The Year in Urban Gospel/Christian Music

These are short reviews featuring highlights for some of the music released in 2011. We encourage you to consider these projects if the description interests you and listen to the standout tracks. These are some of the albums released in 2011 that made the year great for urban gospel/Christian music.

Albums of the Year

Tedashii – Blacklight – Best Overall Rap Album(Tie)

Tedashii’s 3^rd album is his best that has the banging concert songs that Tedashii is known for like Need It Daily, Riot, Dum Dum, Get Up, great reflective songs like Bravo, Reverse, Burn This House Down & Last Goodbye, and a great worship song with Flame and Jai called He Lives. This is an album that fans of rap music will like along with gospel singing and CCM fans. This is arguably the best album released by Reach Records since Rebel by Lecrae.

Pro - Dying to Live – Best Overall Rap Album(Tie)

This is Pro’s 1^st full-length album with Reach Records. Pro released an album that satisfies the fans of bass-heavy, street-style music that you can bang on the ave on any summer weekend to songs that have more of a CCM and gospel sound that is good riding music. Pro’s talent comes through in that he can change his rap style to fit the different styles of music well. Standout tracks to bang out on a summer Saturday include Get It, Full Court Mess with KB, Merked Part 2, No One Greater with Trip Lee and Json, and Never Back Down with S.O. and Thi’sl while some strong riding songs are Stronger with Jai, Beautiful with PK, This Can’t Be with Jenny Norlin and Before I Die. This album is a good one to give to someone you want to convince on the viability of this genre.

Pastor AD3 - No Pain No Love – Best Urban R&B/Soul Album

Pastor AD3 has created a class by himself as an R&B singer with a gospel message over primarily medium tempo songs that are both soulful but with an urban edge. He has been great performing hooks on many songs in the urban gospel genre. He shows his full range of talents on this complete album. Whether he does a song by himself, like Copycat where he talks about his desire to copy Christ in his life,

Thi’sl - Beautiful Monster – Best Album to Supplement Street Evangelism

Thi’sl’s presents the perfect marriage between music that is authentically urban with the tone and type of music along with the honesty he raps about his hustler and drug dealer past, authentically gospel in a relevant way without compromising, with high quality production, mixing and mastering. This and his earlier album Chronicles of an Ex-Hustler are the best albums for an urban ministry to use to share with older teens and young adults who are used to listening to explicit mainstream music. My Radio on Drugs, Money Money Money, and No Walls are three of the better songs on a strong album.

Deitrick Haddon – Church on the Moon – Best Overall Gospel Album

Deitrick Haddon’s latest project is a masterpiece. It is rare that a 19 track album doesn’t feel too long but the quality of each track keeps a listener engaged the whole time. In a world where gospel music would enjoy mass media promotion like mainstream music, Church on the Moon would be an all-time hit with 7 singles and #1 videos along with having crossover success outside the primary gospel audience. Separate from the message, the production, diversity in sound, and strong, relevant vocals make this a special album. Songs like Reppin the Kingdom work well for rap fans. Power is a strong uptempo R&B-ish dance track. Touch has a classic gospel feel. Fighting Temptation talks about resisting the temptation from the ladies and from chasing money. This is a song that most men need to hear repeatedly as they work to resist youthful lusts.

More Good Releases in 2011

Artist – Album

Flame – Captured

Flame’s 5^th album kept his musical legacy intact. Put On with Andy Mineo was a standout track on a diverse album with club bangers, worship-like songs. Flame released videos for Move and Surrender from this album and toured the US and Africa to promote this solid project that is one of the top 100 selling hip hop albums of the year.

Da Truth - The Whole Truth

This album from Da Truth is an almost perfect example of a man who was in fault, seeks true repentance, doesn’t justify sin, and asks his family and supporters for forgiveness humbly. Musically, Da Truth rapping ability is so high regardless of the tempo of the song. Cherish featuring the incomparable Cece Winans where he seeks forgiveness from his wife while singing and rapping is a favorite. Freedom, Alive, Brainwashed, Without God, and Impossible are other strong tracks.

The Ambassador - Stop the Funeral

The Ambassador returns with his 4^th solo album declaring that he is ready to return to reppin the Lord after some personal struggles. The best songs have strong features including Crumbs featuring Jessica Reedy, Nothing Like Us featuring Ryan Stevenson & Charmaine, and Get With Us with Sean Simmonds.

116 - Man Up CD & DVD

Reach Records hit us with a strong 7 song music project and a short film encouraging the hip hop culture to Man Up for Christ. Every song features at least 3 Reach artists and range from classic hip hop to your banging concert songs. The song Authority encourages us to Man Up by not bucking authority. Another standout song is Envy which uses a sample from the 1940’s song Annie Get Your Gun saying “I can do anything you can do better, I can do anything better than you.” This song tells how we try to outdo people out of envy which isn’t God’s plan for us.

Jai – Culture Shock

Jai is well-known for singing hooks on some of the biggest songs in the urban gospel genre including Hero by Trip Lee and God is Enough by Lecrae. This is her 1^st full-length album. The tone of the album is more like pop with a new contemporary worship song unlike most other albums that are out. Jai deserves credit for putting out an album with an attractive sound that is a mix of pop, club dance, worship with a bit of hip hop flavor. Standout songs include You Deserve My All, I Love You(Human), I’ll Wait, Stand Alone with the #1 song on the album being Incredible featuring Thi’sl.

Bizzle - Tough Love and Parables

Bizzle gained popularity in 2010 with a diss of Jay-Z that was controversial but universally accepted as strong artistically. Bizzle has released a few mixtapes rapping over the beats of mainstream songs but finally gave us an album with primarily original music, plus some clever samples. Bizzle’s lyrical ability comes through strong for the whole album. He covers albums of woman’s self-esteem, putting God over money, finding true love, and forgiveness. This is one of the best albums at speaking to everyday issues relevantly and with recommended solutions. Forgive Me, God Over Money, This Aint Love, & Long Time Coming are just a few of the solid songs.

Shai Linne - Attributes of God

Shai Linne sticks to his formula by giving deep, meaty lyrics that the most-learned Christian theologically could enjoy as he speaks to different attributes of God include His holiness, faithfulness, love, etc. This project is better than his previous projects as the music is more diverse and therefore more appealing.

B Reith – How the Story Ends

B Reith is an extremely talented producer and artist who goes between singing and rapping effortlessly, and crosses genre’s from CCM, rap, folk, worship with ease. He has heavyweight features from Lecrae, Lisa from Gungor, and PJ Morton. Two of the standout songs are Made for More, the clever hip hop track 2 Steps Forward, For Once in My Life and Not Who I Am. This album is only partially “urban” but a good buy for those who like urban music and much more.

Lecrae – Rehab: The Overdose

This was the 2^nd album of Lecrae’s Rehab album series release in January 2011. In the last year, Lecrae sold enough albums to be on the Billboard gospel charts for 65 weeks and the Billboard hip hop charts for 37 weeks. The highlights of this project are Blow Your High where Lecrae and Canon, with a strong guest verse, encourage the listeners not to get caught up with weed and Chase That where Lecrae does a great job of encouraging himself and us not to chase money and our own glory but chase the Father’s glory to keep our priorities straight.

Kierra Sheard – Free

Kierra Sheard’s latest is a strong contemporary gospel album. It’s good to hear an album be inspiring as gospel music is along with being specific in encouraging the listener to reject sin in their life by seeking freedom through Christ. Kierra’s vocals are strong and we hope that artistic strength can do a lot to keep younger people listening to gospel music.

Canton Jones – Dominionaire

Canton Jones Dominionaire was anticipated as he basically created the R&B gospel space and has delivered strong projects for his fanbase. This album kept a theme of the Christian taking dominion on this earth including going into the club and receiving God’s healing amongst other topics. Already Gone with a strong verse from D-maub, Big, In Da Club and Hallelujah were notable tracks from this album.

D-maub – Death before Dishonor

D-maub’s 2^nd full album was released in August 2011 with his lead single, I Believe God, being one of the best songs of the year. He also released

Wit & Dre Murray – Hell’s Paradise II, Episodes 1, 2, & 3

Wit is the producer and Dre Murray is the rapper. For fans of “real” hip hop, this is the album for you. This album received unique mention as one of the projects of the year by well-respected secular websites. The chemistry between Wit & Dre Murray is evident as Wit brings diversity to a number of mostly smooth tracks and Dre Murray rides the beat on each one very well. The standout track is Welcome to H-town which features guest verses from Lecrae & Von Won with Shei Atkins killing the hook. For fans looking for that rapper that can stand his own no excuses with mainstream artists, Dre Murray is someone you need to check out.

Fedel - Club David

Fedel gives us club music with a clear gospel message behind each song. Good bass-heavy music for riding or playing at outings

Viktory - Birth of a Legacy

The album deals with the fear we all experience when its time to venture out into uncertainty. The aim is to encourage the listener to attack, and be aggressive when it comes to Faith and personal destiny. Birth of a Legacy Vol. 1 is about being bold and courageous when it comes to what God says about you. Be relentless.

Free Albums

One trend in urban gospel/Christian music is that artists are releasing free albums as a way to build their fan base. There were 3 free releases this year that we believe are worthy of special mention.

Andy Mineo - Formerly Known

This album should not be free. Andy Mineo, formerly known as C-lite, is Reach Records newest artist and is best known for singing the hook on Lecrae’s smash hit song Background. He displays considerable rap ability on this album to go with his singing ability. There are too many hit songs to name. Young with KB was a great concert song at the Man Up Concert series. Formerly Known, Michael Jackson, Everyday Thing, & Fool’s Gold are a few of the standout tracks.

S.O. - So it Begins

S.O. is a new artist on Lampmode Records and resides in London, UK. His theology education comes through in an album full of rich material dealing with God’s character, God’s direction on overcoming struggles all with a mature sounds like a veteran and not a early 20-something fresh out of college. S.O. put his 1^st hit Love Is for those who may not have heard it which sounds like some real classic hip hop. He samples All Honor by Ron Kenoly on the song All Honor All Glory. He encourages us in our ability to trust Christ in his 1^st single Sure Thing where he has a video also. Let It Go is for those who want that bass-heavy uptempo encouraging song. S.O. is a talent to watch for.

Pro - PSA Volume 2

Before releasing Dying to Live, Pro gave us an 18 track mixtape/album that is better than many of the albums released this year. We appreciate Pro showing creativity in putting out this project and a very good full-length album in the same year. Put You On with killer verses by Melah and Decipha, Get In with Suzy Rocke & D-maub, Ride with Chad Jones, Brothatone, Canon, and In His Image with Andy Mineo and Swoope are standout tracks.