STYLE: Hip-Hop RATING OUR PRODUCT CODE: 6341-6195 LABEL: Forefront FFD5104 FORMAT: CD Album RELEASE DATE: 2001-05-25 RRP: £13.27
Reviewed by Tony Cummings
This is the pop rap team (nearer to Kids On The Block than Public Enemy) who are leading the way in the new Christian rap scene. Their cuts are nicely tailored to sound funkily streetwise while still retaining some vestiges of a clean CCM sound to make them acceptable to America's Christian radio audience. The cut which broke them in the States was "He Loves Me" which is the Sunday school hymn "Jesus Loves Me This I Know" taken straight, soft and syrupy with a laid back rap in between the choruses. If that sounds like Weird City be assured it works. For the rest, the beatbox is in evidence over which Toby McKeehan can rap, with occasional vocal interjections from Michael Tait and Kevin Smith. You need to catch their video to get the full effect but these guys are a nifty bunch of pop funk rappers who manage to launch into streetwise Bible talk ("Take a stand for the Lamb, it's time ta jam") sounding like they mean every word.
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