That same manager eventually, years later became my employer until the company closed earlier this year. I collected all the albums I could and annoyed the manager of my local Family Christian Store to no end by asking when something was coming out or if he had it in stock. I continued to listen to Christian Hip-Hop all the time. Unless God were to use something else, my character and life choices, even at a younger age were putting me on track for big trouble. But I still hold today that if it were not for Rebel, I would have never gotten to that point. Now, I am pursuing an undergraduate degree at a private Christian institution and have found that I am constantly surrounded by other people who were raised and impacted by these people and this music. Not long after this realization, I committed my life fully to the pursuit of glorifying God and finding joy in Him. Not from listening to the lyrics or knowing its name previously, but because with my head in my hands weeping, I realized I was truly and awfully “Desperate” for salvation. By the end of the song, I realized the name of it. The cry of the words “create in me a clean heart” echoed from the song and I immediately keyed into what was being said. This time I didn’t bother skipping and kept on with my tasks. It was a song I’d heard plenty, but would often skip because the tune wasn’t upbeat enough. One day, I was sitting around listening to music while working and a song from Rebel came on. But I saw my friend and how he had changed and I searched and started praying constantly to find whatever it was that would bring me back to God and give me that fire that he had. I had become, at that point, complacent and tired. A couple of other people on that retreat did the same, but in the following months, his decision was the one that lasted. It was on a church retreat though that I watched him, someone I thought to be a strong, independent individual, break down and realize fully his sinfulness, depravity, and need for God once and for all. He was older and had similar interests that I was acquiring, so I watched him closely. One friend in particular though was the wildest, most openly immoral guy that I knew in church. A few years after its release, I was surrounded by some peers that were really getting serious about their faith and some of them were even taking up rapping. Songs like the “Intro,” “Don’t Waste Your Life” and “Go Hard” all hit me and got me pumped for God and living right. In the years to follow, it was rare that a day went by without playing some songs off that album. Everything really began I think in September of 2008 when Lecrae released an album called Rebel. I knew I wanted it, and I wanted it badly.Ī year later, I had discovered a little more of this type of music and had watched most of the few interviews there were to be found of Lecrae and others like Flame and the Cross Movement guys. What I heard and saw in those three minutes, however, was a joy and fire for Jesus unlike any I had ever been presented with. Being from a middle class, white family that grew up in the church, I was not accustomed to this kind of music and way of life.
Immediately, I told my friend to pause the song and I went to YouTube and found the now old-school, but infamous Reach Records music video of Lecrae’s “Jesus Muzik.” I watched and listened eagerly as ever before.
In a muffled way, through my friend’s cheap microphone, and my old, battered speakers, I heard the lyrics “Ridin’ wit’ my top down, listenin’ to this Jesus Muzik (bass hit).” I was hooked. Up to this point, I was accustomed to music from Skillet and Steven Curtis Chapman, so the beat that came on next rocked my world.
#LECRAE REBEL ALBUM TRIAL#
A time filled with trial and error went by before we finally made a connection. He sent me a silence-breaking message and asked if I had a microphone hooked up and said he wanted to try out the new chat feature that allowed voice calling so he could show me a song he was listening to. Nearly ten years ago, a cheap, old laptop in front of me cables running around just to connect to a power source and our spotty internet connection, I heard “Jesus Muzik” for the first time.Ī friend and I were chatting over Google Talk, and we came to the end of our conversation having run out of things to say.
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