5ive - "Freedom": SXSW 2015 Showcasing Artist
5ive who was raised in the small town of
Earth.
Texas, now touring nationwide has signed a
Distribution deal with
Save The City Records who does distribution through
Provident Label Group a division of
Sony Music Entertainment that focuses on
Christian music. This deal is amazing flight for a person a few years ago who was hooked on crystal meth and crack cocaine. 5ive became acquainted with drugs at a young age. At the age of 13 he got saved but a couple years later he began to backslide. He struggled with addiction to marijuana, and cocaine throughout his teenage years. By the time he was in his twenty’s he was addicted to crack cocaine and had been in and out of jail on drug charges. While serving a
180 day sentence, he made a vow to
GOD that he would not smoke anymore marijuana when he was released. Upon his release he did not smoke marijuana anymore but struggled with his cocaine addiction for about three years, and then it elevated to crystal meth. While up high on meth one night, GOD began to deal with him through his addiction. That night he was arrested and taken to jail where he realized that GOD was calling him. He also realized that he was not even a man.
Even though he knew GOD was calling him, he continued to run for another month, and for that entire month he was literally up the whole time on crystal meth. One night while he was up high on meth the
LORD began to show him some things, and the next morning as he was watching a Praise-a-thon on television the man on the screen (
Pastor Jamal Bryant) literally began to talk to him, and that is when he knew he needed
JESUS in his life so he called on the name of JESUS and him and his wife surrendered their lives to the LORD JESUS CHRIST on Nov. 7th
2010. It was on this day that
Craig walked into a
Church high on meth, crack cocain and alchohol and walked out a brand new man!! Because it was that day that JESUS CHRIST came into his heart and Craig was instantly delivered from drug addiction, porn addiction, alchoholism, and selfism!!! When the
Lord saved Craig the Lord told him, “
Show the world MY
GRACE”. So Craig took the number 5 which is the biblical number for GRACE & FAVOR and added i. v. e. to it and became 5ive (which means
Grace Is
Victory Everlasting)!!! Craig has toured all over the
U.S. doing over a hundred shows a year sharing his story of addiction, redemption, and
Salvation from small churches to huge festivals like
Rock The Desert in
Midland, TX,
Kingdom Bound in
Buffalo, NY, and
Jesus Fest in
Clarksburg, WV. He has ministered along side the some of the biggest names in Christian music such as
Marcos Witt,
Lecrae,
Matthew West,
Andy Mineo, This’l,
Je’kob and many more!! 5ive has even gone so far to stretch his talents to collaborating with
Australian artist Grasp Whosoever,
Ghana’s
Royal Priesthood and Psykoz in
France getting international airplay in numerous countries. 5ive released his
Sophomore Album entitled “
Ignition” in July of
2013. The
album’s lead single
Ignite (
Light Of
The World) Ft. Je’kob was well recieved and played on many FM and
Internet Radio Stations!! 2013 was a great year for 5ive and it ended on a great note as he hit the road for 15 days with Je’kob, Spec,
Climbing Blind, and
Angelo Gonzales for the
Don’t Back Down Tour in December. On June
24th 2014 Craig \"5ive\"
James released his first album under the newly inked deal with Save The City Records entitled \'Ain\'t
Suppose To Be Here\' with many notable features! By the Grace of GOD, 5ive\'s new album debuted at #39 on the
Billboard Gospel Charts! Shortly after the release of his new album 5ive hit the road once again on the
True Story Tour which also featured
V. Rose, Spec,
Victorious!, and his now label mates and ministry partners
RAW and Bryann &
Monica Trejo!