Spiritual Rap for healing and Peace with JClay

A former NASA computer scientist who raps about forgiveness, peace, and the mind might sound like a contradiction until you hear how intentional it is. We sit down with Jelani Clay, JClay, a spiritual rapper and spiritual teacher, to unpack what “spiritual rap” actually means: conscious hip hop designed to land as repeatable affirmations, the kind your brain replays long after the track ends.

We get into why music can raise your vibration on its own, and how lyrics change the effect completely when you sing or rap along. Jelani shares how his worldview shifted through A Course in Miracles, why he resonates with channelled teachings, and how perception can turn life into either a heavy illusion or a more loving experience. Along the way, we talk about the creative process as a form of inner listening, including walking, meditation, and even taekwondo as a surprisingly effective way to clear stuck energy.

Jelani also opens up about his albums I Am Nobody, I Am Someone and It Just Feels Good, plus a powerful period of spiritual activation involving daily meditation, light codes, and recording light language. The thread running through everything is practical spirituality: noticing thought patterns, loosening guilt and grudges, and trusting intuition step by step even when fear and “logic” try to talk you out of it.

If you’re interested in spiritual rap, conscious music for healing, raising consciousness, or using affirmations to support mental health, this conversation offers a grounded place to start. Subscribe, share with a friend who needs a lift, and leave us a review. What lyric do you want echoing in your mind this week?

Jelani Clay

Let Go – emotional release, empowerment
https://youtu.be/FQoFUPLLU3o

I Like It That Way – uplifting, joyful confidence
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g3mVB4rz_LE

Lake Erie – reflective, calming, atmospheric
https://soundcloud.com/jclay1st/lake-erie?in=jclay1st/sets/iamnobody-iamsomeone

Right Now – motivational, high-energy presence
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X0MJQJZ-21M

Shine Blind – breakthrough, self-realization
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m-XBpCsW8dk

You can learn more about his work and music at jclay.org.

Music from #Uppbeat (free for Creators!):

https://uppbeat.io/t/sky-toes/featherlight

License code: ZTXJPK8BA5WMLKSF

My new novel The Red Magus has recently been published in conjunction with the Unbound Press.  An entralling mystical adventure set across time and space, where past and current lives converge.  Find it on Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

A call to action to help us keep spreading the spiritual ripple xx

Transcript

Welcome To Farm To The Soul

SPEAKER_00 2:30

So welcome everybody to another um episode of Farm to the Soul. I'm your host, Natasha Joy Price, and I'm a lawyer, I'm an energy healer, I'm an author, and I'm a podcaster. And today we've got a lovely new guest, and his name is Is it Julaney? Julaney Clay. Jay Clay. Okay, that's better. So welcome, welcome to the podcast. Thank you for joining us.

SPEAKER_01 2:58

Thank you for having me. I'm excited to be here.

SPEAKER_00 3:01

I'm looking forward to chatting to you. So Jay Clay is a spiritual rapper and a spiritual teacher. So explain to the listeners, Jay, what is spiritual rap.

SPEAKER_01 3:13

So spiritual rap is I bring in spiritual wisdom into rap songs. So I help people heal their inner conflict so that they can have peace without in the world, have peace with all with themselves and everything that's going on. Yeah, I just I just use those spiritual teachings and infuse them so people can listen to it and replay it like an affirmation.

SPEAKER_00 3:36

Yeah. So do you think it's the do you think it's the words, or do you think it's also the sound and the music?

SPEAKER_01 3:45

It's it's a mixture. Um I I like to pick beats and instrumentals that bring out something special and I I match it with the right words. I'm very intentional because I know that people will be reciting this over and over again. I know that it'll be replaying in people's minds because that that's how songs work. And I want I want it to be replaying good things that actually lead towards healing.

SPEAKER_00 4:08

Yeah. Because um I have a client who um she's come to the conclusion that her singing, she doesn't make up a word, she just she sings old songs, if you like, or established songs. But just her singing is raising consciousness. So you know, in that do you think that's that is what the spiritual rap is doing? It's helping people to raise their vibration as well as work through issues and all a positive message that they've got going around their heads.

SPEAKER_01 4:42

Yes, um, for multiple reasons. So, like music just by itself naturally raises your vibration. There's just so much going on with music that that attracts us, and that's just one thing. Then when you add the lyrical component, um, whether you're singing or rapping, especially if if you're singing along or rapping along, like it you're just elevated because you're expanding in a sense. It's like, yeah, you're and you're you're you feel comfortable enough to do certain certain things, like even whistling can raise your vibration.

SPEAKER_00 5:11

Yeah. So and you and then you it's joyful, isn't it? Singing, everybody feels better when they're singing a sort of positive, positive song.

unknown 5:22

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 5:22

Yeah, and you just you kind of let go of just anything like because normally when when people are feeling down, they don't want to really express themselves. I mean, there there are some that do, but those are the people who really love to be down, you know what I mean? And that's a that's another conversation. But normally, you know, people are just like, uh, I don't feel like talking, I don't feel like doing anything, but that song, it helps just elevate you instant instantly.

SPEAKER_00 5:49

Yeah. So um, but your background, you've not always been a rapper, have you? Because your background is quite scientific, isn't it?

SPEAKER_01 5:57

Yes, it's a mixture. So um I always did music my my whole life. And when I got into computer science as a major and then ended ending up working at NASA, it was kind of as a backup. Like everyone said, Hey, you're good at math and science, music doesn't pay that well, you know, do this and have a backup. So I went years where I kind of lived that double life.

SPEAKER_00 6:20

Yeah. And and the spiritual part of it, has that always been part of your life? Were you brought up in a spiritual family or a religious family?

NASA Career And Spiritual Roots

SPEAKER_01 6:29

Or not exactly. So my dad definitely planted seeds in me about like the power of the mind and things like that. And I've always had a relationship with God, even though we weren't a church-going family. But um, the spiritual came later. Like I always wanted to just understand the rules. Like, what are the rules of being human? What are the rules of living? And I started off reading the Bible for a while, and I had more questions. You know, I mean, they got some questions answered, but I had more questions. There were some inconsistencies, but I still, you know, went with the information I had and did my best. And then to make a long story short, I came across a book called A Course in Miracles that kind of changed everything and filled in the gaps. And when I started to apply what I learned there, my whole life expanded in so many ways. It changed the type of music I made. I I experienced other spiritual phenomena that I might have been scared to experience before. It just everything has just been expansion and then it's a beautiful explosion.

SPEAKER_00 7:30

So you also um you also teach that, don't you? You also do, you know, one-to-ones and retreats. Is that based on the course of miracles?

SPEAKER_01 7:40

Yes. And it is, I can't say it's solely on the course, but it's it was almost like I was almost there. Like I was close to the truth, but I wasn't quite there. And this kind of filled the gaps. And once it did, it's like it made everything that I learned before make sense, and then added with this new knowledge. So it's it's a it's yes, I'm teaching the course, but it's a different perspective on it.

SPEAKER_00 8:05

Yeah. So you know, they talk about the course of miracles being like channeled, don't they? And and not actually, you know, like a human voice in in effect.

SPEAKER_01 8:17

Right, right. And it's said to be channeled by Jesus. Yeah. And I believe it. Like the this it's like every line is the perfect lyric in a song. It's just it stops you in your tracks, and it's like, wow. Like even the opening line is nothing real is ever threatened, nothing unreal exists. Herein lies the peace of God.

SPEAKER_00 8:37

Yeah. And and that this that we live, that is our life, is not reality. That's that's a concept of it, isn't it?

SPEAKER_01 8:49

Right. And and it depends what what you could be referring to this as. And if by saying this you experience love, joy, peace, then you you have a you're you're more in reality than not. But if you see this as this is a burden, this is tough, this is uh, I can't trust anyone, then you're living in that illusion.

SPEAKER_00 9:11

Yeah. So do you feel when you channel uh when you write your songs that you are channeling, do you feel that that you know you're getting insight and ideas from a higher perspective, if you like?

SPEAKER_01 9:27

Definitely. And so right now I consider it higher, but before, what I mean before is like I was your typical egoic rapper. Like I rapped about stuff that any other rapper would rap about. And I would still receive great lines based on the subject that I was rapping about. So it's like I tune in to something and I receive it, but now that my intention is different, it's like I'm tuning in to that higher. But but it's almost like the creative process in itself, you're bringing in energies aligned with that intention, whether it's high or low in vibration.

SPEAKER_00 10:05

Yeah. Do you sometimes look back on your on your lyrics and think, did I write that? I know that sounds strange, but I've I interviewed so many writers, and myself included, sometimes I'd read back something that I wrote and think, Did I write that? I I don't, you know, where's that come from? Do you do that?

A Course In Miracles And Channelled Wisdom

SPEAKER_01 10:26

All the time, like there have been times that my albums help me. Like I I created the albums to help others, but sometimes I would just happen to listen to a song and like this is speaking to me right now. I needed to hear this, and it and it's almost like I didn't hear it in the way when I wrote it, but I'm hearing it differently now that I'm listening, and and I know that it didn't come from just me.

SPEAKER_00 10:47

Yeah. So what's your process when you want to write it and you sew on more? Or do you do you pick the subject matter? Do you think, oh, maybe I'm I need to do something more about perspective or whatever?

SPEAKER_01 11:01

Right. So it it depends. Like uh, if I see a recurring theme in in others that people are maybe missing the mark on, I say, oh, that'll make a great song. How can I do it in such a way that people understand? And usually I write a lot either when I'm uh in the car driving, I just kind of dictate it to my phone, or like when I'm walking, I walk outside a lot and I'm always typing up some lyrics. They just come, but I notice too that I go through ebbs and flows. So some sometimes it's just coming, it's just coming. Other times it's not at all. It's like I want to write some stuff, it's just not there. And I don't force it though. I just, you know, allow myself to pivot into another creative form.

SPEAKER_00 11:44

So is there anything that you do to sort of unblock yourself, if you like? Anything that you do daily, like lots of people do meditation or they, you know, go off in it for a walk in nature. You know, is there something specific that you think, oh, I need I need a bit of clear. I always see it as you need to clear yourself really before stuff can come through.

SPEAKER_01 12:08

Well, yeah, I I definitely go on the walks. Uh, those help a lot. I meditate from time to time. Um, I'm what was interesting, like I do martial arts, I do taekwondo. And I noticed that like when you're doing forms, you're allowed to kind of yell at the end of them. And that's very therapeutic. And and I I try to get the kids that are there to really yell. Like some are shy and won't, but I'm like, you like you're doing something positive. And every time I do it, I just feel that much better. Because how often do we get to yell without someone looking at us a certain way? Uh, unless you're at a concert or something.

SPEAKER_00 12:41

Yeah. Yeah. No, excellent. So tell us about your um your debut album. Um, so it's called I Am Nobody, I Am Someone.

unknown 12:53

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 12:54

Which has been really celebrated, hasn't it?

SPEAKER_01 12:57

Yes, yeah. So yeah, that that album is it was created with the intention of taking someone to the next highest level. So, like if you're just all the way low, this is gonna allow you to be all right or okay. And the more you listen, you get higher and higher. And if you're just all right and okay, you're gonna feel good. If you already feel good, you're gonna feel great. Like it's it's it touches on a lot of things, uh, and in some ways it's an introduction to a lot of things that people might not fully be familiar with or may not have noticed of their own patterns in their minds. Like um, a lot of times, like you hear terms of of being sleep or being awakened. It's in one aspect, being sleep is not really realizing what your mind is doing. Like um when it happened to me, this was this was before, of course, in miracles, but I I I heard a saying that said, like, watch your thoughts for they become your words, your words become your actions, actions become habits, watch your habits for they become your character, and watch your character for it becomes your destiny. And once I understood the truth in that, because I didn't believe it at first, but when I really dove into it and saw how true it was, I wanted to know what I would think on a moment-to-moment basis, like just even in a conversation like this, or when I when I have my job, when I go to work, like what is my mind thinking right now? And I and once I paid attention, I was shocked. I couldn't believe it that that I had thoughts that I had. Like I would think that I would just have nice, happy thoughts. I wasn't having nice, happy thoughts. And then once I once I realized that I was able to do something about it, uh, now that I can control my thoughts now, but that that took time and it took practice.

Writing Flow, Walks, Meditation, Taekwondo

SPEAKER_00 14:35

Yeah. I think everybody has um low thoughts at time, don't they? And it's uh it's a practice to just stop yourself going down on that spiral.

SPEAKER_01 15:42

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 15:42

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 15:43

And it and it'll be thoughts about loved ones, like people you claim you love, you would have these thoughts, and it's like, and I didn't even know they were there, you know? Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 15:51

Yeah. So do you think actually, because it they talk about your words and your music actually helping people better their mental health, actually feeling a massive shift in their mental health, which is which is amazing.

unknown 16:07

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 16:07

Yeah, because because again, like it if you if you're unaware of your thoughts, you don't realize the patterns that you have. And I I seek to expose those patterns so that you can now make a choice. Like it's like, oh, okay, I am doing this. I may I may still want to do it, but at least I know now. And that that changes things. Like oftentimes we will hold a grudge and wonder why we feel so bad. It's because we're holding that bad feeling with us, we're taking it with us. We're holding on to this guilt for something that we probably didn't even intentionally do. Uh and then if if we did do it intentionally, we don't realize that by holding that that guilt, we're, in a sense, affecting the environment with that as well and lowering it instead of just forgiving ourselves and forgiving those that are involved.

SPEAKER_00 16:55

Yeah. So do you think do you think it's a it's it's a double process in a way? So it's people consciously thinking about what they're hearing and thinking, how does that apply to me in a conscious way? But do you think there's also another element, an unconscious way, like an almost like a form of energy healing that they're experiencing that helps them to release stuff without consciously working it through? Does that make sense? It's almost like a two-layer, two-layer thing going on.

SPEAKER_01 17:25

Yes, no, it makes perfect sense. Like I've had people say that some of my songs are fused with love. They're like, I can actually feel the love pouring out of your songs. And I and and often that's intentional, but not all the time, because again, it depends on the energy of the song and what I'm trying to portray. But usually when I have something tough to say, I try to make sure that I bring the love so that it's not like, hey, I'm I'm criticizing you or anything. It's like I'm I'm I'm letting you know this for your own good. So once you realize it, you can make that change and not be and not feel stuck under the guise of different circumstances and things.

SPEAKER_00 18:03

Yeah. So what's your new single about?

Album Intentions And Thought Awareness

SPEAKER_01 18:09

So, well, the the newest one, uh, because I I actually just released another album called uh It Just Feels Good. And I had two singles coming from that, which was Humble Yourself and Uh This Is God. So Humble Yourself is that that song was finished, was completed after I did uh spiritual activation. And if uh people aren't familiar with that, it's where I worked with someone spiritually connected, and she she downloaded these light codes. And so she brought herself, me, to others, and we would meet on actually on Zoom uh for about 30 to 60 minutes a day for 30 days, and we would just meditate together. She would kind of chant and have her spirit guide speak through her to us. Sometimes it was just to her, sometimes it was just to me, sometimes it was to others. And just during that period, there was so much peace and so much love, yeah, and honestly, even more than I have right now, just because I was just meditating way way more than I normally do. And I had this song that was unfinished, and I was like, let me, let me, let me try to see, you know, if I can finish it now. And certain things shifted. I was able to speak light language for the first time on a track. And yeah, and it's it's the song is about recognizing everyone's perfection, not not just your own, but like everyone, and just realizing the perfection of everything. And when you start to see it through, see the world how God sees it, there's a shift that happens and just everything is is brighter and and and more loving.

SPEAKER_00 19:44

Yeah. And as people experience these uh, you know, breakthroughs, etc. You know, oh is it what are we aiming for? Are we aiming for like I hear peace mentioned a lot? So is it just that no mind chatter, just lovely peace, happy where you are, contented where you are?

SPEAKER_01 20:08

That sort of well that's that's the beginning, but I I guess where to go after that is where your joy leads you, like where your curiosity leads you. Like there's been many times, myself included, where I'll have a bright idea. And now I know that as that's God communicating with me, but I'll have a bright idea, but then I'll put logic on top of it, like, well, I can't do that, I have to do this today, or people will look at me crazy if I do this, or you know, something like that. But when you learn that that's that that means you're aligned, and if you actually follow it, it would lead to everything you you wanted but couldn't even imagine, then you'll start to do it more. So that that's where it takes you, which in a sense, I don't know where it would take you, but you won't be afraid to allow it to take you there.

SPEAKER_00 20:51

Yeah. So you don't have to see the end result, you don't have to know when that's gonna happen. You just have to do it step by step and follow that intuition. Maybe we call it intuition, but is this more do you think intuition and something else outside of us is the same thing? You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_01 21:11

I'm gonna say it's the same thing, is it's that that internal guidance system. Like you just, you know. And and you know, a lot a lot of people have been taught to not listen to that. Like, oh, that's crazy. That's just that's your mind playing tricks on you or something. But when we start to trust it and see that it's coming from a loving place, like it it it literally will lead you to so many great things that you would have never imagined that you were capable of.

SPEAKER_00 21:35

Yeah. The trouble is we get scared, don't we? We think we have that prompt, and then we like you say, we talk ourselves out of it and we think, or other people talk us out of it. Oh, you can't do that. That doesn't make sense. And then we don't do it.

unknown 21:48

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 21:49

Yeah. I've experienced that. I needed to hear that. Thank you.

SPEAKER_01 21:53

No problem. But what's funny though, uh, because I know you're in the UK, uh, I went to London and it helped me release this music. So what happened was, yeah, so I started writing the these songs because I realized that learning and teaching are one. And if I really wanted to learn about peace and love and have more joy, I have to be willing to teach it. So I started making songs about it, and this was in 2018, I think, when I first started. And when I made the first few songs, I listened and I was like, this is pretty good. It's not, you know, too corny. It's I mean, it's not corny at all because I didn't want that, but and it and it helps in a non-preachy way. And so then I ended up going to um to London in November, and I figured, hey, I might as well go to an open mic. If if I bomb and it's terrible, nobody knows me. It doesn't matter. But if it's good, then I know I'll have something. And the response was overwhelming. It was it was over the top, so much so that I felt like God was telling me, see, move forward. Like it, like and I performed a lot. And sometimes, you know, the crowd is all right, you get a uh all right response. I it was overwhelming, like it was no doubt.

SPEAKER_00 23:00

So yeah, so that was your massive push to keep going with it.

SPEAKER_01 23:06

Right. Yeah, I did, I'm I won't lie, I did have doubts then, and it was, yeah. I almost told myself about it.

Spiritual Activation, Light Language, Intuition

SPEAKER_00 23:12

If we go off on a limb to do something that we want to do, it's human to have doubts, but we have to, like you say, exactly what you said, you have to follow your intuition, that nudge, and just sort of almost just you know, blank out the the noise and just become very focused on it, really. I think that's the way. So spiritual rap in itself, um, it's not something I'd heard about before, but presumably there are a lot a few spiritual rappers out there. It's it's a so how do you think, you know, where where can you see it going? Where how is it evolving, this whole jo genre?

SPEAKER_01 23:55

Well, I think it's evolving because people are realizing the power of of words and how if we allow them, they can affect us. And if we don't, if we're not aware of the effect, they can affect us in a way that we don't want. Yeah. And yeah, and so many songs, they have lyrics for shock value or have lyrics because they're cool to say, but when you listen over and over again, like a part of you starts to believe it. Uh, and you might not even realize it, but you may start to see, you know, loved ones as enemies. You might start to to believe you can't trust certain situations and people. You may believe that that the physical has more power than the non-physical, which allows the physical to be. And so we we think backwards. We we think that um that effects are the cause when it's it's always cause then effect. Yeah, and not the other way around. But we we we uh react to effects, and then that becomes a new cause, which you know, spiral, which allows us to spiral down instead of just let go. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 24:55

Yeah. It's you what you said there, words are powerful because I think um I'm a writer, so I always see what you write as something that just ripples out and and sort of influences people. If somebody says, I I really enjoyed your book, you know, that's I feel like that's influenced people in a positive way, and it's the same with what you're doing, isn't it? It's sending that ripple out that will That will affect all sorts of people just from them hearing it. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 25:31

And to what you were saying, like I noticed too that when you perform a song to give an authentic performance, you kind of go back to where you wrote it. And sometimes when I re-listen to songs, I go back to it as well. And I'm sure when you read reread what you wrote, you kind of go back there. And if the if it was dark energy, it's it's almost painful because it's like, ah, I don't, I don't want to go back there to that space. I would rather be here. And so you think about some of the artists who died young who had to perform certain songs over and over and over with such feeling and passion. You wonder if there was a correlation to the two.

SPEAKER_00 26:11

Yeah. And that actually there was sort of, yeah. And so really we want the upbeat, positive energy, the positive messages, basically. Yeah. It's very powerful, powerful thing, a powerful uh process, really, I think. I mean, it's actually raising consciousness. That that's something that you would say that is happening for your listeners.

SPEAKER_01 26:41

Yes, definitely. Um, I like even with me. So in a way, you can say what I do is selfish because I I do want to experience this for myself. But since I'm I'm helping everyone and I realize I can't do this alone and it takes all of us, like it, it it's not selfish by definition. Um, but the where everyone is headed, in a sense, is based on their intention of what they give. Like what you give is what you receive. So even though somebody could be listening to my song, they may get something slightly different than I'm getting, or they might have a different goal in mind. And it's not to say that theirs is bad, it's just different. And and I know I'm kind of speaking on a metaphysical level, but like we are all creators of our world. Like we we think we're in the same world, but it's like you're hearing a version of me, I'm hearing a version of you, but also based on the lens of our beliefs that we set forth of what this means and what all of this means.

SPEAKER_00 27:40

So actually, when people shift, that lens, lens shifts. And then they they see things in a different way, they attract things back to them in a different way.

SPEAKER_01 27:49

Right.

SPEAKER_00 27:49

That's how energy healing works, really, isn't it?

SPEAKER_01 27:53

Right. And and and and that's what I seek to do with the music is help people drop their guard in a sense. Um, because like nothing else can get in. It's like they say if you had your fist balled up, nobody can put anything in until you, you know, let go and release. And we've we've put up these walls. I I like to call them fences because we get offended or we we uh put up these defenses and we block ourselves in where we we're trapped from the reality, the real world.

SPEAKER_00 28:20

Yeah. So we it's so the more open we are, the more shifts that we're gonna do, the more we're gonna raise our consciousness or raise our vibration, however you want to say it, basically. And then the happier we will be, presumably.

SPEAKER_01 28:36

And and the main reason for that is because now we're re-letting in our inner guidance system. So it's not it's not even for me to say, hey, you have to do it my way. It's like, no, just listen to what's what's within in you already. Like you're you were born with all the tools, you are perfect as you are, you just have to know it and and hear it for yourself.

SPEAKER_00 28:55

Yeah. And everybody's so different. Everybody has their own unique path anyway, haven't they? They've got their own life purpose, their own point that they're worth step if they follow their intuition, if they if they get on that path. We're all so different.

SPEAKER_01 29:13

But yeah, which is why I I never deny anyone for anything. Like, hey, if that's what you feel, follow it.

SPEAKER_00 29:20

Yeah, absolutely. Brilliant. I've really enjoyed talking to you. So not anything that I really am aware of, um, but it's been lovely to talk to you. It's been it's been really lovely to have you on the podcast. So thank you so much.

SPEAKER_01 29:35

Same, thank you as well.

SPEAKER_00 29:37

And I'll put all of um Jay's um um links below the episode. Um, so if you want to contact him, you can do so. Um so thank you. Thank you so much for joining us. It's been a pleasure to talk to you.

SPEAKER_01 29:54

Same, thank you very, very much.

SPEAKER_00 29:56

It's my pleasure. Um, so if you've enjoyed uh listening to us chat, you can like and share. You can become a supporter and you can subscribe to the podcast, which will be much appreciated. And I can continue bringing you some amazing guests. So um, I look forward to uh talking to you all soon.