BYU student Colby Ferrin released a missionary-themed video that shares a love of God, music and rap. His video is unlike many collaborations: he sings with his younger self in a video headlined “Before and After Mission Rap.”
Ferrin said the response has been “incredible.” In just a few days since he posted the video, it has more than 275,000 views on Facebook with 5,000 shares.
“One of my old high school teachers told me she saw the video because her relative in Australia had shared it first,” Ferrin said, “and I’ve received messages from people in Germany, Mexico and even the U of U, so it really has blown up much more than I could have ever hoped for.”
The video shows 18-year-old Ferrin in a white shirt and tie, rapping about his excitement to become a missionary. The second half of his five-minute video spotlights Ferrin as a returned missionary, singing with his younger self about his love for the gospel.
Twenty-year-old Ferrin is from Pleasant View and majors in English, with goals of becoming an entertainer, writer and motivational speaker. He will be a freshman this year.
Ferrin served in the Mexico City East Mission. He recorded the first part of the video at home a few days before he left on his mission in August 2013. He said he was listening to a George Watsky song on YouTube when he got his idea for his own video.
“It (the song) had two choruses that he sung separately, then put together at the end, and it sounded cool. Then I got thinking “Hey, what if I wrote a song with two choruses that make sense separately, but could be put together and have a whole different meaning?”
Ferrin wrote both choruses and the first verse before leaving. He posted the first verse and first chorus as his “Pre-Missionary Rap” in August 2013. He wrote the second verse and recored it once he came home.
Ferrin said he loves writing songs and raps, and he wants to provide high-quality material for people. “I don’t think every song I write has to be specifically about the Church,” Ferrin said. “I think as I share uplifting entertainment with generally positive messages I can … prove to the world that immorality is not necessary to create clever lyrics and engaging entertainment.”
