You Can't Say That In Church (Say Dat Pod)

Ace Harris grew up in a Liberian household in Atlanta, the son of a pastor who planted the church that raised ICF Ministries. Now he's head of A&R at Reach Records, a Grammy winner, and the man behind Hulvey's run; he also produced two singles on Derek's first Reach album. He tells us why Limoblaze, platinum selling and a Nigerian citizen, can't get into the US for his own shows, and how his pastor dad caught a case trying to get a church member his green card. Then the hits: Jermaine Dupri's who wants to come to a concert to hear no hits, why young artists won't take a note, and the A3C freestyle that sold him on Hulvey. Plus Lecrae's two-hand set shot, palm oil vs raccoons, Rush Hour in 2026, the Will Smith slap, and his clothing line ALTAR.

A.I. went into the foster care system at 14 months old and was diagnosed "emotionally handicapped" on paper. Now she's Buffalo's poet laureate, a rapper and a mom, and she doesn't want to be defined by her trauma. She tells the story of meeting her biological dad at 16 when he pulled up in his cab, why she loved fighting boys, and how a counselor handing her a pencil started everything. Derek talks about apologizing to his 12 and 14 year old and the stepdad who sold the family van for dope, and the guys get into why church never talked about sex. Plus Derek calls Parris "pee pee" in front of the guest, Dr. Pepper as an aphrodisiac, and whether we'd take a McDonald's sponsorship.

Street Hymns of the Four Horsemen said the quiet part: a lot of churches plant in the hood because the real estate is cheap, and nobody in the building looks like the block. Derek used to push his own pastor on diversity and got told "we're diverse, we got parents that adopted kids." Plus the Jesus on the wall, a church break-in with blood in the baptismal pool, why a Christian winning battle rap's Champion of the Year got zero coverage from CHH media, and why Black history isn't ancient history.

Tim Thompson found Derek Minor's music on the one channel his prison had. Twenty years of incarceration from age 8 to 36, a plan written in his cell two years before the gate opened, and almost ten years of working for nobody since: two Nashville businesses built off grass and paint, and the yards you slow down to look at. Ten years after that prison TV, he was doing the yard next door when Derek walked out the crib. Episode 33 is the whole ride: the stolen car at 8, the 60 lawns he gave away to bet on himself, the no-doors sales playbook, and the conversation about God nobody saw coming, closed out in prayer. Plus: a baby wave is on the way. Episode 33 of You Can't Say That In Church.

Joseph Joshua rolled up a joint on Super Bowl Sunday, turned down the party, and went to church high as a kite to chase the Holy Ghost. God showed up anyway. Episode 32 is the whole redemption road: ten years in the Cincinnati streets, jail or hell, the hood calling him weak when he changed, the right way to fast, and the airport shoeshine stand that became Millions of Dollars Worth of Wisdom. Plus: the quart of soap, better to marry than to burn unpacked, and the five keys (God first, vision, intense desire, discipline, persistence).

Nate Rose had millions of streams in the mainstream. This year he crossed over backwards, into Christian rap, and Episode 31 is the whole story: the Nashville scene that left him on read, the streaming fight with Curtis King, and the songs that kept pointing up until he went two feet in. Then the couch put Drake on trial. Gangster after the money, the leak at 40, why a Christian album would be his biggest release ever, why SpongeBob is the bigger success, and the question that stopped the room: did he make a deal with the devil? Plus the AI masterclass: split sheets that send themselves, a studio assistant trained on his own taste, and the work of 15 people out of one man. Follow @thederekminor and @parrischariz. New episodes every Sunday.

A man watched John Diggs' video about lust at 10 p.m. and was in his DMs confessing by 2 a.m. John's answer opens Episode 30: I'm not your pastor. I have no relationship with you. Go find somebody who actually knows you. From there the whole machine gets run down: influencers posting Bibles they haven't opened, Haven, the Bible AI built by astrology developers that pays Christian creators, Christian lamps and energy drinks, the Christian nightclub where last call for mocktails is 11:15, burger music, the celibacy math that doesn't math, and why you never give a babe in Christ a platform. You Can't Say That In Church is Derek Minor and Parris Chariz, live from the Batcave, with John Diggs, the fashion teacher.

Eli Montana and PLM heard the J. Cole stories, so they drove 12 hours from Beaumont to Atlanta with no meeting booked and sat outside Quality Control for four hours in the heat. Lil Baby pulled up the same day he dropped My Dawg. Then CEO P got on FaceTime and said tell them boys to never show up to my studio unannounced again. Eli drove the 12 hours home and got straight on the album. That is the pattern the whole hour runs on. RCA, 300 and Atlantic called after Fashion dropped, then told him he had too much God in his music and he should take the sex route instead, and he kept the God in it. Derek names the other side of that, the Christian market wanting more Jesus per minute, so both tables were asking the same man for a rewrite. Lecrae told him to wrap it up in front of the room at Reach, and he took it as a sign to get better instead of a sign to quit. Nine years of that, and his first single is out on World 45 and RMG. If you want to make it in this industry you are going to have to push through some adversity to get to the success, and Eli has done that in a major way. Also in this one: the exorcism Eli watched in his own church in 8th grade, the season the conviction got ripped off on purpose, and why Derek says go ahead and call him lame. What is a no you turned into fuel? Say dat in the comments.

Comedian Deion T. Washington pulls up to the Batcave for the coffee episode, part two, and it turns into one of the realest sit-downs we have had. He has six kids and a joke for every one of them, but under the comedy is a testimony: he was enrolled in a minister program when he got caught in the car with drugs on him, on his way to Bible study. He did his time, fully surrendered his life to God behind bars, and came out with the idea that became a sold-out Christian comedy tour. Plus: cheating like an addiction, why he burned his ministry license, whether a Christian can be a real comedian, the greatest comedians of all time, and the man who coined jiggling for Jesus. Derek Minor and Parris Chariz host.

Parris told his girlfriend four times not to buy him a futon. She bought it, hid it in her pastor father's garage, and when the man confronted Parris about it she sat there and laughed. Derek's version was a girl in college who cheated and came back with the details. Plus: how Parris actually picked his wife, the plate by the sink that ends marriages, why you can't screw your way to a successful marriage, and the deprogramming both of them are still doing 18 years and one year in.