In this clip I captured at Lecrae’s Gravity release concert in Houston, Sho Baraka calls out his High Society group member Swoope.
As you can tell when he pops into the frame with his “Come on, son!” face, Swoope didn’t feel too threatened. Also, that’s Collision Records co-owner Mike Luna on Sho’s right.
NOTE: Don’t believe everything you see and read on the Internet.
A spaceship landed at your junior high school in Miami, it’s the
night of the Sadie Hawkins Dance, and you showed up without a date.
Members of Odd Future and Maybach Music Group reading you bed time stories.
A pull-string baby Moses doll who wears sunglasses at night.
The music coming out of a teenager’s Skullcandy ear buds when his older sister forces him to accompany her down the feminine hygiene product aisle at Walmart.
Your youth pastor’s ringtone.
The heartbeat of the kid who has to save up money to buy one “cool” shirt at Hot Topic he prays doesn’t go out of style before he can wear it.
A hip hop album made by Veggie Tales characters who need a throat lozenge after trying to discuss their set list in a loud nightclub.
Ke$ha and Andre 3000’s submission to your church talent show.
Hip hop music your mom doesn’t like but hopes “has really good words.”
Interested? Download a free copy of the project here.
The night before the Thanksgiving holiday I conducted my first Google
Hangout interview with former Christian radio personality/current
author Seth Tower Hurd about his new book Hip Hop & Jr. College.
In our conversation below, we get into:
- The background of the book
- The hip hop EP he organized to promote the it
Which contains songs from Manchild of Mars Ill, Wit & Dre Murray, theBREAX & DJ Wade-O, and Heath McNease
- How Christians deal with racism and poverty in America
- How hip hop and sports can start to help heal those type of issues
- Whether or not our country is more or less racist after electing a black President
If you haven’t had a chance to check it out yet, you can grab Hip Hop and Jr. College from Amazon or Barnes & Noble for $2.99.
I recently caught up with GodChaserz Entertainment CEO/producer/rapper Brinson via
e-mail to discuss his new album, what to think when God doesn’t seem to
answer your prayers, and which film made the best superhero movie this
summer.
Sketch: No Other Heroes marks your third solo album and 22nd release from the GodChaserz record label you founded and own.
After so much time and effort spent in music ministry, I
imagine that things can occasionally get boring, frustrating, or just
routine. So what motivates you to press on and move forward these days?
Brinson: A couple of things really.
First and foremost, I believe I am called to do GodChaserz. If I
didn’t believe God sent me to do this I would have quit a million times.
The second reason is all the testimonies, they really help me stick
it out in the hard times. That being said, I quit at least 20 times
while making NOH. Then the Lord would have people from all over
the country send me emails, texts, tweets about how my music has
impacted their kids, youth ministry, or changed the culture of their
church, etc. That is one of the biggest things.
Also, I think I have had that “I’m being slept on” mentality for so
long that I still work extra hard like I have something to prove. Every
album it feels like I (or any of the guys on the label) have to reprove
that GodChaserz is a force in Christian Hip Hop.
Other than that, I’m still having fun. I love to be on stage, I love
meeting people. And I want to make sure I’m clearing a path for other
GodChaserz artists.
Sketch: Your song “Gold” unfolds a pretty interesting story. What inspired it?
Brinson: I was inspired by watching numerous artist on TV. We see the same story all the time. From KC and Jo Jo, to the late, great Whitney Houston
– the list goes on and on. They all come up in church, God gives them a
gift, then they leave the church and blow up. Drugs and all sorts of
crazy things come into play when money is involved. It always leads to
emptiness.
Sketch: Your song “Hit the Floor” is a bit of a departure
from your typical sound but may be my favorite track on the album. What
made you want to spazz out on the song and in the video?
Brinson: On every album I always have some sort of hybrid song (ex.
“Green Grass Theory,” “80/20″, “Hello”). This time around it’s “Hit the
Floor.” I’m big on pushing the envelope with fusing styles on my albums.
As far as spazzing out, while Juice2020 (co-producer)
and I were going over the project, we kept pushing hard for lyrics,
harder lyrics. I just had fun with “Hit the Floor” and it came out
great. I never thought it would be the first video but God brought it
all together; the concept, look, everything. I think everyone is going
to enjoy this one.
Sketch: You attempted to fund the production and promotion of
this album using the popular crowd-sourcing site Indiegogo.com. With it
you set, but did not reach, a goal of $50,000. What made you post such a
lofty target figure and what does it say about faith and God’s
willingness to financially bless or not bless your work here?
Brinson: Man Sketch…. this is a hard thing to talk about.
I wasn’t going to do it at all. As you know, I’ve been doing this for
so long without any big label push behind me. I’ve been relying on
favor and faith in God’s provision. Many doors have opened that way, so I
was just going to stick to the formula.
But I know the message has to reach more people. So I prayed on it
and believed the Lord said “Go.” I still fought with it too. But, I know
an obedient and willing heart will always win with the Lord. So I
stepped out on faith and went for it.
We didn’t reach our goal, and naturally a man will question if he
obeyed God. The “Where did I go wrong?” question came up. Ultimately, I
just chalk it up to God having a greater purpose, maybe to just kill my
pride of not wanting to ask for help.
I set the target so high because I know what good can be done with
that amount of money. I could reach more people – especially orphans
and kids in group homes. As far as God’s willingness to bless, I still
believe He’ll do it. God is able.
Would I do it again? Probably not. But, if I feel the Lord is saying
do it, I’m not dumb enough to tell God “No”. Those things never work
out.
Sketch: Since the new album is called No Other Heroes and I know you’re a film fan which made the better movie this summer: The Avengers, The Dark Knight Returns, or the Spiderman reboot? Why?
Brinson: The Dark Knight Returns was the best movie of this
year – hands down. It was more than a comic book movie, it had
everything: suspense, great acting, a plot twist, drama, great fights,
shoot’em up, bang bang… it was a great story all around. I thought the
acting was at a high level. They nailed every scene. I had to go back
and watch The Dark Knight. So yeah, Dark Knight Returns.
The Avengers was a close second. It was a GREAT comic book
action movie. Robert Downey Jr. really did a great job acting. He was
very impressive, better than all of his Iron Man movies.(I thought Iron Man 2
was horrible.) The dude who played the Hulk was great. I really like
him. I appreciated that Samuel L. Jackson didn’t ruin the movie. He
isn’t good in sci-fi movies.
Spiderman was an epic fail. I thought the story told was good, but
the dude who replaced Toby Mcguire was thumbs down. But hey, you can’t
win ‘em all Hollywood.
That was a great question man. You know I’m a big movie buff. I’ve
seen at least 20 movies in the theater this year. SMH I need to repent,
LOL.
BONUS QUESTION:
Sketch: What song(s) have you’ve made that you think got overlooked, but you thought it was special?
Brinson: On my first album it would be a song called “I
Remember.” I thought it was a great song. We talked about so many
things about the 80′s (toys, candy, TV shows etc). It was overshadowed
by “Solar Powered” that was a big song.
Then on OMG i would say it would be “Breaking Down.” It was a
great storytelling/fantasy song. I think my flow and voice tone was
great and the third verse was very good.
No Other Heroes releases today at all major digital download stores including iTunes and Amazon.com.
When the MOVE Tour hit Houston a few months ago I got to sit down with The Ambassador and talk about his approach to music.
Now that Xist Records has announced the date of the still-untitled
release (March 26, 2013) it’s a good time to share this part of our
conversation where he discusses whether or not he plans to be more
preachy or less preachy on that upcoming project.
Sketch the Journalist is a freelance hiphop writer living in the thriving country metropolis of Cut-N-Shoot, Texas. Down with gospel rap since Stephen Wiley’s “Bible Break” in 1986, he has chewed, reviewed, and interviewed most of Christian hiphop’s major players. Sketch holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Journalism from Sam Houston State University and was once an intern at the New York Times Houston Bureau. He can be reached at sketchwrek@dasouth.com.
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