I have to give a shout to my homie Brian who was with me the first time I heard this track. Needless to say it took both of us by complete surprise. We were down in NC for our college reunion a few weeks ago, cruising to the store for one of the numerous beer runs of the weekend. Not being overly familiar with the radio stations in Durham after a 5 year absence we were shuffling through the dial looking for anything good when a thumpin rap beat caught our ear and we stopped to hear it out.
After listening to the first verse, something atypical stood out about this song- there was no cursing. This wasn't the usual pause in the song or reworked lyrics type of no cursing though. This was pious, we're making a point not to curse, no cursing. So we both leaned in a little closer to the radio, like proximity was going to reveal the bad words we knew had to be there but were somehow deaf to momentarily. Still no curse words. Just then a word came blaring out of the speakers and surprised us more than any expletive we were waiting on. As clear as day the MC shouted out- Jesus. Contrary to the notions of gangster bravado the base heavy beat had set us up for, this was a Christian rap song. An in your face, unapologetically urban Christian rap song. When the DJ came on saying how this was one of his most requested cuts I immediately knew why. I'd never heard a religious song come with such a street attitude. Theses dudes weren't preaching from way up high, they were bringing their message straight to the block. It doesn't matter what you believe, there's no denying honest intensity and production like this. So I bring you LaCrea's "Jesus Muzik".
And the people said amen. Amen.
Lacrae- "Jesus Muzik"
