“I’m in the middle of where Hollywood started: in Echo Park, living in a tent,” says Divine Davon Brown. A Renaissance man of the entertainment industry, Brown was a basketball player with Nickelodeon showcase, a model for Lady Gaga, an actor in roles such as a sports drink made by Heineken. Now, Brown makes music to shine a light on homelessness, especially the persecution of homeless people by Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti. In his new single “Destiny,” Brown encourages listeners to trust in God and be guided by faith.
Brown felt called to ministry early on during a literally death-defying situation. His awakening came not during church but in a “Direct encounter with a bullet missing me on a Sunday. When I was little, in broad daylight, my grandfather was shot up five times and we were in the apartment. My knee was in a prayer position. I knew something beyond time and space was with me,” Brown says. He’s living proof that we need to reach out for God’s plan. At 23, Brown was recording with Motown but knew it wasn’t the right time for him to make music.
Later, Brown found himself in South Africa and he felt called to witness the townships and homelessness that had marked his own childhood in Jamaica, NY. South Africa inspired him to write “Destiny,” and the video is filmed there as well. The song with its relaxed acoustic guitar and Brown’s palpable charisma, fuses a number of genres. “There are some Reggae, some Afrobeat, some R&B, some African continent, some Hip Hop,” Brown says.
Music is only one of the many avenues to the change Brown is seeking. “You gotta minister with the music. That’s the best way to get the message out. I have to show what I saw being on the street,” he says. “There’s a global pandemic, biological warfare. One of the biggest weapons of spiritual warfare is music. The rhythm, so people could listen. It’s hard to get the message across in activism, but when there’s dancing and a beat involved, you kinda get in there,” he says, add that he wants to bring his music “to the heavens. Literally…
”Unfortunately, not everyone shares Brown’s passion of music ministry to help the homeless. Brown has butted heads with LA Mayor Eric Garcetti a few times. Earlier this year, Brown came to the mayor’s attention when he and some homeless friends posed as a famous musician and his entourage to seize unoccupied rooms in hotels. Since then, Brown has definitely felt targeted and had been arrested for a number of times. “This is the same guy who called the National Guard on peaceful protestors during the riots. He singled me out. When I was in for robbery, it was my birthday, and they took the showers away from homeless people while I was there. It’s that personal. I won’t stop. I picked up the secret weapon: music.”
“Destiny” is the opposite of a weapon—a force of love—that inspires the same hope that Brown clearly feels so deeply.