. |
“The first time I went to preach in Nevis, I heard a voice from God, he was telling, me that these young men that were outside and described the clothes they were wearing to me, needed to accept him because they were in danger. I went to them and told them that they needed to give their hearts to the lord as soon as possible.”
He continued: “They were saying, yeah, yeah they will some day and I was telling them no seriously, they need to accept the Lord now, they left the Church, five minutes later they got in a car accident.”
Pepper Ranks recalled another time when he was in Antigua and saw more prophecy that God showed him.
“A guy from Trinidad told me that God was calling me to be a prophet,” he said. “It’s more than singing after reaching this level, my eyes are open.”
Pepper Ranks recently returned to St. Kitts after performing live in Concert in Antigua at the Christian Assembly Ministry Church with Richie Righteous of New York.
