Saturday Album Review - Minorville by Derek Minor

I'm sure some people thought I was gonna review this one sooner rather than later, especially since the album dropped this last week, but "Minorville" is a dynamic, diverse, and hard-hitting album that cuts into a lot of society's biggest issues today.

Probably the most well known song on the album is my favorite, "Dear Mr. Christian" - featuring Dee-1 and Lecrae. It really gets into some of the hypocrisy in modern day Christianity with poignant references to pornography and drug use. Written from the perspective of a non-Christian, each artist raps a line asking the Christian to see the position that hypothetical individual came from and how they would "appreciate it if you take some time to listen [to their side of things]."
I embedded the music video below.
Other singles from the album release include "Gimmie" - about today's "give me" culture - (music video here) and We Are (Champions) (music link here).
We Are is probably my second favorite song on the album, with key verses like this one:

Picture that - how God uses foolish things like ex-weed heads and d-boys 

To speak on His behalf can't tell me that's not the Lord!

It's a cool and remarkable look at God using things that are bad in nature for His good and the redemption that can come with Him.

Derek Minor also tells a story in his song "Homecoming" about a girl's life through pregnancy, splitting up with her lover, and drug use to seeking and receiving forgiveness - a welcoming home to God's kingdom.

It's easy to go on and on about this album, but you should take my word for it and buy it on iTunes. For those of you that might want to download it other ways or just use Spotify, let me put it this way. If the people that are really listening and receiving blessing off the albums these guys put out don't pay for their albums, then who will? It's very hard to be compensated in the Christian Hip Hop world - if you can find a way, it allows people like Derek Minor to continue his service promoting truth.

Derek Minor is part of Reach Records and his album can be found here.

Final Album Ranking = 8.5/10 (the 1.5 missing from the perfect score is more in that I only think a couple albums are 10/10 quality - I'll try and post one next weekend for your comparison).

Best,

Felix

Today's Song - Round Em Up ft. K Agee

I believe when it comes to Christian Hip Hop that different songs are needed for different times. When you're in the mood to lift or get inspired for the daily routine, Round Em Up is a tonic. Round Em Up is what I see as a 300/epic war themed instrumental with hard-hitting lyrics featuring K. Agee as well that will get you subconsciously nodding.

Mission, the Mississippi born, Sacramento, CA native revealed to me that his mission in rapping is to "spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ in a relevant way to the urban culture and anyone willing to listen."

Here's some of the inspiration from this song in K. Agee's verse.

Man this world is crazy

Man it's all bad

All this killing and et. cetera's at a large mass

Ain't gettin' better so we wear a mask

Layin low hopin' for it to all pass

God said its cool, nah its good homie

If you won't do it

Then He will homie

Bring the Gospel not your own interpretation

That's why folks so confused on who can really save em!

You can stream and download this song from Rapzilla for free here.

The rest of Mission's music can be found on his website here.

Also shameless plug, feel free to follow us on Twitter or Like us on Facebook for consistent updates!

Best,

Felix

Today's Song - Reckless Living (ft. Swade) - L9

L9 is one of the hottest new artists in the movement today. The production/sound quality on "Reckless Living" rivals that of many mainstream artists today and the lyricism surpasses even that level. 

Here's a peak at some of his lyrics in this song.

I said I'm sinning on the daily but swimming in love

I ain't never seen change from covering up

My dude said he won't come to Christ till he clean his self up

I say you'll never be clean enough

We hardwired to screw it up

Word, my whole life is full of screw-ups

Thanking God on the daily He see His Son when He see us

Cause, looking at me I know I'm dirty and ratchet

I ain't deserve Christ I deserve a close casket

But I walk around and I live it

Got these Pharisees livid

Free Grace so I get it

As a double bonus, this song features Swade who also brings aggressive, concise lyrics and clever engineering.

   For instance, examining his starting lines.

I grew up another screw-up

Got introduced to His grace it changed my whole crew up

Righteous living in lieu of living my own way

I was giving that new love but at the end of the day

I am still human and I am still learning

The opening is a take off on Notorious B.I.G.'s song Runnin' and has a familiar structure in its presentation. Art on a much higher level.

The song and the rest of L9's album "Something Reckless" is available for download here and comes highly recommended. 

Best,

Felix

Today's Song - F.A.I.L. by Erick Dayz

Erick Dayz is somewhat of an underground and hidden treasure within the Christian Hip Hop world. Through some discussion with him, the Fort Myers, FL native raps with the mission to introduce God's love to the unchurched population. He does this through speaking about a Christ-centric view of his life, presenting Christ "as the only way to achieve abundant life." 

From hearing what I have of Erick Dayz, he's a mixture of Frank Sintara sounding instrumentals with a flavor of funk and a smooth consistent flow. F.A.I.L. is an honest account of his life and the faults he has while using theological references and ideas to demonstrate the presence of a greater love.

Excerpt from the song:

That incident occurs

When God's image is blurred

and our vision is deterred

by the insatiable urges

illusions illustrated to lose us

instead I got lost in it,

Father infuse love

My identity lacks 

Illuminating self is the intro to wrath

I'm in deep so invoke a little prayer for me

Hope that the infallible Truth ignites intimacy

A Godless love is equal to hate from ailment...

Lethargic moving my walk of life a labyrinth

This territory I landed in is the ratchet-ist

I'm spiritually Lazarus

Need a lift or a ladder quick!

F.A.I.L. can be played and downloaded on Erick Dayz's bandcamp found here.

Also on the website are multiple singles he has released along with his mixtape, "Souled Out."

His music is already racking up the play count on my iTunes...

-Felix

Christian Rap, huh?

When you think of Christian Hip-Hop, what comes to mind? I bet I can guess a couple responses - from Christians to non-Christians across the board.

1. "That can't be biblical..." 

2. "Christian music is bad enough as it is..."

3. "Yeah, I don't know...but that just sounds weird."

4. "Oh I've heard some of that. It's pretty cheesy and not very well produced."

1. "That can't be biblical..." 

Multiple sources have claimed Christian rap as unbiblical or un-Christian. One of these arguments is that as Hip-Hop is a new creation, it is intrinsically incongruent with what Jesus would have taught. While, yes, Hip-Hop, was not around during the time of Jesus Christ's existence, neither were cars, cell phones, or aspirin pills. Do you not drive in a car, talk on a cell phone or take an aspirin when you have a headache? If Jesus had come around today, you don't think He wouldn't have driven a car ?

Another argument states that Hip-Hop emerged as "street punk, gang style" music and that the expression of the music still represents this thuggish life, despite the words being changed. To borrow an argument from another supporter, judging Hip-Hop as inherently evil due to past use having been to represent worldly efforts is like saying a car is evil because it is used in drive by shootings or bank robberies as a getaway car! It's not the car but the user and the use of the car that defines its use as positive or negative. I also really dislike this argument because when clearly and carefully listened to, Hip-Hop lyrics stand out above beats/rhythms - while yes, beats and rhythms can be appealing, part of what Christian Hip-Hop seeks to do is focus on the words - very little is ambiguous in its content. 

Yet another argument is made in that Christian Hip-Hop is "conform[ing] to the patterns of this world" (Romans 12:10 NIV) and is simply using an un-Christian medium to promote a Christian view. I believe this argument leads quickly to a slippery slope - where does this stop? Christians started wearing t-shirts and jeans when the rest of the world did too. Is wearing a "Jesus Saves" t-shirt using a "worldly" creation to promote a Christian view as well? Aren't sports worldly creations that glorify the individual and his/her efforts? But don't some Christians use that as the gift God has given them to glorify Him? Is Tim Tebow conforming to this world by playing football? There is a huge line of hypocrisy this door can open.

Multiple Christian evangelicals today have stood up in support of Christian rap today - John Piper has described the movement as "lyrical theology." Mark Driscoll has furthered this describing Lecrae and other Christian rappers as "21st century missionaries...doing the same stuff that Paul did, that Jonah did, that Daniel did, that Joseph did and that Jesus did."

Not only do I agree with that, I believe they are examples of some of the boldest Christians alive today. It's easy to preach to the choir but Christian Hip Hop seeks to speak the masses using biblical theology - the same red letters - the message didn't change but the medium did. 

In personal support of why I think the movement is biblically sound, I want to look at a few passages, namely Philippians 4:8, Acts 10:9-15 and Mark 9:38-41.

Philippians 4:8 states, "Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable - if anything is excellent or praiseworthy - think about such things."

This seems to be the best judge of what we plug into our ears - judge whatever it is by its truth or virtue, not social constructs! One in fact could make the argument that some Christian music played on Christian radio is not lovely or of excellent quality...in fact, some songs that are pretty mediocre in musical quality seem to pass through because of the smaller sample size. Then again, I wouldn't call these songs un-Christian or bad representations because of the next two passages.

Acts 10:9-15 discusses Peter's vision of when he became hungry and while a meal was being prepared he fell into a trance where he "saw heaven opened and something like a large sheet being let down to earth by its four corners. It contained all kinds of four-footed animals, as well as reptiles and birds. Then a voice told him, 'Get up, Peter. Kill and eat.'" Peter responds negatively immediately proclaiming that he has never eaten "anything impure or unclean." The response in verse 15 speaks volumes, "'Do not call anything impure that God has made clean.'" When God gives inspiration to His followers, it's not for us to judge based on our own natural feelings but by His Word - calling a Christian song by its nature impure can almost be blasphemy - it's clearly not our position to judge other than through discernment using scripture. 

Lastly, look at Mark 9:38-41. The disciples confront Jesus here saying that they saw "'someone driving out demons in your name and we told him to stop, because he was not one of us.'" Jesus tells them not to stop the man, saying "...no one who does a miracle in my name can in the next moment say anything bad about me, for whoever is not against us is for us.'" Christian Hip-Hop says nothing to sway people from Jesus' teachings but actually quotes scripture and applies it to modern day life, almost a spoken version of the Message by Eugene Peterson.

 2. "Christian music is bad enough as it is..."
I've been here. I spent a lot of my growing up avoiding everything Christian music-wise because I thought it was poor quality or lame. But I can promise you things are changing and I hope to really show that by posting reviews and songs on here that can sway you from your initial opinion. I really think it's worth giving it a shot. Changing what you listen to changes your perspective on life. You really do become a product of your environment. It's subconscious and a slow process but it does happen.

3. "Yeah, I don't know...but that just sounds weird."
So did an iPod initially. So did the "Nationals" as a mascot for DC's baseball club, especially when the shortened version "Nats" was brought up. So did the idea of putting a key in a machine and pressing on a pedal as a legitimate form of transportation in the 1930s...at least when Henry Ford was still alive. My point is that things change and you should give this a chance. It's really been a blessing to my life and a growing amount of people today.

4. "Oh I've heard some of that. It's pretty cheesy and not very well produced."
This is the one I couldn't wait to address. If the only rap you heard was some early 2000s locally produced sound, I have news for you - the game has evolved, and so has Christian rap. There obviously will be some cheesy/less well produced music but filtering is a process that brings great rewards. I hope to already filter for you some and give you the best I can find! In addition, just because something is Christian it doesn't mean it can't bring advice and help to those who aren't. If you're reading this as a non-Christian, I would still urge you to listen to some as an inspiration and refreshing break from modern day music.

I really created this to help people see more of what is out there and the great encouragement they can receive from edifying, positive hip hop. It's tough when you have an ear for the music but find it difficult to listen to stuff that you absolutely disagree with. There's a plethora of good Christian Hip Hop out there - my goal is to explore some of it, dig into the lyrics and share it with the world in one place - right here.

Best,
Felix