Artist:
Title:
Rebel
Type:
Album
Released:
08 Jul 2008 (US), 13 Oct 2008 (UK)
Readers Rating:
Your Rating:
Review
A few years ago I was a huge hip-hop fan, I loved the sound, but as years passed and my Christianity grew stronger and stronger my disgust at the lyrics, the continual glamorisation of drugs, sex, violence and swearing grew also. I all but gave up. There is a huge market out there for hip hop artists, Eminem and 50 cent are two of the biggest selling artists of all time, so I'm often left wondering why Christian artists can't tap into this? Well Lecrae shows here that you can.
Lecrae (full name Lecrae Moore) is for me an amazingly refreshing...
Read More A few years ago I was a huge hip-hop fan, I loved the sound, but as years passed and my Christianity grew stronger and stronger my disgust at the lyrics, the continual glamorisation of drugs, sex, violence and swearing grew also. I all but gave up. There is a huge market out there for hip hop artists, Eminem and 50 cent are two of the biggest selling artists of all time, so I'm often left wondering why Christian artists can't tap into this? Well Lecrae shows here that you can.
Lecrae (full name Lecrae Moore) is for me an amazingly refreshing artist as he has the hip hop sounds and beats but rather than glamorising all that is bad he glamorises Jesus and his faith, claiming it's no longer rebellious to do any of those bad things as they are just the norm, to be a real rebel you should follow Christ. This is a totally fresh look at the world we live in and throughout the album are fantastic bible centred comments that get you thinking and also help give answers to questions you may get asked or questions in Christianity you may have yourself. This is Lecrae's third solo album to date, his first "Real Talk" was the first hip hop album to get to number one in the CCM charts, his second "After the music stops" was described by many reviewers as one of the best albums you will ever hear, so he's set his own standards pretty high. One problem fro me here reviewing this is I have not heard either of those albums, but if I tell you that after hearing this one I definitely want to hear the others that may give you an indication as to how the album fares.
Lecrae deliberately lives in the roughest area of Memphis so he can reach out to his community at the heart of its problems, this must take incredible strength and perseverance, but on hearing the stories and examples in this album you can see he has answers for every question and diligence to continue to be as Christ like as possible. There is a fantastic song where he is talking to his sin and his sin talking to him, giving examples of why he cant do even little things because it will snowball and yes he may have done bad things in the past and its tempting but he has Jesus now so what else does he need? Its all deeply challenging stuff.Another stand out track is one talking about how if God is so powerfull why doesn't he prevent all the bad in the world, for which there are many answers given and many more not given here, but the most resounding answer in the song is that if he stops the bad in people, he has to stop all people because we are all inheritantly flawed since the fall of Adam and you cant pick and choose what to remove from people.Possibly my favourite track is the first one, it sets the tone for the album and just makes you think about Jesus being a rebel, how to be like Christ now is rebelious so if you want to be a rebel, follow Jesus.
There are some weaker tracks, some that lack the depth or strong tunes that others have but there aren't any terrible songs, and there are a lot of very good ones. The replay value suffers slightly as most of the appeal the first few listens is from what you gain in wisdom through the words, but the tunes ares strong and there's some strong catchy chorus' that you will sing along to every time. All in all it's very very good.
Review by Ben Sutton
Ben rating 4 out of 5 stars
Standout tracks
Rebel Intro
Indwelling Sin
Don't Waste Your Life
