Reviewed by Steve Hayes

The Body represents the latest project from the Get Gospel Records community. This super group includes eight MCs who've been performing together since 2003 and hail from Brooklyn, NYC. This album and their sound reflects their roots from the Jamaican neighbourhoods of Flatbush and Crown Heights in New York. The tracks vary up rap, R&B and soulful vocals, as the beats and delivery travel through the hip-hop musical neighbourhoods of east coast, mid-west and dirty south. The album fires off predominantly minimal sounding contemporary beats - with lyrics around life issues ("Imagine") and Christ-centric ("The Mission") - and songs combining both, like "Real Life". Delivery ranges between easy going and abstract, with some serious lyrical agility, from Nzingha's double timing on "To Be With You" through creative flows in "The Body". The one area where the project could be stepped up is with a more varied range of beats. But no matter, as production is tight. We journey from the downtempo, "When It Drop" and "Rejoice" - through the more challenging and lively such as "God's Army". At least two tracks from this project ("The Body" and "Hands In The Air") are getting airplay across Christian radio stations.

The opinions expressed in this article are not necessarily those held by Cross Rhythms. Any expressed views were accurate at the time of publishing but may or may not reflect the views of the individuals concerned at a later date.

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