John Itiola, also known as ''Wordsplayed'', is a Christian rapper based in

San Diego San Diego ( , ; ) is a city on the Pacific Ocean coast of Southern California located immediately adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a 2020 population of 1,386,932, it is the List of United States cities by population, eigh ...

. His style is influenced by

trap music Trap is a subgenre of hip hop music that originated in the Southern United States during the 1990s. The genre gets its name from the Atlanta slang word "trap", a house used exclusively to sell drugs. Trap music uses synthesized drums and is ch ...

. He has made album appearances for artists like Andy Mineo (C-Lite),

GAWVI Gabriel Alberto Azucena who goes by the stage name GAWVI, formerly G-Styles, is an American Christian hip hop artist and music producer, formerly for Reach Records. He was born on September 23, 1988 in the Bronx, New York. He has released three ...

and

Social Club Misfits Social Club Misfits, known as Social Club from 2012 until 2016, is a Christian hip hop duo from Miami, Florida made up of rappers FERN and Marty Mar. They formed their musical partnership in 2011 and released their first free album, entitled ...

Biography

Wordsplayed was born to Nigerian immigrants who moved to the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

in the early 1980s. He grew up in

Long Island Long Island is a densely populated island in the southeastern region of the U.S. state of New York (state), New York, part of the New York metropolitan area. With over 8 million people, Long Island is the most populous island in the United Sta ...

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

. In 2008, he became friends with members of the evangelical hip-hop ministry T.R.U.C.E. (To Reach Urban Communities Everywhere), which included the rapper

Andy Mineo Andrew Aaron Mineo (born April 17, 1988), is an American Christian hip hop artist, producer, music executive, and video director based in New York City. He is signed to Reach Records and his creative initiative Miner League. In addition to ...

, who gave Itiola a guest spot (credited as John "Word Up" Itiola) on his 2009 Sin Is Wack mixtape. He has also previously worked with Beleaf and Ruslan of ''the Dream Junkies'' and formerly of ''theBreax'', on the songs “Drag ‘Em” and “That’s Me” respectively. Itiola also joined Mineo's artist collective Miner League. Itiola released his debut single as Wordsplayed, "Martinelli's (ft.

)," on December 29, 2014 and "Sammy Sosa" on April 11, 2015. Itiola collaborated on the Marty's album (

Social Club A social club may be a group of people or the place where they meet, generally formed around a common interest, occupation, or activity. Examples include: book discussion clubs, chess clubs, anime clubs, country clubs, charity work, criminal ...

) in the song "The One with my Friends" alongside NF,

John Givez John Lawrence Givens (born August 29, 1992), known professionally as John Givez and sometimes Juan Dando, is an American musician, who plays hip hop, R&B, soul, funk and neo soul music. He is cousins with fellow rapper JGivens. John has relea ...

Fern A fern (Polypodiopsida or Polypodiophyta ) is a member of a group of vascular plants (plants with xylem and phloem) that reproduce via spores and have neither seeds nor flowers. The polypodiophytes include all living pteridophytes except t ...

and Kaleb Mitchell. In 2016, he debuted with the mixtape ''Clowntown'', which was released by Miner League and hit number 35 on Billboard's Top Christian Albums chart. Also, he was a special guest with

in ''"Friends & Family Tour"'' of

. In 2017, Itiola and Mineo teamed up for ''Andy Mineo & Wordsplayed Present Magic & Bird,'' on August 4, 2017. The full-length collaboration debuted at number 49 on the all-genre Billboard 200. This album had 5 songs on the Billboard's "Hot Christian Songs" chart. His latest releases, Lo-Fi Love 1 (LFL1) and Lo-Fi Love 2 (LFL2), have been paired with his stellar “Lo-Fidelity Hour” and "Lo-Fidelity Nights Uncut" direct to public access television series', respectively. In 2019, was a guest on NBC’s ‘Off The Dribble’ on ‘NBA Hot Takes’ segment. In April 2020, he launched a

podcast A podcast is a program made available in digital format for download over the Internet. For example, an episodic series of digital audio or video files that a user can download to a personal device to listen to at a time of their choosing ...

called "Circle of Trust", with the intention of "building a global network of people with positive, successful and like-minded ideas."

Discography

Solo albums

Collaborative albums

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Itiola, John Rappers from New York (state) Living people 1979 births