“margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal;”>
“mso-bidi-font-style: normal;”>
“font-size: 10.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>The hardest decision I’ve got to make, is whose life I’m gon’ take – D. Stone Karaoke.
“margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal;”>
“font-size: 10.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>It’s been nearly three years since Dwight Stone growled that intro across the airwaves of St. Louis radio via Clear Channel’s 100.3 The Beat.
“margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal;”>
“font-size: 10.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>Even still, just about everybody in the area with an affinity for hip-hop will be able to recite the line from memory until well after their Alzheimer’s sets in.
“margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal;”>
“font-size: 10.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>For years, “D. Stone Karaoke” was the most popular daily segment – by the most popular DJ – in St. Louis urban radio. Few people knew it at the time, but as he encouraged people to call in to his show, he was struggling with the call that had been placed on his life.
“margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal;”>
“font-size: 10.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>“I had the number one radio show at the radio station and worked at the number one clubs – you do all of that stuff at the same time, you still feel empty,” Stone said. “I didn’t know that there’s a place in you only God can fill.”
“margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal;”>
“font-size: 10.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>He had rededicated himself to his Christian walk. His reluctant decision to do so – and partnership with Willie “P. Dub” Moore, a popular rapper and personality who had recently leaped from the world into the Word – would set the stage for a national movement.
“margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal;”>
“font-size: 10.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>“My boss told me, ‘I want the guy that I paid for,’” Stone said. “And I was really struggling with that. I was just trying to hold onto the only life I knew – which was radio.”
“margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal;”>
“font-size: 10.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>Stone ignored the voice inside urging him to leave his top-rated afternoon show. In a fateful turn of events, the entire station ended in fall of 2009.
“margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal;”>
“font-size: 10.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>“He had been inviting me to come and DJ with him,” Stone said of Moore. “I said, ‘That’s great, but I gotta do Plush.’ But when The Beat went away I didn’t have any more excuses. I kinda felt like Jonah, and was like, ‘Okay, God, I’ll go ahead and do it your way.’”
“margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal;”>
“font-size: 10.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>D. Stone and Moore kicked Young Fly and Saved into high gear immediately afterwards.
“margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal;”>
“font-size: 10.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>“I felt like I was at a place where a lot of people are – they can’t stand because of what they do,” Stone said. “I thought, ‘Because I’m no longer in a place where I have to compromise and be what everybody wants me to be, I can go ahead and be what God wants me to be.’”
“margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal;”>
“font-size: 10.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>God wanted him to use the same tools he used to draw people into his show to co-anchor the Young Fly and Saved ministry.
“margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal;”>
“font-size: 10.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>“It had to be something that young people could grab a hold to, but was cool – and they could still keep their swag,” Moore said. “But at the end of the day, let them transition into the person they were called to be and not forced to be.”
“margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal;”>
“font-size: 10.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>The funny thing is, the fame he sought in the mainstream paled in comparison to the success he saw when he began to operate in obedience.
“margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal;”>
“font-size: 10.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>“In the greatest moments of my hip-hop days, I’ve never had a platform like this,” Stone said.
“margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal;”>
“font-size: 10.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>Stone is now heard on faith-based radio around the nation. Stone was also featured in the most recent edition of
“mso-bidi-font-style: normal;”>Ebony Magazine Fly and Saved.
“margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal;”>
“font-size: 10.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>“Our goal is to inspire, influence and unite and bridge the gap between the church and the streets. We love them while they are in the process,” Moore said.
“margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal;”>
“font-size: 10.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>“I think about when Jesus met Paul. He was on his way to Damascus. What if Jesus would have said, ‘You know what? I’m just going to wait for him to come to me?’ Paul might not have ever made it, and two-thirds of The Bible would not be available to us.”
“margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal;”>
“font-size: 10.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>“There’s righteousness, and then there’s self-righteousness,” Stone said. “When you start seeing yourself as better than other people, you can’t help them. Calvary didn’t have a VIP. He died for everybody.”
“margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal;”>
“mso-bidi-font-style: normal;”>
“font-size: 10.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>For more information on Young Fly and Saved, visit
“http://www.theyfs.com/”>www.theyfs.com 314-910-1153.
