Beats, Rhymes & Christ: Shai Linne & The Collective Reviews

I've merged one of my other blogs (Beats, Rhymes & Christ) with this one as I've decided I'd rather just blog generally about all the things that interest me as they come and go and that seems to go quite well under the 'creator' banner.

Here are links to a couple of reviews I wrote of Christian Hip Hop albums for the website Sphere of  Hip Hop:

Shai Linne - Lyrical Theology
The Collective - The Collective
Sivion - Butterfly Sessions (Remixed by Freddie Bruno)

Beats, Rhymes & Christ: 'Give It Up' - Stephen the Levite

Stephen The Levite recently dropped his 'The Last Missionary' album and I had enough faith in its quality to pre-order it. I've not had as many chances as I'd have liked to listen to it yet (life is busy) but my opinion of it so far is very positive. 

 The single from the LP is 'Give It Up', which is a track that really challenged and encouraged me to try to truly "give it up". The song particularly focuses on married life as well as church life; themes which are very strong throughout the album. I find tracks like this really helpful in the way I view the constant business of life as a husband, father, church member and teacher. In the past tracks like 'Fathers' by theBREAX, 'Domesticated' by Ruslan and 'Step It Up' by Braille - tracks by artists who are in a similar stage of life to me - have done the same as 'Give It Up' does for me now.

Stephen The Levite has written about the song and included the lyrics in a post over at his blog - click here to read it. 

Go to the Lampmode Bandcamp site to hear and buy the album and the single.

'The Forerunner EP' - Stephen the Levite (Review)

Click the link to read my review of Stephen the Levite's 'The Forerunner EP' over at Sphere of Hip Hop.

Now you've read it, let me explain my ratings. At SOHH releases are given marks out of 5 for both lyrics and production, they are then added to give an overall score out of 10. I gave 4 for production and 3.5 for lyrics. The production score needs no explanation however the lyrics score might seem a little stingy.

I personally did not like the track 'Shrink Me' although I appreciate its sentiment and that it is pretty well written in terms of spoken word poetry. I also don't agree with the pre-trib stand point that Stephen adopts on the track 'Slept In?'. For me, although lyrically both were good, these were things that meant I couldn't give fuller marks in the category of lyrics (obviously the production score remains unscathed as a result of these two points).

An overall score of 7.5 out of 10 I think is a good assessment of the EP because it is pretty good - all the other tracks are very solid in content and style. If I had assessed just the four other tracks I would honestly say that for lyrics I would give 9 or even 10 out of 10.

Going back to the theme of 'Slept In?' Stephen the Levite writes humbly about his views on the track and its content on his blog here.

'Fruit Cocktail' - B3ar Fruit (free download)

"The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other."

As Christians we have been changed; we have a new identity. Paul stresses this throughout the New Testament (1 Cor 5:7, 2 Cor 5:17, Eph 4:24, Col 3:10) . In Galatians 5 the apostle gives us a breakdown of how we are different. It's that but that makes all the difference. It's not that we can be both, we can't pick and choose - we should be one or the other; we should have the acts of the flesh or the fruit of the Spirit.

Thankfully, as true believers we have the Spirit living in us, and as long as we live by the Spirit we should be producing fruit.

B3ar Fruit have gathered some excellent artists together to really help the believer to meditate over the fruits of the Spirit as laid out in Galatians 5. The album is free, contains a great mix of quality beats (from justWORD, Wes Pendleton, Average Joe and Mac The Doulos) and some on point Theology from the likes of Stephen The Levite, Trip Lee, Phanatik and Mark Arthur. You can download 'Fruit Cocktail' at Bandcamp now.

Read Galatians 5, listen to the album and pray that you would live by the Spirit and so bear fruit.

'Grassroots Vol. 1 & 2' - Lamp Mode Recordings (free downloads)

If you haven't found anything from Lamp Mode Recordings yet then the best way to start is by downloading their free downloads. There are two volumes of Grassroots - volume 1 and volume 2, strangely enough.

Volume 1 is a much shorter affair than its predecessor at only 7 tracks long but with tracks like Timothy Brindle's 'Let's Kill Sin', Shai Linne's 'Christ Crucified' and 'World Wide Web' you get a real feel for this label's gospel centred output. [download Volume 1 by clicking here]

Volume 2 continues with the classic sounding boom bap Hip Hop with MCs like Hazakim, Stephen The Levite, Json, Evangel and Shai Linne spitting real biblical truths in the least cringe-worthy way; this is real Hip Hop with the most real message.

Stephen The Levite's 'The Choir' is a brilliantly produced track - fans of Brother Ali will be into this. His track 'What's Your Proof?' proves that his lyrics come directly from scriptural study (check the last verse); this is God's word in rhyme format - a rare thing even in the world of Christian Hip Hop. Shai Linne's 'Testify' is a great example of how powerful people's different testimonies can be when they contain elements of the gospel and apologetics. Json's 'I Do' is a heartfelt plea to his mother for her to follow Christ. [download Volume 2 by clicking here]

I haven't had a chance to check out any more of the releases from this record label but I fully intend to - this is some of the most uplifting and doctrinally sound Christian Hip Hop I've ever heard.