By Miguel Gutierrez –
Bryson LaShun Potts made a promise to God that if he “made it” in the rap industry, he would shine the light for God.
He didn’t. Instead, marijuana, crime and sex out of wedlock drove LaShun, whose stage name is NLE Choppa, to depression.
In 2020, he tweeted that he would commit suicide on the last day of the year.
“I was exhausted. Drugs were getting the best of me,” he says. “I’m praying I’m like heavenly Father when I wake up, please show me something that can relieve what I got going on. ‘Cause this weed ain’t working, this money ain’t working, temporary feeling for sex ain’t working. Nothing is taking away how I feel internally.”
Then God reminded him.
“God came to me, and he was like you remember you wanna get into this industry of the devil and you wanna do these things? Remember you told me that you wanted to make a light out of it,” La Shun confesses. “I wasn’t.”
The Memphis, TN rapper launched with the 2019 single “Shotta Flow” that went platinum. He followed with EP Cottonwood. He was a highly energetic rapper who introduced new dance moves.
He released the mixtape From Dark to Light on his birthday, Nov. 1, 2020, auguring a new direction. But not all has been smooth sailing with Christ. On March 29, 2021, he was arrested for burglary, drug and weapon charges.
Still he doesn’t shy to talk about his prayers to God because at the end of the day all the bling of the world, all the fame, is meaningless.
“You can have everything you want,” he says. “But if you don’t have nothing you need you’re gonna crash and burn. If you don’t have care within yourself, love within yourself, respect within yourself, you’re gonna allow whatever around you pull down the drain.”
