Social Club Misfits Survived Their Misadventures & Rerouted Toward Purpose

“Life is a journey, it’s not a destination. Our detours make us who we are. God has a way of using our detours. Unplanned events, God has a way of making them for Him,” – Marty of Social Club.

In the adventure of life, it’s our misadventures that make us who we are. For Martin Santiago and Fernando Miranda, this has never been as clear as it is now.

Just two weeks ago the rappers of the Social Club Misfits revealed themselves to their fans in a whole new way. They opened up about their sordid pasts and shared how God brought them back from the brink.

The stories are completely different, but the scenarios are the same – God was missing at some point and things wouldn’t be right until he was back. Marty was burned by the church. His family did the right thing under God which was to confront a pastor about some shady extracurricular activity. Instead of humbling himself before God and the church, the pastor chose to kick the Santiago family to the curb in front of the whole church.

Marty left the church and didn’t come back for a long time. He suffered a spiritual death of sorts.

Fern’s story easily could have resulted in a physical death.

In the video, Fern describes being hopelessly addicted to self-destruction. He partied, drank, sold and took hard drugs. One particular night of debauchery had him thinking about suicide. Looking down from a building balcony, he was literally at the edge of his life.

Fern will be the first to admit that he’s at least 10 years older than most of his peers. So while many were still in high school or just kids, he was on the verge of getting signed to Sony Latin in 2005.

Under this deal, he’d be one of the first rappers to get a split deal – five albums in English and five albums in Spanish. “It was the worst deal of all-time” he would admit with a laugh.

What happens next was more road block than a detour. Fern was arrested for trafficking cocaine.

“I look back and say I’m so glad that I didn’t come out at that point because I wasn’t focused or didn’t have the time to put out any amount of work,” he told Rapzilla. “I was blessed, there was a prospect but at the end of the day, the Lord had my steps ordered. He gave me a small detour to be rerouted. Regardless of that look what we’re doing right now.”

The right now for Social Club Misfits is looking pretty good. They released The Misadventures of Fern & Marty, and that album reached No. 1 on the iTunes Rap/Hip-Hop Albums chart. It is also their major label debut on Capitol CMG.

Marty said the overnight success of the album was totally unexpected.

“I’m just thankful. We woke up No. 1 album in the country,” said Fern. “I have friends that I haven’t spoken to in years and friends that are going through stuff in life, and they were able to find me and know what’s going on. To be able to have the No. 1 album in the country whether you’re secular or Christian, whether you’ve been following us or not…guess what? You woke up and saw it on iTunes.”

He continued, “It’s a blessing to be able to be everywhere right now, and to be able to touch all types of people’s lives regardless of what they’re going through and be able to see Jesus in it.”

That’s the beauty of being one of Social Club’s “misfits.” It doesn’t matter who you are, where you’re from, or what you’re going through, everyone can relate to the misadventures of life. Now, the world gets to see what this trip is all about.

“The idea behind the album is that in life, there’s no point A or point B. Let’s say you want to be married, you don’t just find a wife and the end,” said Marty. “Life is a journey, it’s not a destination, our detours make us who we are. God has a way of using our detours. Unplanned events, God has a way of making them for Him. We’ve done things to get where we are but it wasn’t that easy. By just trusting in God, we don’t have all the answers but you trust in the God that does. Trust is what God has for you.”

That was the whole point of the two videos. Marty and Fern didn’t have the answers at the lowest point of their lives, but God did. He brought them back from the ledge, and now they are ready to share their comeback story.

“We’ve always said in the beginning that once people actually heard us share our hearts without music and just relating, I knew it was going to be a big deal. And those videos got us a lot of new looks. People were able to hear our hearts and I know for a fact people were able to be introduced to us and say, ‘Hey those are our guys. Those guys are just like me man’,” said Fern.

Social Club Misfits want to be known as the guys who change the way the world views Christians.

“People would say ‘Christians are fake, they’re corny, they don’t know what’s hot, they don’t understand’, and I think there’s a new wave that God is almost reshaping how we’re being seen in the public,” said Marty. “God is kinda changing the face of what faith looks like quote on quote. It’s not so exclusive. It’s not ‘us vs them’. It’s not that black and white. I think God is about people and as Christians we should be about people and known for our love.”

He explained that artists such as Andy, Lecrae, NF, wordsplayed, and even new artists who were featured on the record, are shaping this movement.

“These are new guys in the world that are being lights,” Marty shared. “We’re not running away from the darkness, we’re running to the darkness. We’re not running away and being on defense, we’re offensive Christians. We go on the field, we talk to people, we love on people, and we do the things that no one does to get the results that no one’s seen to see a generation on fire for God.”

Stay tuned for part two with Social Club Misfits next week. Purchase The Misadventures of Fern & Marty on iTunes or Amazon

Listen to them now on the Rapzilla podcast with Chris Chicago.

Justin Sarachik
Justin Sarachik
Justin is the Editor-in-Chief of Rapzilla.com. He has been a journalist for over a decade and has written or edited for Relevant, Christian Post, BREATHEcast, CCM, Broken Records Magazine, & more. He's written over 10,000 articles, done over 1,000 interviews, and is in post-production for documentaries on Danny "D-Boy" Rodriguez & Mario "Machete" Perez. He's the project manager of the upcoming video game Run the Court and of the media brand Crimefaces. Justin likes to work with indie artists to develop their brands & marketing strategies. Catch him interviewing artists on Survival of the Artist Podcast & creating videos on his social media channels.
RELATED ARTICLES

Most Popular