Last week, Christian hip-hop artist GAWVI broke his silence regarding the events surrounding his being cut from Reach Records. Shortly after, his ex-wife publicly accused him of lying about the details of their marriage in the statement.
During his time at Reach Records, GAWVI released four albums and won a Dove Award for best rap/hip-hop song. His latest record, which was released in March of 2021, was titled “Noche Juvenil,” and featured songs exclusively recorded in Spanish, including the track “Dicen.”
GAWVI was released from Reach Records on January 31 of this year after being accused of sending unsolicited, explicit photos to multiple women. The accusations against GAWVI came to light days earlier after he announced that he and his wife had divorced in 2020. After GAWVI remarked in his announcement that there was “no scandal to gossip about” with regard to his divorce, visual artist Cataphant publicly alleged that GAWVI had sexually harassed multiple women, including one underaged girl.
“Due to behavior that is inconsistent with our core values, we have ended our professional relationship with GAWVI,” Reach Records said in a statement released on January 31. “This was a tough decision for us because of the level of complexity and because we invest in our artists not just for their talent, but also as brothers and sisters in Christ. This is something we have been processing for over a year and have wrestled with what would be the right way forward.”
Fellow Christian artist Lecrae, who co-founded Reach Records, expressed grief following his label’s decision to cut ties with GAWVI, saying that the situation had “rocked our community.” In an interview with Relevant, Lecrae said that while the label knew GAWVI had been experiencing marital issues, they had been unsuccessful in getting him “to just be transparent with us.”
“We had already stopped putting out his music and stopped doing stuff…but this was the hammer that drove the nail in,” Lecrae said.
On Wednesday (March 16), GAWVI released a statement to Instagram, which read, “Dear everyone, I have been spending time reflecting on these past couple of months and the years before, having meaningful conversations with God, my counselors, family, friends, and myself, about the mistakes I’ve made and the man I want to be on this earth.”
“A few years ago, my marriage began to fall apart. Instead of leaning on God and facing the situation, I acted outside of the boundaries of my marriage,” the statement went on to explain. “I began communicating and exchanging inappropriate photos with several women on social media.”
Denying the accusation that he had sexually harassed an underaged girl, GAWI wrote, “These were conversations between adults, and even though I never met any of these women in person, it was inexcusable, and wrong. I regret these mistakes, I take full accountability, and I apologize to everyone I have hurt by my actions.”
“Now as I continue to reflect and wrestle with the choices I’ve made, I ask that God may continue to use this period of my life to show me things that I have needed to learn, so I can become the man he has called me to be,” GAWVI wrote. “I am using this time to work on myself, grow in faith and continue to be present in my children’s lives.”
Following GAWVI’s statement, his ex-wife, Brianna Segura, released a statement of her own.
“I have kept my silence for years in order to protect my family and marriage. I have been focusing on my healing but I no longer want to sit back as the dishonesty continues. The lack of full ownership and true apology has been extremely hard to stomach,” Segura wrote. “I was in a marriage where I fought for it with every ounce of me. Was I perfect? Absolutely not. What was done in my marriage I did not deserve.”
