XROSS - Tell 'em Tha Truth (2009)

01. Tell 'em tha Truth
02. Y U Runnin'
03. Tear It Up
04. Crunk n da Club
05. Look 4 Me
06. No Water
07. Still With Me
08. Verse 1
09. Change a Thug
10. Who's Ya Daddy (Remix)
11. Let It Burn
12. Verse 2
13. Red Letters
14. Kingdom
15. Soul Search 'em

REVIEW:

In the world of secular Hip-Hop many people believe that its mainstream golden age is long gone. That, as time goes on, the quality of lyricism, content, and even production is slowly degrading. Even one of the most popular and highly-praised secular emcees of all time, Nas, coined the now famous phrase "Hip-Hop is dead."

What is ironic is that the opposite is happening with Christian Hip-Hop. Listeners, the artists and even secular critics will tell you that the golden age of Christian Hip-Hop is now. Year after year since the conception of the genre, it has slowly improved to the point that most Christian rap albums being released can easily compete with the secular mainstream, and often transcend it. Where most old mainstream Christian rap was usually cheesy in every way, now production is tighter and of higher quality, lyricism is strong and promotion and distribution is more professional and relevant. Last year was great proof that Christian Hip-Hop is at the top of its game with most releases deserving of a 4/5 rating at least. From GRITS, Braille, DJ Morphiziz, Frontlynaz, Lecrae, Trip Lee, etc., album after album has been of outstanding excellence. And 2009 is looking good already.

Or it was, until XROSS came along.

XROSS (pronounced "cross") has been nominated for a grammy, and has had two of his songs top the billboard charts. He recently signed with major label CC Entertainment/Koch Distrubition which will allow millions to access his music. However, if this album is anything to go by, it's hard to see why XROSS is so highly praised. Despite the majority of Christian rap moving forward in quality, Tell 'em tha Truth feels like one big step back to the cheesy raps of old.

First off there is XROSS' delivery. In the majority of the songs it is quite frankly a pain to listen to. It sounds as if he is unsure of himself. At other times it sounds emotionless. As if he is simply reading off a sheet and nothing else. Even in some of the more emotional songs like Still With Me and Change A Thug the flow is next to lifeless. Whether you rap or sing the goal is always for the listener to feel what you are saying. To be able to fully relate. No one will listen to your music much less take in your message if the artist himself feels detached from his own purpose and work. Although the delivery does pick up a bit in the last fifth of the album it's really too little too late.

Not only is the delivery severly lacking, lyrcism is quite atrocious as well. This is especially evident in the first four tracks. There is repeated use of cliches, particulary in the form of cheesy "in da club" style rhymes. Tear It Up goes down the horrendous "holy clubbing" route with lines like "Pull up in the parking lot, ima tear the club up. Open up the door baby, ima tear the club up. Put me on stage man, ima tear the club up... " followed by "Ayo, bet you didn't know that this was gospel. Ayo, ayo, I'm so hood in my gospel. Ayo, you misunderstood his gospel. Ayo, ayo, now it's too late 'cause we done got you." The lyrics speak for themselves. They are not only lacking in creativity and are horrendously cheesy, but at times they don't even make sense!

And the horror won't even let up for a second. The very next song is entitled Crunk n da Club. Most rap fans nowadays would be put off imediately just at the site of the title. It's basically a rehash of the previous song with different wrapping. This time XROSS trades in the gung-ho crunk flow for a lower, more sultry tone, that sounds like his attempt to be the Christian version of Snoop Dogg. This sounds as cheap and as embarrassing as it reads. By the time i heard "Do that dance girl, do it like you're saved." repeated five times I was ready to rip my earphones out.

The R&B inclusions throughout some of the songs help to alleviate the cliche ridden verses, but only very slightly. Particularly in No Water and Still With Me, the R&B choruses are reasonbly solid and enjoyable. They do a much better job of conveying the messages of each of the songs than XROSS does himself.

Unfortunately the production complements the disappointing delivery. Apparently XROSS himself was the executive producer, but the album would probably have been better off had he hired someone else to do it. From the get go you're slapped upside the head with Tell 'em Tha Truth, the title track, complete with low-quality cliche crunk chants, horrible midi guitar and topped off for some reason with haunting, yes haunting, r&b vocals. And that just about sums up the rest of the production, with only a few exceptions, of which those exceptions are mediocre at best anyway. The beats are as paltry as the lyrcism and delivery, and that's not suprising.

While there may be some biblical truths being told, those truths are often watered down. The lack of effort put into the delivery, the lyrcism and the production almost makes a mockery of the word of God Tell 'em Tha Truth tries to convey. As representatives of the King of Kings and Lord of Lords there should be a striving for excellence in all of us, in all we do. Sadly XROSS performance is far from excellent. Tell 'em Tha Truth feels like a step back into the trashy period of Christian rap which we all hoped was long dead.