Pettidee (born Dewayne Petty in 1973 in Tallahassee, Florida), is an American rapper. Although born in Tallahassee, he was raised in Jacksonville, Florida, where he eventually made a name for himself as a well known gospel rapper capable of producing an authentic dirty south sound, typically rare for the Christian rap genre because most of the great Christian emcees focus on spouting the underground sound. He currently lives in and produces his music out of Nashville, Tennessee.
In the early years of his life, Dewayne Petty was familiar with the concept of a "dysfunctional childhood". As a child, he experienced the painful emotional trauma of being molested. As he grew older, Dewayne began working the streets as a hustler. At a cruicial point in his life, Pettidee realized he needed salvation from drugs and the typical street life of a hustler. Through God, Dewayne accepted salvation through Jesus Christ, and quickly realized God's will for his life. Dewayne had always had a talent with music and rapping, and so he soon quickly decided to use this gift as an outlet for evangelism. In 1998, Pettidee as an artist was born. Pettidee quickly transitioned from creating basic amateur loops on his boom box (as he did in his youth) to writing and producing his own Christian hip hop music from scratch. Pettidee is actively on tour in the United States, most commonly seen putting on shows with well known rap group GRITS, whom Pettidee holds a personal friendship with. Pettidee also speaks with youth at juvenile shelters, inmates in prison, and often holds public speeches regarding his life, ministry, and salvation through Jesus Christ.