This month’s Spotlight is Kalip Stevens, a native of Walterboro, he is the son of Jennifer Stevens and stepfather, Edward Brown. He has one brother, Denzel Stevens, who is a top ranked boxer, in the Goose Creek area.
Kalip is a local drummer, who started at a very young age he explains. “I started drumming at the age of two. That’s when I started picking up spoons and forks and beating on pots and pans up under my grandmama’s cabinets. I had been doing that for quite some time, until they bought me my first drum set. My grandmother, Pastor Evelyn Stevens, told my mother, “, No, Jennifer, leave him alone, because he going to be a drummer, and literally, right now, today, I am a drummer. I practically did everything on my own.” His formal musical training started in Middle School, “they just only taught me like the rudiments, because playing drums, you have to use your rudiments. They also taught me how to count beats and how to keep timing on the drums and metronomes. Timing is most important with the drums, because it can throw everything off. I also went to Colleton County High School. I graduated with the class of 2014 and participated in band on the drum line for four years. I got on the line my eighth-grade year and was able to go to New Orleans with the Band of Blue.” Kalip continued his drumming after graduation and sings with quartet groups. After high school he attended USC Salkehatchie and eventually mortuary school. He took a break from higher education but hopes to continue in the future.
Kalip also works at the Stevens Funeral Home owned by his Godfather. Ephraim Stevens who has funeral homes in Walterboro and Sumter, “I got involved with the funeral homes a few years after my mom passed. I was 10 years old, I knew I wanted to be in the funeral home, it was fascinating to me. After my mom passed away, I was grieving, but same time I was paying attention because, I knew that’s what I want to do. It made me stronger as a man by coming up in the funeral home as well.” Some of his duties includes helping dress the descedent, helping the family get through their difficult time as well as doing everything around the funeral home that needs to be done. He started at 14-yars old and has been working there for 15 years.
Stevens is particularly busy on Sundays, “I go to Bull Swamp Baptist Church in Orangeburg. Ephraim Stevens is also the paster at the church. I play drums there and that’s where I am on Sunday afternoons. I also come down back to Walterboro and play for Inter-Healing Deliverance Ministries on Francis Street. I play on their six o’clock services. I started playing in church when I was six years old. I was still learning, but that’s when I really started playing in church.
In addition to playing in church stevens plays drums with DJ JR. He explains, “I play the drums with him, and it’s a meet in the middle type of situation. Nobody in Walterboro does what we do, as far as DJ and drumming linked together. It’s almost been a year now and it’s just something that we just kind of thought to put together. I reached out to him and we went with the vision. He plays the songs, and I play on top of the drums that’s already on the track and put my own spin on it.
Stevens is the proud father of two girls, ages three and seven. Their name are Sunjai and Samaria Stevens.
I asked Kalip what advice he would give the youth of Colleton County. He said, “Stay in school, and be around great people. You never know what type of crowd you’ll be around, but you can also pick the crowd you are around. My crowd was with people associated with a funeral home or a church, someone that was already established, someone that had done been through life experiences, and I stay connected with those people. The person that comes up under me, I’m going to steer them in the right way. They may not want to be a undertaker or a funeral director, but at least they want to be clean cut from head to toe, suit and tie, because when you go, for a job interview, they want to see someone who can present themselves professionally.”
Stevens wants to give motivational speeches and mentors young people to let them know that they’re not by themselves and put a great mindset on our young folks. He says, “We all need prayer, but these young ones need people who speak from some lively spirit experiences.”
I asked Stevens what he would like to do in the future, and he has a plan, “I want to expand my drumming. I want to expand my brains and thoughts and my vision with the funeral home as well. I actually want to own a funeral home later down the line and take my drumming a little bit more serious. I want to put it with a business aspect, because I’ll be so busy with the funeral home, sometimes I don’t really have time set aside to practice my craft with the drums. So, I’ve got to make balance for both my funeral work and drumming on my end.
