The most effective way that I know of transporting my mind through time is by playing music in my head. The reason is because every song that I know has the ability to enable me go to a particular time and place so vividly that I remember details that I could not visualize in any other way. For example, the song Imagine Me by Kirk Franklin puts me squarely in an afternoon traffic jam in December at the Uhuru Highway roundabout near the Nairobi Railway Station and I can clearly hear myself tell my friend to listen to the short violin interval that appears in the song, doing what a beautiful necklace does to the overall looks of a well dressed woman. On the other hand, the song She’s Got The Vibe takes me back to my days as a student in the early 1990s when I was first introduced to the singer R. Kelly by a friend called Chris Mbogo. Back then the now bald R. Kelly used to have long hair shaped into the “box” style that ruled the day, and I can still see that image on the cover of Chris’ cassette tape.

These two musicians – Kirk Franklin and R. Kelly are similar in a way, and yet quite different. A few years ago, they came together in a collaboration that included other music greats like Bono of U2, Crystal Lewis and Mary J. Blige to record a very inspiring song called Lean On Me. The refrain of the song says:

I am here
You don’t have to worry, I can see your tears
I’ll be there in a hurry when you call
Friends are there to catch you when you fall
Here’s my shoulder, you can lean on me

In his public image, Kirk Franklin is best known for his gospel music and also as a saved Christian. Several years ago, Kirk came out publicly to share his struggle with pornographic addiction. This bold move came in the midst of legal battles that primarily centered on the millions of dollars that came after his breakthrough success in the music industry. All in all, Kirk confesses that this was one of the darkest periods that he had to go through as a Christian and as a human being. In the song Imagine Me, he candidly says:

This song is dedicated to people like me, those that struggle with insecurities, acceptance and even self esteem, you never felt good enough, you never felt pretty enough but imagine God whispering in your ear letting you know that everything that has happened is now gone! Gone! It’s Gone, All Gone!

In his public image, R. Kelly is best known for his “bump and grind” brand of music that promotes the typical image of a booty obsessed, virile, hard partying, black male celeb. To date, if there is anything that is yet to be sang about sexual exploits, you can be sure that R. Kelly is already composing a song to make up for the oversight. R. Kelly is notorious for his lusty designs on young girls. He is best remembered for wooing and wedding the late singer with Aliyah Haughton when she was just 15, and more recently for a court case involving sexual offences on a minor. His thug image belongs to the R&B genre that is not to be confused with the firearm violence prone gangster rapper.

Once in a while, R. Kelly pops into the studio and sings phenomenally inspiring music. You might know such songs as The Storm is Over, The Worlds Greatest and I am your Angel (with Celine Dion). Personally, I consider You Saved Me – a song in which he passionately talks about the grace of God – to be the epitome of R. Kelly – inspiring music.

It takes a lot of courage for anyone to break formation and publicly do something that conflicts with the image that he or she has cultivated over the years. When a “thug” like R. Kelly records music that talks about the Love of Jesus Christ, it perhaps takes as much courage as it did Kirk Franklin to publicly talk about his addiction. Anyone who rates courage highly would consider these two musicians similar in that score.

These two artists remind us of the human nature that seeks to experience different aspects of this life. One cannot be all bad since even the worst person desires to warm his or her cold heart with the tiny flame of goodness that forever burns inside. This is in much the same way that once in a while, even the very best falls far below the score line. If life were a coin and the head and tail sides represented the “good” and “bad” aspect in each one of us, let us agree with ourselves that once in a while we will fail to make the correct prediction. Knowing that we still have another chance to rise up when we fall keeps us trying. Hopefully, at some point we can all join Kirk Franklin is singing the following words from the song Imagine Me:

Every Sin, Every Mistake, Every Failure
It’s All Gone!
Depression Gone By Faith
It’s Gone!
Low Self Esteem, Halleluiah
Its Gone, All Gone, It’s Gone!
All My Scars All My Pain It’s In The Past , It’s Yesterday
It’s All Gone ( Can’t Believe It’s Gone)!
What Your Mother Did, What your Father Did, Halleluiah
It’s Gone, All Gone!