Khaipable led by grace
...credits Gospel Song competition for career boost
At the age of 14, Westmoreland-born Khaipbale (real name Lawayne Thomas) gave his life to the Lord. This, he said, has been a leading force in his life.
“My journey as a Christian has been an eye-opening one. I learnt that ‘trying to stay away from sinful actions’ is not enough. I learnt that having a relationship with Christ is what gives your life purpose, and so that will motivate an individual to feel more purposeful in keeping his words,” Khaipable explained.
He also became a member of the youth choir and Power of Faith Ministries.
“Being a part of the youth choir gave me a sense of purpose as we were young people ministering to the congregation at the church. Furthermore, it also taught me that I’m on a stage to minister to people’s souls and not just merely to perform. It also helped me to strengthen my key recognition and that process also taught me how to harmonise, so I came up with different parts for the background vocals to sing in my songs,” he said.
After being led to becoming a gospel recording artiste, Khaipable has credited the Jamaica Cultural Development Commission (JCDC) Gospel Song competition for giving his career the boost that it needed six years ago.
He made the Top 10 with his entry 24/7 Contact.
“It was a really good experience for me. I learnt how to perform on big stages. Although I made some mistakes, the competition assisted me in learning from them while improving myself as a performer,” Khaipable shared in an interview with the Jamaica Observer recently.
“At the time, I got different opportunities to perform. I performed at Kevin Downswell’s Realignment Tour. I also had a promoter who would put me on shows. But after COVID-19, I think I lost his contacts and I kinda stopped releasing songs. But I’m ready to push forward now and take my career to the next level,” he continued.
These days he records mostly gospel dancehall and Afro-gospel.
“I think that my style of music is mixed. I write all types of music, but they’re just not released yet. Some of the producers who I have worked with include Shaka from Trinidad, DaJourney Productions out of Canada, and Dweeno from GMKM Productions. I also worked on some unreleased projects with Suwayde Beats,” said Khaipable.
He said: “I started doing gospel music professionally from 2017, but it has been on and off. So, I’m resuming my own production with a song titled
Give Me Grace and I’m also working on a music video for the song.”
His latest single is Hold On.
Khaipable, who is an educator by profession, teaches mathematics, language arts, social studies and science at a primary school in downtown Kingston. He explains how he juggles teaching while pursuing music.
“Music is like second nature to me so I’m always writing songs. So, when I come home from work, I may just pull up a rhythm on YouTube and start to write, sometimes just for fun,” he said.