Born Claude Thomas Burns, Jr. with the nickname “Dusty” after my dad’s best friend who was killed in Vietnam along side him. My parents were very young and very artistic. My dad wrote poetry and my mom was really creative and they both loved music. I was listening to Bob Dylan when I was 5 years old and studying his album covers.

As I grew up, Hip Hop and rap was emerging and I was immediately drawn to it. I listened in awe to Run DMC, the Beastie Boys, LL Cool J, Whodini, and many others. It was an art form that put poetry in motion in a very powerful way.

At the same time I was also growing in my Christian faith. I grew up Catholic. At the age of 15 I had a major conversion experience and asked Jesus to take over in my life. I started a Christian rap group called the Agape Crew in 1991 and we did very well. When I was in college I had to face the challenge to let go of music and respond to God’s call to become a priest. It was a difficult decision but I knew it was of God and I have never regretted it. Being a priest is what I was created to for. I was ordained a priest in 2002 and God gave music back to me. I was introduced to http://www.phatmass.com and began to record music for their projects and took the name Pontifex as an icon for all priests. Since then I have partnered with Spirit Juice Studios to do a number of spoken word poetry videos that have reached well over a million views. I feel very blessed to be apart of so many wonderful projects with great people.