KJ’s back, and it appears, its not five-two, we’ve progressed to fivetweezy, or at least so his friends call him. I have to say, I had heard a lot of hype about KJ, mainly about his song ‘Dear Slim’ in which he addressed the negativity of Eminem’s music, and spoke out that Jesus was the answer, as opposed to all of the negative imagery. The song received quite a lot of publicity, featuring on MTV’s Total Request Live, and some other secular media outlets.
So, I wasn’t sure what to expect from this album, the first of KJ’s that I have heard in full, and I have to say, that he is very good at the hip-hop game. The beats and the rhymes are pure hip hop, they could be lifted straight from the main stream radio, if it wasn’t for one major difference, the lyrics. Tracks like “Behind the Musik” speak volumes, straight from KJ’s heart into young people, it tells of his tough childhood, but then it tells of him reading his cousin’s bible, and it tells of how God’s love is what pulled him through. It’s a biographical song, but it works, I really hope that this song gets plenty of airplay, as the message is one that really needs to be heard. KJ doesn’t stop at the standard rapping though, he pulls of an audacious cover of Rebecca St James’ classic ‘God’ it’s the type of cover version that could have went so wrong, but turned out so right, it really works well. Other stand out tracks included ‘Jesus’ a straight up message of the cross song, with scratching and bass beats to boot, and the intro ‘Fivetweezy’ which covers his name, and the controversy over the Eminem song, its perhaps the funkiest track on the disc music wise, and drops many cultural references, from Simon Cowell to Ashton Kutcher. And if you want to slow the beats down a little, the duet with Jeremy Camp on ‘Right here’ shows that there is depth to KJ-52’s music, it blends the vocals of Camp on the chorus perfectly with the rapping of KJ during the verses, melted together perfectly to form another very strong song. And all the ladies out there, KJ has a message for you too, a good track, with a great message for young girls growing up in a culture dominated by overtly sexual imagery and media pressure to be what the world wants.
So, bringing the review to a close, this is a CD for all hip-hop fans, KJ is a very talented emcee, and his music is filled with positive messages. It’s kind of sad that he does get likened to Eminem, because while they may have some similar musical style, the message is so radically different, this is the type of CD that needs to be heard not only by Christian fans, but also by secular fans that can be impacted by the message it holds. So we have a record that can compete with the very best of its genre musically, its some of the most cross-culture relevant Christian music I have heard, with 18 songs and 5 Interludes, there is plenty here for all hip-hop fans.
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