Dressing Up in your Church Clothes

The Life of a Rebel (even with a cause) can sometimes land you in Rehab. For Christian Rap Superstar Lecrae, his stint in "Rehab" was very successful. Even with the Rehab stint winding up in an Overdose situation.

I think I've said enough to get my post branded as controversial. At least I hope so, because that is my purpose. In the new CCM Encyclopedia "Controversial" seems to mean rubbing me the wrong way. Well, as the saying goes, turn the cat around.

The latest "Controversial" Christian Record is Lecrae's recent mixtape Church Clothes: Volume One. According to my research, a mixtape is "a generic name given to any compilation of songs recorded onto a compact cassette, CD, music file, or any other music format". If this is an accurate definition of a mixtape, then I have plenty of experience with them. All you needed was a record player, a patch cord and a tape recorder, and some headphones to monitor the progress. And before anyone tries to fink to the RIAA on these 1980's era sharing, remember, take the beam out of your own eye.... And that beam is spelled Kazaa, Mega Upload, Original Napster, you get the idea.

Back to mixtapes. Church Clothes is only the third mixtape I have come across recently (The other two belong to Jehaziel [Still Living] and Je'Kob [Minor Setbacks for Major Comeups]). Of the three only Je'Kob (Je'Kob Washington, 1/2 of The Washington Projects) was the only one that met my additional definition "not ready for prime time".  Of the three Lecrae's is the "slickest" by far.

A collaboration between Lecrae and Don Cannon "The One Man Army", a big time Hip Hop Producer, the 18 tracks feature fellow rappers This'l, Tedashii, Swoope, Suzy Rock and No Malice among others. The title cut, which concerns Hypocrisy in The Church, contains the following lyrics.

R.I.P to Medgar Evers, R.I.P. to Dr. King. I ain't tryinga hate on my own kind but Al and Jesse don't speak for me. I'm probably gon catch some flack man, but I'm swallow this pill like pacman. Some of those folk won't tell the truth, too busy try'na get them racks man.

Just setting himself up against Messrs. Sharpton and Jackson is good enough for me, and he pulls no punches. I know why this was a mixtape. The Christian Labels would be too scared to publish it, and the mainstream labels would be too PC. I am giving Church Clothes a near perfect 4.75 Emeralds. I can't wait for Volume 2. Download it and listen. See if you think it's controversial. Until next time, I am Awaiting Your Reply.

p.s.- Just going to continue at this self promotion. Don't forget to Like The Night Beat on Facebook as the Platinum Vinyl Awards are just getting underway. I am going to try to have some exclusive content there, some on the blog. It's a work in progress this year, and it is coming very, very soon.