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I do my best to keep an open mind whenever I listen to music from an artist for the first time, but I must admit that one genre that I tend to avoid is "Christian rap." It's not that I don't appreciate the generally positive message that most Christian rappers promote, it's just that too often it feels like listening to a sermon over an 808 beat. As with everything, however, there are exceptions - my man Braille and his label Hip Hop Is Music have been putting out some great records for the past couple of years.
So when I received a track from a Virginia emcee named Praverb the Wyse, an emcee who seems to have been saddled with the label of "Christian Rapper," I fired up the song with limited expectations. As it turns out, while Praverb certainly doesn't hide his beliefs (one of his earlier albums is entitled The Gospel is Free), if any label should be applied the most accurate would probably be that of 'conscious rapper.' Dropping references to John McCain and Barack Obama in between boastful comparisons to Lebron and a handful of nice punchlines, Praverb surprised me with his lyrical abilities, served up over a beat that I could swear sounds like the old intro to Rap City. The song also features some nice turntable cuts from Teddy Roxpin, a dj out of Newton Highlands, MA (right around the corner from my old dorm). Check it out:
Praverb featuring Teddy Roxpin - The King
You can hear more from Praverb, and download a couple of his other songs, on his MySpace page. He also recently put out an album, Center of Attention, which you can pick up over at amazon. I haven't heard the whole album yet, but Rock the Dub gave it a nice review.
6/30/2007 08:10:01 PM posted by Fresh