There's a particular kind of courage required to document your darkest moments and release them as art. Jon Keith's latest album GROW WINGS, released June 27th, 2025, represents that rare breed of Christian music that refuses to sanitize the human experience in favor of easy answers. Over 13 tracks produced primarily by Enzo Gran, Jon Keith trades his signature hard-hitting rap style for a predominantly sung, slower pop approach that mirrors the careful, methodical process of healing and transformation.

The album opens with the brief but devastating interlude “WHO HE USED TO BE," where Keith confesses his fear that he's "not actually the person that You love" but rather just "who he used to be.” This single admission establishes the central tension that drives the entire project: the intersection of unwavering faith in Christ with the very human limitations of doubt, self-worth struggles, and the desperate need to feel safe, seen, and loved, and that somehow either his own actions or his own experiences have called him to fall out of favor with God, or for God to fall out of love with him. But the thing is, and this entire album, is about how nothing that Jon could do or experience could make God see him any differently than He already does, the one He loves.

Building on themes from his previous album EREMOS (Greek for "dark, desolate, uninhabited and empty"), GROW WINGS approaches similar territory from a different angle. Where EREMOS explored spiritual desolation, this album focuses the central revelation that everything we as humans strive and work for from other people (safety, security, acknowledgment, identity, and love) has been available to us from God since before we were even a thought, not because of our actions or inactions, but because of His love for us.

The album's standout track "SAFE" serves as both the emotional and artistic introduction of the project. Following seamlessly from “WHO," Jon Keith wrestles with a fundamental question: “am I safe?” As he pleads "Don't know if I'm safe with Ya / Tell me I'm safe with Ya,” Keith’s vulnerability is staggering as he details his mental health struggles, including calling the 988 suicide hotline at 27, after already battling with depression for majority of his life. When he sings "Heavenly Father, would You even bother with someone like me?" over methodical instrumentals heavy with strings, he's voicing the question that haunts anyone who's struggled with the gap between God's perfection and their own humanity.

This level of honesty about emotional health in Christian music is uncommon, primarily because admitting you've called a suicide hotline might make you look like you have issues that just going to church can’t fix. But Jon Keith presents these struggles not as spiritual failures, but as mirrors reflecting Christ's perfection against our human need to feel secure. The track showcases his rap skills while embracing the album's predominantly sung approach, creating a sonic landscape that feels both familiar and completely new.

“LAST WISH" represents one of the album's most courageous moments, as Jon Keith reveals prayers that were literally written as final requests during a time so low in his life he was planning to end it entirely. "Pick me up, You know I'm damaged / If You don't hold me down, then I'ma vanish" isn't metaphorical—he's telling God that without divine intervention, he was planning to disappear. The specificity of his requests for family members becomes heartbreaking when understood as actual care instructions for people he thought he'd be leaving behind.

The methodical, string-heavy production throughout the album, courtesy of Enzo Gran, creates an atmosphere that supports this vulnerability. Unlike some of Jon Keith's previous hard-hitting rap work, these arrangements give space for contemplation and reflection. The violin and other string instruments become the album's instrumental highlight, creating a classical, almost cinematic backdrop that elevates the emotional weight of the lyrics.

“WON’T FLY” encapsulates the central thesis: "I got dreams, but I got no time / I hear Jesus at my door tonight / Can't let Him see me, I'll just go and hide." The metaphor of growing wings represents spiritual transformation that feels impossible to achieve through human effort alone. When he sings "Can't grow wings, so that just won't fly," he's acknowledging that spiritual growth and transformation can't be manufactured through works or willpower.

*GROW WINGS* album cover, designed by Raheem Powell

This is the overarching theme throughout this album and his recent work, as in his interview on Divij’s Den, he explains the album like a caterpillar fighting the process of being made completely liquid and falling apart in it’s current state to be remade into a new being. It is essential for us to fall apart, like the caterpillar, and allow the molding, to experience what it’s like to grow and be who we’re supposed to be.

“CALL" features Madison Ryann Ward representing God's voice, patiently explaining "How we in a fight? You the only one fightin' / We ain't even fightin', you ain't even fightin'." This again highlights one of the main points the album as a whole is making, that most of our spiritual struggle is self-imposed. God isn't running away from us, even when we're bleeding, doubting, or completely off the deep end. The album becomes about our movement and fighting, not His.

"BEAUTIFUL" offers moments of surrender with its repeated invitation to "let it be beautiful," while “NO HANDS" featuring Jon Bellion declares that nothing, not even our own self-destructive tendencies, can separate us from God's love. When Bellion sings "They can set fire to everything," I heard it as "they" being ourselves, our own hands that can't ultimately take God away from ourselves.

The album speaks directly to anyone who fits into that intersection of complete faith in Christ alongside the very human need to feel seen, safe, protected, and loved. It's written for anyone who has struggled with their humanity in the light of God's perfection and steadfastness. Jon Keith creates space for the reality that being Christian doesn't absolve us from our human need for security and belonging.

“CHASING," featuring Taylor Hill, explores the tension between external validation and spiritual authenticity, with Keith confessing his pursuit of Dove Awards and Grammy nominations while struggling with genuine intimacy. His admission that he's "no good with affection" because "it's the prequel to rejection" reveals how success has actually made vulnerability harder, not easier. Taylor Hill's contribution is crucial here, representing the voice of someone who remembers "at zero, he would train what his eyes couldn't see,” which is the childlike blind belief before accomplishments and validation complicates motives and intentions. Hill’s perspective of being "jaded, always changing" while God remains "patient" and "kind" provides a counter to Jon Keith's struggle with achievement and worth.

“EYES ON US" featuring Alex Jean showcases Keith processing intense spiritual crisis through biblical imagery. His opening verse references "40 days" of testing, connecting his personal struggle to biblical periods of trial while admitting he's "boutta wreck like 40 ways." The dream sequence about being "chosen" only to wake up and realize "it was broken" captures the disillusionment of believing in divine calling while facing circumstances that seem to contradict that purpose. When he describes watching "the whole world burn in slow motion," it suggests a dissociative state where he's observing destruction from emotional distance, and these scenes are visualized in the music video directed by Raheem Powell.

The verse's core struggle emerges in "I hate to realize I'm not enough / They hate to see us try in spite of us," wrestling with inadequacy while recognizing external opposition to spiritual growth. His admission that he knows "all it takes is just a touch" but "can't get around the need to trust" reveals the painful gap between knowing God's power and struggling to access it.

"REASONS" featuring Ty Brasel brings the album's most aggressive energy. The chorus reveals Jon Keith's exhausting cycle of trying to earn divine approval through performance. “What would you do for love?" becomes both self-interrogation and challenge about commitment depth, while "I'll give You everything if You say that's enough / What's enough?" captures a transactional mindset that keeps him trapped, a mindset that’s willing to sacrifice everything but needing external validation that it's sufficient. For me, this song, and particularly the chorus, shows how even spiritual devotion can become another form of performance anxiety when struggling with self-worth.

Visiting "NO HANDS" again, Jon Bellion contributes opening imagery of covering life "in kerosene" and setting "fire to everything" while still maintaining that no hands can take God away from us, even our own. This creates a powerful metaphor for self-destructive tendencies that can't ultimately separate us from divine love, and this is reiterated in the chorus, where Bellion sings “They can try all they want but [No hands] can take you away from me.” It can be read as God talking to us, or it can be dually read as us talking to ourselves about God.

"FLOWERS" illustrates some of the album's pull between contentment versus constant wanting. The repeated line about dreaming of flowers but needing to "wake up and smell these roses" becomes a meditation on appreciating present grace instead of always reaching for something more. When Jon Keith sings about God giving "daisies" while you're "talking about pushing them" because you "don't think you're good enough," he's capturing the human tendency to reject blessings that don't match our expectations. The garden imagery connects back to Eden, suggesting that walking with God has always been about presence, not performance.

What makes GROW WINGS significant in the broader Christian music landscape is its refusal to offer easy answers or sanitized testimony. This level of vulnerability in the face of Christ's perfection isn't the type of lyrical content that typically makes Christian music popular, but it's exactly what makes this album necessary. Most contemporary Christian music operates under an unspoken pressure to present victory stories, transformation testimonies, and resolved struggles. Jon Keith documents not just struggle, but the actual mental states that almost led to his death, making this album both survival testimony and artistic achievement.

In the broader hip-hop landscape, mental health transparency has become more common through artists like Kid Cudi, Mac Miller, earlier Drake projects, Kanye West, and more, but rarely with this level of theological integration. Jon Keith creates space for believers to acknowledge that faith doesn't immediately resolve psychological pain, self-worth issues, or the very human need for safety and belonging. This places GROW WINGS in conversation with both secular mental health advocacy and Christian authenticity movements.

The album also represents a significant evolution in the Christian rap/pop crossover space. While artists like Andy Mineo and Social Club Misfits have experimented with pop elements, Jon Keith's complete embrace of sung vulnerability over predominantly string-driven production creates something closer to what you might expect from indie Christian artists like Sufjan Stevens or Kings Kaleidoscope, but with hip-hop's lyrical directness.

For me personally, this album speaks to the reality that unwavering faith in Christ doesn't eliminate the limitations of human experience. There's a particular comfort in hearing someone articulate the fear of not being safe with God when you don't feel safe with some of your people or circumstances. In this album, Jon Keith gives language to the experience of believing completely in Jesus while still battling doubt about your own worthiness, still needing reassurance that divine love isn't conditional on your ability to "look okay" spiritually.

The artistic evolution from primarily rap to this vulnerable, sung approach showcases Jon Keith's willingness to let the content dictate the form. While he still demonstrates his rap abilities on tracks like "SAFE" and “ONLY ONE," the predominantly melodic approach creates space for the contemplation and introspection that these themes require. It’s both stylistic experimentation and artistic maturity that recognizes different emotional territories require different musical vocabularies.

The string arrangements throughout become a character in themselves, creating what feels like a classical requiem for the old self while simultaneously birthing something new. Enzo Gran's production choices support this transformation, understanding that songs about calling suicide hotlines and feeling unsafe with God require different sonic treatment than traditional rap anthems about overcoming.

GROW WINGS succeeds because it presents transformation as an ongoing process rather than a destination. Jon Keith doesn't resolve everything neatly. Instead, he documents the messy, ongoing reality of faith worked out in real time with real mental health struggles, real doubt, and real human limitations. The album reminds us that nothing can separate us from God's love, but it's brutally honest about how much energy we spend trying to separate ourselves.

The album's central theme - that everything we strive for from humans (safety, security, acknowledgment, identity, love) has been available from God all along - becomes not just theological truth but lived experience documented through sound. This isn't prosperity gospel or easy believism; it's the hard work of accepting love that doesn't require performance, safety that isn't conditional on circumstances, and identity that predates our actions or failures.

Jon Keith isn’t necessarily introducing thematic elements that are new to his discography. In terms of newness, what stands out is the sonic production, the integration of violins, strings, and a very cinematic-sounding landscape, in addition to his musical direction leaning significantly more in the slower sung pop as opposed to the melodic rap hybrid that generally characterizes his work as a whole. Given that, in some ways, this is a new page in Jon’s evolution as an artist, and in others, it’s the same vulnerable, creatively eclectic Jon his fans have come to love and appreciate. Whether this is the first project you’ve ever heard by him, or you’re a long time fan, there’s a way to see and hear the entrenched parts of yourself in this record, and that’s what I appreciate about this album the most.

In a music landscape where vulnerability is often performed rather than lived, "Grow Wings" stands as authentic documentation of what it looks like to be held by perfect love while wrestling with imperfect humanity. There’s evidence of survival, transformation, and the kind of faith that doesn't require us to have it all figured out. For anyone who has felt trapped between their complete belief in Christ and their very human need to feel seen and safe, Jon Keith has created a soundtrack for the journey out of that particular chrysalis.

Stream GROW WINGS and follow Jon Keith on social media for updates on his continued journey of authentic artistry and transparent faith!

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