Thanks, Tim!

This came in the mail Saturday in response to the interview seen below. Made my weekend.



Free music? You serious? Hell yea! Lol.

Doesn't stop here, folks. You need this album in your life.

"Authentic art does not compete."

It's Here!

Bapostogic mixtape has finally arrived!

(I don't really like the voice on this trailer, but it's interesting.)

I'm gonna have to mull this one over a bit before I write a true review. I like it, but that's not enough for a full review. I will say that of the 20 tracks, my favorites are (in order of appearance):

Gospop Milli Mix
The Blood
The Funky Evidence
A Year Ago 1967
My Father'z House 1962
Make You Happy
Bapost.o.g.i.c

I'll stop right there for now.

Destiny Praise

The last time I preached from a pulpit, I preached from John 8:1-11. I spoke about adultery against God, having to go through stuff that God didn't plot for you--please don't get it twisted, not every problem you go through is brought on by God; sometimes it's your fault--and recovering from being outside of the plan of God.

That was on April 20th.(I'm terrible with dates; I actually had to go look that up).

Anyway, it wasn't two days later when I heard this song, which basically sang EVERYTHING I had preached about. It was one of the best confirmations I had ever gotten in my life.



This is the group that sang it. I will say that for that particular single, I'm not excessively impressed with the production or the quality of it, or the arrangement. I think it's because for most of the verses, the snare they use is a snap, and...I don't know...it feels kinda low. Personally, I would have made different instrumental and mixing decisions. But who am I to talk, right?

The group is actually pretty hot. And I'd heard the instrumental for "Broken" before, but I didn't know that this was the group it was attributed to. I will say that this beat is crazy.

If you're any sort of gospel head, you'll recognize "Changed" as a redone classic, and "Lion of Judah" as a slightly different version from Beverly Crawford's version, and I'm sure there are others. I don't mind, because they did take ownership of the songs, did them their own way, and it wasn't a reduction in quality nor was it cheesy, like most artists like to do.

Check 'em out.

Also, cool beard, dude.

Shout outs

Ok, I know I haven't been around for this week. I've just been busy with training for PHE (Peer Health Education) from 9-5 all day, and those are my main access hours for blogging. Anyway, finally took a minute to steal away and share a couple of things that were on my mind.

First of all, shout out to the choir. You know who you are.

Let me just say that I'm tired of the bullshit. Straight up. Talking to the director, interacting with members of the choir, watching members of the choir interact, watching behavioral patterns, listening to how they sound on a Sunday morning, listening to how they sound during choir rehearsal...

All in all, it is incredibly fucked up. Back-biting, cracking rude jokes, disrespecting leadership, not standing up for yourself, being fake, being too weak to be strong and too strong to let God be strong, is ruining this choir.

I'm about ready to put y'all on Front Street, because you don't seem to understand how shitty this entire organization is right now. And I'm "cursing" and being real so I don't take any credibility for myself. I wouldn't and shouldn't have had to say anything for you to realize that this isn't right. And I hope you do see it so something will change, though I'm sure nothing will because you've been faking it for the past 4 plus years.

Yea. I said it.

Shout out to David Banner...I guess...



First let me say that there is method to my hateration. Certain songs don't make mention on this blog because they aren't even good enough for me to hate on. For example, this crap.

But anyway, the song was a good idea, and it was a good spin on relationships...granted it had its little commercial "then she sucked my dick" aspect to it, but all in all, it was a good try.

Sample from Weezy's "Lollipop." Good idea. Really. It just didn't work, because first of all, the sample was off pitch from the beat. Secondly, David Banner was on pitch with the beat, so yea...it was weird.

I also think he rode the hook too much, and beyond the first verse, the hook mainly made the song. That is to say, it was riding the success of Lollipop...good idea, probably, but whatever.

You can do better, dawg. And you're smart too.

When the red light comes on...

...I change clothes.

[By the way, I found this picture using Google. I think it's a horrible picture.]

The buzz around the office this morning was that the Bad Girl video wasn't great (actually, they said "horrible"), so--having never seen it--I checked it out. You may also.



I will say this: it was a pretty good concept--for mainstream anyway, if you're trying to follow the trends and capitalize off of what's hot at the moment. Not that I think that the comic book theme will ever not be hot, clearly we're in Gotham City, and The Dark Knight just came out a couple of weeks ago. But yea, the comic book theme is always clever.

But it wasn't pushed far enough. The entire song is built around a transformation, but in the video, there's more emphasis on the red light than on an actual transformation. And on top of that, when they do transform, all they do is change clothes to black. They were sexy from beginning to end, they were slightly maniacal from beginning to end, and Shannon's part looks like it was tacked on.

They need to fiddle around with their images a bit more, because they have lots of avenues open to them. Good songs on the album. They just need to push the envelope a bit more.

Ok...

So this makes 3 Jazmine Sullivan-related posts in a row. But this one was warranted.

Check her out at age 11.



Speaking of 11 year old singers...



This is the song Donovan was featured on.

And by the way...

Need U Bad...

I'd like to see this chick tagteam with her on the song sometime.

Jazmine Sullivan

I rarely get a chance to listen to secular radio. I usually ride with my mom to and from school--the sum of my radio exposure--and the dial is typically set to the gospel radio station.

So one day, I was chilling in the car while she was out shopping, and I switched to V103, and I heard this REALLY authentic reggae arrangement...and this really thick, gutter Jamaican patois that began "hey biaby, a whe yuh a deal wid?" Then I heard Missy Eliot yell, followed by this soulful voice.



The harmonies blew my mind; not really because they were particularly out of the box--they were actually pretty standard for a reggae jam, but they were so clean, and maybe it was her voice over it, but I just felt it. I felt the soul.

Of course, I wish the transition between the end of the verse and the beginning of the chorus was a little more precise...sounds like they just put two half-beats together rather than continuing it. Granted, that complaint only comes from me because I'm a musician and those 2 seconds are important to me. But a live performance of this song would be absolutely sick in every sense of the word.

The video is pretty nice too. Check her out.

More Nas

So Nas was on the Colbert Report yesterday. Doing an interview on the Colbert Report doesn't really give you a chance to get your point on there...it's usually just Colbert being incredibly sarcastic and cracking jokes over every point you have to make--it's weird.

But he performed "Sly Fox"...

Lord knows I want this album.

Some thought-provoking material

Zeitgeist. The Movie.

Chaseology turned me on to this movie weeks ago, and I had intended to post about it for some time...but I didn't know how to. I didn't want to give it all away, because there are some very challenging ideas in this movie.

But I figure, in this day and age, it's worth hearing.

Some more thought-provoking material will come later.

Dear Ton3x:

(July 17th)
I jus heard naked truf on youtube
and I am mad dat u cuss people out
u r goin 2 HELL!
but im prayin 4 u
in jesus name
take care
bye bye.



He's so freaking weird.

But he's SO intriguing.

Bapost.o.g.i.c mixtape drops August 12th. I'm excited.

He's got 3 tracks from the album uploaded on Myspace. Patient has been up for a while, but now "The Funky Evidence" and "A Year Ago" are now up.

"The Funky Evidence" has some Lil' Mama influence--if you can't tell from the shout-out. But a thing I like about Ton3x is that he can take something you've heard somewhere else and totally change it up. And not just half-way change it up where it's more like a parody than an original song.

"A Year Ago" speaks for itself...actually feels like it's been more than a year ago. I don't think my current pastor was at my home church when Tonex dropped "Naked Truth"...idk. A LOT has happened in the past few months, though, and it's time to take notice.

The man is a genius.

Listing from Zambooie.
01. Opening/Devotion
02. The Black Maverick
03. Heartfixa (f/ Japhia Life)
04. My Attire
05. The Funky Experience
06. A Year Ago
07. Hurts So Bad
08. Hurting Each Other (feat. The Carpenters)
09. Make U Happy (feat. David Cassidy)
10. Hup!, Come all the way (f/ Omega)
11. Bapost.o.g.i.c.
12. Gotta Give
13. Jesus Saves
14. The Difference (feat. Gospel Gangstaz)
15. Change (feat. The Hawkins)
16. Marvelous
17. Glorex
18. Patient
19. Grace
20. The Baton

The review will (hopefully) be out somewhere within the first week of release.

Put up your peace sign.

These two make a pretty good team.

Found on Chaseology.

"Nigger"

Yea...throwing around the word today. As I said, I have minimal problem with the word, because I haven't had much to complain about. If I were to fake the hurt, it'd take the power away from someone who actually does feel the pain on a regular basis.

Anyway...

A few months ago, Nas released a track called "Be a Nigger Too," and honestly, had it been anybody else in the game, I wouldn't have given it thought. But Nas has been a thought-provoker for me since I started listening to him. I actually liked the song so much that I flexed my writing muscles and wrote a quick verse to it. Not even the beat; the song.

Why? Because even if he's not saying what I agree with in the end, he's also not being stupid. He's thinking.

And the thing about it is, you know this is deep because you can't deconstruct it and make sense of it all in the 3+ minutes it takes to listen to the song once. But there is sense in it.

I won't deconstruct it all here for you, because I'm simply not gonna be able to put it all down here, and I don't know if y'all have time to read it. Plus, that wasn't the point of this entry.

The point of this entry is to address the album that released yesterday.

In a single from the album, Hero, Nas basically lets all the listeners know that because of his lawyers and his record label, he will not be allowed to call the album Nigger.

So he just won't name the album.

"This universal apartheid
I'm hog-tied, the corporate side
Blocking y'all from going to stores and buying it
First L.A. and Doug Morris was riding wit it
But Newsweek article startled big wigs
They said, Nas, why is he trying it?
My lawyers only see the Billboard charts as winning
Forgetting - Nas the only true rebel since the beginning
Still in musical prison, in jail for the flow
Try telling Bob Dylan, Bruce, or Billy Joel
They can't sing what's in their soul
So untitled it is
I never change nothin'
But people remember this
If Nas can't say it, think about these talented kids
With new ideas being told what they can and can't spit
I can't sit and watch it
So, sh!t, I'ma drop it
Like it or not
You ain't gotta cop it
I'm a hustler in the studio
Cups of Don Julio
No matter what the CD called
I'm unbeatable, y'all"
--"Hero," Nasir Jones, Untitled 2008.

On behalf of the real artists out there who have something to say, but have to watch how they say it for fear of offending the people who need to be offended,

On behalf of every preacher who's had to preach to a silent house because people didn't want to confront the truth of their words,

On behalf of every health educator who's been ordered not to tell people--who are going to have sex anyway--to at least strap on a condom for your health's sake,

On behalf of any caged bird who's found the courage to sing through the bars of society,

Thank you for saying it anyway.

Michael Jackson

The man is crazy. The man is probably a pedophile. The man has problems leaving his childhood behind. The man lost his Neverland Ranch. The man has been called a "white woman" on many occasions. The man is...let's face it...weird as hell.

But dang...


the man is a genius.

Breezy

Youtube wouldn't let me embed, so this is from imeem.



I'm a bit late on this one, but I actually kinda like this song. My only complaint is that the producer did too much to Chris' voice on the verses.

But there's been something about love songs for me lately...I can definitely appreciate a good love song. The chord pattern (4-1-5-2) on this song is SO difficult to hate, because it's always been a beautiful arrangement, wherever you hear it. The video...you really couldn't muck that up too much because the lyrics are pretty descriptive.

(Annoying musical jargon approaching)
[What's weird with this song though is that after the bridge, they tried to put the song in rounds--

you remember back in the day when you'd be in music class, and they'd have one group of people start singing a song, then they'd have the other group start singing the song maybe 4 counts after the first group started singing, so everyone was at a different part of the song? You remember...you know you remember.

--Anyway, they tried that here. Or something like it. The chord progression changed to a 1-5-2-4 progression, but Chris' vocals stayed on the 4-1-5-2. With the instrumental, and the fullness of the harmonies in the chorus, I'm not sure it worked out.
(end annoying musical jargon)

In lay men's terms, too much was going on and it clashed.

I will say, though, at least the producer was thinking, and experimenting. I just don't think it worked out the best it could.

It's a beautiful song though, minus that part.

Better in Time? Not quite sure...

The song had potential.



I just don't think her producers know what to do with her voice.

And of course, Simon Cowell brought her out as "the next Whitney Houston"...which I can see because she copies some of their riffs and doesn't demolish them completely.

She can sing. Definitely. She can hit some runs and riffs that a LOT of people in this industry can't. But just being able to sing doesn't help you in the biz. Neither is just getting a fantabulous song, which this could have been.

She's just not hitting her height quite yet. We'll see how things turn out for her. Maybe I should have bought the album...but it didn't appeal. I just wish the industry knew what to do with her voice.

The Naked Truth

Hmmm...

This album will present a lot of problems for a lot of people...or at least those who haven't completely deleted Ton3x from their playlists, and still yearn for the old Tonex.

About a year ago, Tonex (before he became Ton3x) released "The Naked Truth" on his myspace page--I guess people say it was "leaked" because it wasn't promoted. But mind you, this was no accident. This was, in fact, a realease (this was actually a typo, but I think I'll coin it) of the things that Tonex had gone through in the church, in the gospel music industry, and in his life.

The mixtape, however, though 20 tracks long, is not simply Tonex complaining about how church people suck, etc. And I could say that the music is a deviation from what we expect gospel music to sound like...but first of all, I could say that about anything, and secondly, this ain't gospel music. By connotation.

What kind of gospel music tells you that taking advantage of a woman because she's not what society describes as a beautiful woman doesn't make you macho; it makes you an @sshole?

What kind of gospel music has the singer admit "I still smoke weed, did I mention that"?

What kind of gospel music calls church-goers "niggas" and "motherf#ckers"?

It's not gospel music, plain and simple, because gospel music--or the current industry--doesn't allow you much room to be real.

And bear in mind, there is a time and a place for "gospel music." There's a time for inhuman ministry. For example, you may have been to a church where the preachers and choirs wear robes when they minister. And though the robes look intricate sometimes and a bit extra in design, the original intent of the robe (or so I was told) was to serve as a covering to the man, so that the man doesn't distract from the pureness of God's word. Basically, it was so that God can speak as clearly as possible through the minister, and the man is made blank before the congregation.

And as I said, there's a time for that. The problem with the robes, though, is that they take away the human element from the Good News, and can sometimes make it so unreal and so out of reach for listeners, when in actuality, the Gospel story is very tangible. Or at least, that's why I believe it. Because it's relevant. And though putting the Gospel behind a robe purifies it, what we need to remember is that there's a huge part of this Gospel that ain't a bit pure, and it's us.

And that, I contend, is part of Tonex's message. If you took the Gospel for all it was, and not the cookie-cutter ish they feed you on Sundays, would you still be able to handle it? If you really took into consideration that the whore you passed off a few years ago could make it into heaven before you--hell, end up ministering to you--could you still serve our God? If you saw how filthy God's hand had become from scooping so many people out of their mess, if you saw how absolutely effed up it is for us to make a messiah out of a dude that was crucified as a common criminal, a dude that couldn't even breathe long enough for the soldiers to break his legs, could you still bow down and worship? Have you really thought about this mess? Or did you let church folks do it for you? Do you even KNOW why you go to church on Sunday and not Saturday?

So here comes Tonex with this release. And it's so freaking weird at first...but you just have to be patient and let it play out. But it's a true mixtape; everything runs together. And you can dissect the tracks on second listen, but I'd advise you to get a good hour to yourself and listen to it all the way through once. It's a real testament to the talent and creativity of Ton3x. And it takes you on a journey.

He catches us up at the beginning of the album with "Searchin'," which basically depicts his search for his role as a minister, and his freedom in the industry, which is all most of this controversy has been about.

Then, you kinda float through the album...go through the Vintage Galaxy, slide through the Drunk Boy interlude to get to On We Go (featuring E.B. Williams/Mama), suffer some Shock Therapy, etc. It flows.

Then you get to track 19. The title track. What. The. Hell.

It was weird when I first heard it, because I didn't expect it to come so close to the end of the album. It's SO different from everything else. And even though I've heard it and I recognized it (much like many of the songs on here) from stuff he had on his myspace, it was still weird hearing it here. It was like a wake-up call after the rest of the album got you used to enjoying the melodic aspects of Ton3x. After all this, the Naked Truth still snuck up on me and beat the living hell out of me.

And it gave me an idea of how serious all this is. Every song in this album was a different view of the Naked Truth that is Ton3x. The truth about who he is, the truth about his message, the truth about the God he serves...the truth. The naked, damn, truth.

And apparently, Ton3x is pretty secure that he looks good naked. This here's a hit.

Top 5 picks: Elegant Simple, Blairtree Road (listen to this one at least 3 times), The Love, I Noticed (it's an interlude, but listen to what he's saying...lol) and On We Go.

1. Searchin'
2. Vintage Galaxy
3. Drunk Boy
4. On We Go (feat. E.B. Williams)
5. Shock Therapy
6. The Love
7. Bi Our Love
8. Never (Single)
9. Same Ole
10. Take 2
11. Water
12. Creepin'
13. I Noticed
14. Jenny Jones
15. Gone
16. Blairtree Road
17. Elegant Simple
18. Casa De Oro
19. The Naked Truth
20. FREEDOM: Truth

BET Awards 2008

So unfortunately, some of us don't have BET. So I did not see the BET Awards live. What I've seen so far are some clips on youtube of some performances here and there. And I've seen a couple blogs. Just based on what I've seen, therefore, I can't speak on the entire show. But I can speak on each performance, so I'll talk about the notable ones. In no order.

[There's no guarantee on how long these videos will stay up, so if they get taken down, use your imagination.]

Chris Brown feat. Ciara, "With You," "Take You Down"


Needless to say, this performance was quite sexual. Pretty darn sexy, actually. (Don't mind saying it.) But what really got to me about this performance was about 3:00 in. As far as dancing, these two are quite literally the absolute best in the game. It was just fantastic.

Yung Jeezy feat. Kanye West, "Put On"


I was literally disappointed by this performance. It was just Jeezy on stage. It was empty. Plus, instrumentally, this track had SO much potential for a live show. And because there was only Jeezy on stage, he had to get all his energy from the audience (audience participation is rarely dependable) and himself. There was little interaction until Kanye got on stage.

And even then, the chemistry wasn't even that great. Plus Kanye came in too early and then missed the beat.

Plus, Kanye should have sung on key, because his mic was run through protools (I assume) to achieve that.

Many complaints. I still dig the song though.

Rihanna, "Take a Bow"

[Embedding has been disabled for this video.]

So in case you can't see the video, you really ain't missing much. She walks down onto the stage. I felt like she was channeling Whitney or Celene Dion or something. And I think she's beautiful and whatnot, and she's blossomed a whole lot as an artist in just the past 2 years. But she still ain't earned the right to do this kind of performance where it's just like "hey, look at me sing." More was necessary. To me anyway.

They did have live instruments on this one though, and the drummer killed. I actually saw this performance before I found Jeezy's performance, and that may have been why I was so disappointed in Jeezy's instrumentation/stage set up. Voice wasn't all that perfect, but hey. Not bad, right?

Neyo, "Closer"


You know, I'm not a huge fan of this song. It's grown on me, but it doesn't have the usual effect Neyo has on me.

Enter Jabbawockeez. I had a problem with this incorporation. There was literally no set up, because Neyo wasn't dancing like crazy at the beginning. Initially, I didn't even realize Neyo was still on stage until he stepped through them at the end, and then I was like "Oh. I still don't get it though." Jabba needed more time. That's just me though.


T-Pain feat. Dang Near Everybody.


This was really, really hot, especially the intro, minus the "Yo, this industry is my circus; ride with the ring leader" quip at the beginning that progressed into a 5-6 second gap that shut everything down.

But I LOVED the circus motif--though I've seen it used by Tonex on his myspace page (it's not there anymore). And heck, he's right. He's making moves, he's working with all sorts of artists, and his name is on so many hit songs right now. I applaud him, and I honestly didn't see this coming with "I'm In Luv wit a Strippur" a few years back.

You betta jiggle that belly fat, Ross! Lol!

The BEST part of this performance for me wasn't even on stage though. It was when Big Boi stepped out, the camera panned to the audience, and you saw Lil Wayne's mannerisms--the best part of the music industry is when artists respect other artists.

Lil Wayne


"Sang! My! Song!"

Why was T-Wayne wearing that shirt?

I respect Lil Wayne though, and I have since he teamed up with Robin Thicke on Shooter. Not necessarily his lyrics, but his flow. It's effortless. It's like he's at home behind the mic. He's just a dang good rapper, and you can't really object to his talent level. You can say he's not challenging himself, but I wouldn't even say that. I mean, y'all the ones buying it, right?

Alicia Keys, SWV, EnVogue, TLC


This was a good performance, and of course, you know I loved the live instruments.

I can't say much about the appearances, because I wasn't into music that much until late 2000, so the nostalgia doesn't get me. But it was a heck of an idea, and it worked out well. I was satisfied.

Keyshia Cole and Lil Kim


...that was a mess. Sent from Heaven was ok. When Lil' Kim came out on stage though, it was like Keyshia couldn't sing no more. Plus she started off singing Missy's verse, and they had cut to her verse. Come on now.

Why she always so flat?!

I haven't found Marvin Sapp's performance on Bet, but I'm pretty sure he tore it up. He usually does.

I also couldn't find the Al Green tribute...ain't it sad? The best stuff and I can't find it.

Anyway, yea. That's my take on some of the performances. I'll be back in a few with more stuff.

Stand Out

“When the enemy shall come in like a flood, the Spirit of the LORD shall lift up a standard against him.” Isaiah 59:19

Track Title	Rating (Out of 10)
Stand Out	5
Hold On	8
Look Up	7
Bless the Lord	9
I Need You	8.5
Prodigal Son	9.5
All Hail the King	8
Hallelujah	9
Let Us Worship	8
So Amazing	7.5
He Has Made Me Glad	10
I Made It Through	10
Chasing After You	10
Well Done	10
Good in the Hood	8.5
Average Rating (per song)	8.5
Album Rating	9.2

I had been waiting for the release of this album since Victory Live! came out a couple years ago. As a musician and choir director, I’ve grown to love his style immensely. He’s active. He’s radical. He lets it all hang out. He falls on stage in the middle of his songs—on purpose. He’s out of the box. He even said at one point that he and his group have been kicked out of churches for their at times scary new take on gospel music.

In short, he’s weird. And I love it.

But there was always some speculation as to his comments concerning the status of homosexuality in the world and the church, and in exposing myself to the many kinds of people there are in the world, I’ve learned that sometimes, just saying “don’t be like that” or “stop doing that” isn’t enough to represent the gospel properly.

By the way, I once mentioned “homosexuality” maybe 3 times in a 25 minute sermon, and I was asked afterwards if I was gay. Am I? Well, you may have questions, but I don’t. And to me, that’s all that matters.

But yea…the church has been known unfortunately to sanction hatred, and lately, the scapegoat has been homosexuals. I generally can’t stand hatred and rejection in the church, because the church is supposed to be that one place you can go to when you can’t go anywhere else. Even the “Prodigal Son” (the 6th track on Tye’s album) said “at least I can go to my father’s house.” So I’m always a bit aware of when something seems slightly hateful and loftily rebuking.

Then I heard the title track on this album. First of all, it was kinda dull to me. I saw the visual on his website and it was more active, and I think it needed that visual aspect to appeal to me. Aurally, it's also grown on me. But being familiar with Tye’s work, the “war cry” he screams for sounded a little sheepish. Not sure why, but that's what I felt.

Even these lyrics sparked some anger among the bloggosphere and among many listeners, I’m sure:

“How you gonna be the praise leader
when you listen to r&b
And hip hop is on your ringtone
Trying to tell you God ain't pleased
And since when did it become cool
For you to live together unmarried
Men with men, women with women
Telling you God ain't gonna have it”

Now, is there a problem with these lyrics? Possibly, depending who you are. I personally have a problem with people saying “don’t listen to hip-hop” or things like that, and I’ll tell you why in more detail later. But these comments—not even the homosexuality, because that’s traditional church so I see where it comes from—but the hip-hop and r&b comment are comments that I’ve known to be personal opinion from Tye himself. And when you’re in a genre that people expect to be infallible, mixing any sort of opinion in it--obscurely--is a dangerous thing to do. So it was a bit of a turn off, and I almost didn’t buy this album.

But thank God I did.

Tye and Soundcheck have proven themselves as outright musical geniuses. They took almost every chord progression you could possibly think of and reworked it just a little bit more than most bands out there would. You could tell just by listening to the record that they enjoy what they do, and they take it seriously.

They called on Kim Burrell yet again to lend her soulful power to “He Has Made Me Glad,” the closest thing they have to a traditional track. She, of course, was amazing. The choir on this one reminded me of James Hall. GA’s pretty versatile if you listen closely.

[Quick comment: Do you remember on Victory Live! when Tye and Kim tried a run together, and it didn’t quite work out? Well, of course, they redid it on this album and got it right. I thought that was cute.]

“I Made It Through” is Soundcheck’s reinvention of shout music, and the main reason I love them so much. It’s New Orleans Jazz mixed with church shout music mixed with…all sorts of crazy mess. They made every effort to put every possible run and change in the song as possible, and it worked because they could resolve it. Some people may argue that he was doing too much. As a musician, I would disagree wholeheartedly. Of course.

“Chasing After You” is my second favorite track on the album.

What really stuck with me about this album is the fact that though Tye does some opinionated stuff sometimes, though he goes against the grain in what may be a questionable way, and though he's made enemies and friends and whatnot, at the end of the day, it doesn't matter to him. The track "Well Done" sealed that for me, and it wasn't even because of what the choir was singing, or what the musicians were playing. It was because of this comment during a musical interlude:

"Most of us have plans for this life. We have a blueprint of our business and how we want our future to be. And it's good to have a vision and a plan, for 'without a vision, the people perish.' So that's a great thing. But let's be mindful as we pursue our dreams and as we pursue our goals, that at the end of all this, the reality is, I'm living my whole life just to hear two words, and that's 'Well Done'"

I don't have time to preach on it right now, but suffice it to say the album is well worth the purchase. If you’re worried about hateful remarks and excessively opinionated statements, don’t be. Tye's human, just like everyone else. It happens. But he also ministers. And this album ministers.

Go get it.