Rising Beats: The 2014 Third Quarter - Rap

Continuing on with our announcement of the Third Quarter Releases for the 2014 Platinum Vinyl Awards. There are only three album genres left. We are on to Rap and Hip Hop. After that there is only Gospel and Modern Worship. Which one is the big winner? Stay tuned.

Rap music was very well represented this time around, with a dozen entries. The genre itself is still in a state of flux, and between the rock influence and the dance influence, it will be interesting to see if there is a split in the genre soon.

Hip Hop/Rap

• +5ive Official  - Ain't Supposed to Be Here
• Headz Up FM Presents - Christian Hip Hop 2014
• +Chad Jones  - Keep Up
• +Shai Linne - Lyrical Theology Pt. 2: Doxology
• +Mali Music - Mali Is...
• Propaganda - Crimson Cord
• Serge - Off Season
• Social Club - Misfits 2
• Tedashii - Below Paradise
• Thi'sl - Fallen King
• D-Tropp - Away from Home
• +Da TRUTH - Heartbeat

I have attempted, when feasible, to include the artists G+ Page as well as the Amazon Links. As I said before, I encourage you to buy through the included links and support the Night Beat while you get some great music. Until next time, I am Awaiting Your Reply.

Music Video Monday: Not The Color Green, but The Letter Black

Welcome back to Music Video Monday and Happy St. Patrick's Day everyone. This is a green free zone this week as far as I know. Nothing against green, just no Irish Videos. Not even Rend Collective.

We begin with The Letter Black. Depending on what you did to celebrate, you may need a Painkiller.
b
Colton Dixon is next. This is the music video for Never Gone.
Turning to Reggae for a while. You see, we do everything here, except for Country and Western. This is Step up feat . D.A. T.R.U.T.H. 
And we move on to Rock again. This is one of my favorites right now. This is Sumerlin and Breaking Out.
We shall have another quartet of videos next week. Until then, I am Awaiting Your Reply.

Music Video Monday: OMG

Welcome back to Music Video Monday. We are wrapping up Rap this week and next Monday we will start with Heavy Metal. We begin our tour with Benjah and Work.

It's about time that someone around here tells us DA T.R.U.T.H. And that is that there is always Hope.

XRoss is next, but all he can say at the moment is OMG.

And finally, we have Young Chozen, though I don't know if he is one of the chozen frozen (sorry, a little church humor). This is Right here, right now.

That does it for this edition of Music Video Monday. Friday we only have three videos as we rap it up. Until then, I am Awaiting your reply.

Night Beat Rewind: January 2013

The time for the first edition of Night Beat Rewind for 2013 is at hand. January was a very active month this year, and that is not always the case. Usually things ramp up slowly. There were forty-five releases this past month, and not  surprisingly, almost all of them went into the initial pool. I'm usually pretty generous this time of the year, and it makes for a lot of work at the end.

As always, we begin with those albums which

Missed The Mark

There were eleven this time around, and remember, these aren't bad releases, just not outstanding. Don't worry, I'll let you know if they stink.

• Awaken Us - The Forgotten 3.75 Emeralds
• Ergo Rex - Breathe In The Roar 3.50 Emeralds
• For A Season - Lion Hearted 3.75 Emeralds
• The Hymns Collective - Season One 3.75 Emeralds
• Junkyard Poets - Mrs. Sophomore  3.50 Emeralds
• Marlo Moore - Simply Marlo Moore 3.75 Emeralds
• OBB - OBB 3.50 Emeralds
• Seven Years - Time to Change 3.50 Emeralds
• Various Artists - Sharkey: 2013 3.75 Emeralds
• Various Artists - Wow Gospel 2013 3.75 Emeralds
• Karyn Williams - Only You 3.75 Emeralds

One note. Karyn Williams is just a wider release. It was released back in August 2012, which would have put it in this years running. I Still haven't changed my mind.

Pure Platinum

There were only two releases which were deemed perfect among the month's entries, which is pretty amazing. What's even more amazing is that one of them was a worship album. That just hasn't happened around here. The key to this one is the fact that the album came off as a "Worship Experience", not just as a bunch of worship songs.

• Terra, Terra, Terra - The Space We Create 5 Emeralds
• Kim Walker - Smith - Still Believe 5 Emeralds

Most of the releases, as is always the case, were neither good nor bad, but somewhere in the middle. I like to call these releases

Semi-Precious Metal

As always, there are a lot of these, twenty-one of them this time around.

• Flynn Adam - Do or Die 4.75 Emeralds
• Alert 312 - Vice and Virtue 4.50 Emeralds
• Meredith Andrews - Worth It All 4.75 Emeralds
• Bridgecity - Bridgecity 4.50 Emeralds
• Bridge Music - New Has Come 4.50 Emeralds
• Capital Kings - Capital Kings 4.50 Emeralds
• Carman - Anthems of A Champion 4.25 Emeralds
• Kurt Carr - Bless This House 4.75 Emeralds 
• Casting Crowns - Acoustic Sessions, Volume 1 4.25 Emeralds
• Jason Castro - Only A Mountain 4.50 Emeralds
• Byron "Mr. Talkbox" Chambers - Show Me The Way EP 4.50 Emeralds
• Dynasty - Beyond Measure 4.75 Emeralds
• Colton Dixon - A Messenger 4.50 Emeralds
• The Ember Days - More Than You Think 4.75 Emeralds
• Fiction Family - Fiction Family Reunion 4.75 Emeralds
• Charlie Hall - The Death of Death 4.75 Emeralds
• Hearts of Saints - For All of Us 4.75 Emeralds
• Love and Death - Between Here and Lost 4.75 Emeralds
• Britt Nicole - Gold EP 4.25 Emeralds
• Overcome - No Reserves, No Retreats, No Regrets 4.25 Emeralds
• Matthew Parker - Meet Your Maker 4.75 Emeralds
• Planetshakers - Limitless 4.75 Emeralds
• Rend Collective Experiment - Campfire: Worship and Community Re-imagined 4.75 Emeralds
• We Came As Romans - Understanding What We've Grown To Be Deluxe 4.75 Emeralds
• Sho Baraka - Talented 10th 4.50 Emeralds
• Starflyer 59 - IAMACEO 4.50 Emeralds
• Chris Tomlin - Burning Lights 4.50 Emeralds
• DA T.R.U.T.H. - Love, Hope, War 4.75 Emeralds
• Twenty One Pilots - Vessel 4.50 Emeralds
• Various - From The Inside Out 4.50 Emeralds
• Various - Worship For Your Family (Yellow) 4.50 Emeralds
• Vota - Love Found Me 4.50 Emeralds
• Wavorly - Something Like Fiction (The Lost Albums) 4.50 Emeralds

 That concludes the January 2013 edition of Night Beat Rewind. Until next time, I am Awaiting Your Reply.

Music Video Monday: Surrender

Music Video Monday now turns to Hip Hop. Though the song category was full, the Official Music Video area is kind of light. Still, I prefer to look at the glass as half-full.

First up is the title cut from the latest release by Da T.R.U.T.H. The Whole Truth
A definite smooth R&B feel to that one. I think it's really nice. It's definitely something that can be appreciated even by people not necessarily into rap. We move on next to Shonlock. This is Hello, from his release Never Odd Or Even

We are halfway through this edition of Music Video Monday. We move on to one of the hottest rappers in CCM today, Lecrae. This is Just Like You, from Rehab



And finally, the tease is over. This is Surrender feat V. Rose from the album Capturedby Flame.

That does it for this edition of Music Video Monday. Next week we move on to Rock. Depending on how things go we may split it up into hard rock and rock for two weeks. Until next time, I am Awaiting Your Reply.