The word of the day is "props". Can you say that? Sure. I thought you could.

Now I'm not talking about extraneous items used on the set of a play or a movie. I'm talking about "propers", an imaginary form of currency given to someone when respect is due for something that they've done. For example, "props" are due to cletta1201 and madtheory for organizing the Black History Month Write-Off, for which I've written a review (about time; there are literally hours left in the month of February!) of two other notable African-Americans who also deserve these much coveted "props". The two people in question would be the Christian rap duo known as Grits.

Now, I realize I'm treading on thin ice here. After all, it was none other than the two aforementioned reviewers who gently corrected me when I last attempted to review a rap album, pointing out that I had unfairly generalized the entire world of mainstream rap music in my attempt to establish white-boy rapper John Reuben (one of Grits' label-mates) as something refreshingly different. So I won't make the same grievous error here in my attempt to review the latest disc put out by these two Tennessee rhymesters, entitled The Art of Translation. But I will say that the sonic style presented here is a little more close to what I understand to be the norm than the goofy hip-hop hybrids like John Reuben and Toby Mac that I tend to enjoy. Basically, I came up with this album when realizing that I'd already reviewed everything in my collection by Black artists (generally pop/rock savvy acts like Tait or Nicole C. Mullen), so I had to venture outside of my musical comfort zone a little with this one.

I've known about Grits for several years - the critical buzz has been generally positive ever since their debut, Mental Releases, one of the flagship releases for Gotee Records back in the mid-90's. While they've churned out a few catchy hits (especially "They All Fall Down", which apparently got them a little bit of MTV/BET exposure), as well as numerous guest appearances (both collectively and separately) for artists like Out of Eden, Knowdaverbs, and even the very non-rap Kevin Max (like how I slipped all three dc Talk members in there?), I never felt particularly inspired to check out any of their albums. That all changed this year, thanks to an intriguing little new ditty from the boys, profoundly titled "Ooh Aah".

Now I'm not an expert on the various subgenres of rap and hip-hop (heck, I use the terms "rap" and "hip-hop" interchangeably, there's the first indication!), but from what I understand you can tell a little bit about an artist's style based on the state they call home. East Coast, West Coast, et cetera whatever... I couldn't tell these all apart at a glance (though I think I can tell when it's not gangsta rap!), but a more Southern style would seem to be the most obvious template for an act named Grits. Like a good artist in any genre, though, Bonafide and Coffee aren't content to confine themselves to a predictable sound, and thus these tracks get sprinkled with a lot of fun little instrumental flavors. Most importantly, above any other style, these guys set themselves apart from the crowd with a stellar lyrical flow that is long on bragging about the God they serve, and short on bragging about themselves. Which, once again, is a big plus in any genre.

Here We Go
Everybody talkin' 'bout changin' the game
But everything I hear y'all soundin' the same...
The record starts off with a radio announcer telling us "We're gonna play the cut right now, and it's gonna be a big hit", and then a bouncy piano line breaks in, and the duo begins to lay down their cool rhymes over some sort of a tropical, Caribbean-influenced polyrhythmic pattern. You know the kind of beat I'm talking about - the kind that allows for some quick and complex rhyme schemes that make you scramble for your lyric sheet. On the surface, this song sounds like a typical "getting the part started" number, but underneath it all, you can detect that Grits are putting forth a reason for the music that they make - they want to pass on a message that brings life instead of just churning out the same old same old. I love the little bit in the chorus where the slip in a jab about "makin' the the playa hatas shut up" - it slides by pretty quickly, but it's clever. Definitely a good lead track to reintroduce us to the band's Southern goodness.

Ooh Aah
My heartfelt desire, be more like You
Trying not to quench Your fire by the things I do...
A melodic, radio-ready song follows the first track nicely, with a slightly gentler beat and the guys' deep voices alternating between speaking and singing, creating what sounds like a nonsense chorus on the surface: "My life be like, ooh aah, ooh..." But it's more than just a catchy string of syllables - this song is actually about being at a difficult point, when you lack the strength and faith to even know what to say when addressing God. The Bible actually mentions this, referring to it as a sort of "groaning" that is translated by the Holy Spirit. It sounds like mumbo jumbo, but anyone who's ever experienced deep grief over sin and a total loss for words during prayer should be able to relate. The group does a great job of detailing this grief with some clever lines during the verses (including a line about "wiping the snot on my sleeve" that kinda jumps out, but actually makes sense in the context of being emotionally distraught to the point where you're sobbing like a baby), even though I suspect the song's meaning will go over most listeners' heads. I love the song's middle eight, where a familiar female vocal sample is inserted to announce the arrival of Toby Mac, who offers a sing-songy verse to sum things up. "Ooh Aah" is one of a select few songs that manages to display artistic integrity, pop sensibility, and mad rap skills all at the same time.

Runnin'
This topic got me ceiling walkin'
I'm so beside myself I'm looking' at me like I'm someone else
And I don't feel I'm talkin'...
This song more or less picks up where the last one left off, with a more keyboard-dominated background and some sweet backup vocals from the female group V3, who I've never heard of before. They sound a lot like Out of Eden. This seems to be a song about trying to escape the will of God and yet not being able to escape the guilt. It's got a rather melancholy, regretful tone to it, which is only added to by the backup vocals. I love how these guys are able to take a concept straight from the Bible such as the conundrum Paul mentions of doing what you know you don't want to do, and "translate" it into modern rap lingo without it coming off as total cheese. We're three for three so far.

Tennessee Bwoys
Whether sadistic, legalistic, outcast, or misfit
Fortune teller mystic, ones who love God
Revere Him, fear Him, these and more found in my district...
Ready for another party song? This one really breaks up the introspective mood, trading poppy harmonies for a more repetitive (but still playful) melody line, and exchanging the silky voices of V3 for what sounds like a pack of cheerleaders. It's basically a "home state pride" sort of song, though I'll admit it's a bit odd to hear rappers pay tribute to Nashville and that general neighborhood, since it's known for being the home of a lot of non-urban CCM as well as country music. There's a deeper layer to it as well, dealing with the boys' heartfelt desire to reach out to their city and help influence it towards Christ - it's healthy to remember that sometimes you don't have to go halfway around the world to find a mission field full of needy people. Anyway, it took me a few listens to get used to this song, since the ladies can get quite annoying as they interject shouts between the boys' lyrics and repeatedly spell out, "T-E-double-N-E-S-E boys, T-E-double-N-E-S-E girls!" But it's still a fun one to bounce along with in the car (okay, I haven't actually tried it yet, but I'm sure I'd have a blast and look really strange to the guy stopped next to me at the traffic signal). And yes, the typo in the song's title is intentional.

Be Mine
Who'd have thought my babe was on an island of her own
Had me smiling on the phone ,same page, different time zones...
Awww.... how sweet. Here the boys try their hand at a love song. I think it's dedicated to one of their wives or girlfriends, but I'm not sure which. You have to respect a rap group that takes a stand for marital bliss - you can just picture this beautiful Polynesian princess blushing and smiling as the guys lay down their rhymes over a gentle, breezy guitar loop. (Wish I'd had this one handy on that last trip to Hawaii!) CCM's latest "it" girl, Nirva Dorsaint, helps out on the chorus (when is this girl gonna record a solo album?), and unfortunately it suffers from the gooey repeated lyric, "We could hook up, we could hook up, we could get married." Perhaps they could have re-worked it to promote monogamy without the chorus being so uncreative, but oh well, it's still good as love songs go, and I'm sure the intended recipient appreciated it.

Ill Coined Phrase
More Caribbean sounds show up here, underneath this interlude's chunkier beat. Basically, the guys trade off lines here for a minute or so, with one of them repeating, "Do you understand the ill coined phrase Gospel rapper?", which suddenly cuts off and leads into the next track.

Seriously
So ignorantly, you keep them loving mental slavery
They wanna be free,but you ignore responsibility...
Man, this track is fun. It employs heavier guitars underneath a frenetic beat as the guys launch an attack on the negativity that plagues the music industry. Their basic stance is to say that this isn't a game, that they're hoping to touch lives with their music, that people need "more than entertainment from the industry" and that the bragging, misogyny, etc. that many of their peers promote is keeping people in "mental slavery". Heavy stuff, but they handle it masterfully. I love the end of the last verse, where one of them ends off his rhyme by saying, "We at the end of this song", and then the beat falls away and somebody interjects "Shut yo' mouth!", and the chorus comes slamming back in.

At the Video Shoot
Another interlude pops up here to set up the next song - this one's supposed to be a few snippets of backstage conversations at the shoot for a rap video. It jumps back and forth between the director and some other guy, exchanging smug quips about how these girls aren't here to act, they're basically eye candy, and a group of girls getting dressed, discussing the rap videos they've been in and trying to cover up their underlying insecurity. Very clever.

Video Girl
Gangsta with gold fronts and the girl he's advancin' on
Would rather run him over with the truck she's dancin' on...
The beginning of this song takes on a trance-like tone as the guys repeat over and over, "You a video girl, you must be kiddin' me girl!" Guest rapper Knowdaverbs (who has worked with Grits before, actually most of the collaborations here seem to be returned favors!) drops a biting verse about how this girl is basically shooting herself in the foot by letting these guys use her to further their womanizing agenda by having her dance in skimpy clothes in their video. It's not just an indictment of the music industry, it's a caution against the way worldly men view women. This is apparently a very important issue to the guys; the explanation of this song on their website explains that they both have young sons, and they don't want to see them exposed to this junk as they grow up, because they know they both struggled with it when they were younger.

Believe
While the shadow of truth casts an image so clear
The closer it gets, we reject it out of fear...
This song takes on a similar formula to "Be Mine" in that it employs a tasty female guest vocal and a breezy acoustic guitar... but this isn't the typical R&B girl vocal that you'd expect in your average pop-friendly hip-hop song. The guys got help from none other than Gotee label mate Jennifer Knapp here, and if you know anything about Jennifer, you'd probably be a bit surprised that she showed up on a rap album! Interestingly, her folk/rock chick vibe fits in perfectly here, providing a refreshingly different interlude that thinks outside of the box a little. This song is all about apologetics, explaining that everyone has to believe in something and no one can be a total skeptic. The problem is that while much of the rest of the world has a pretty good grasp on what they believe and why, Christians are often left in the lurch because they believe what they're told blindly what to believe and they just go with it. I applaud Grits for standing up and saying that people need to be able to explain why they have faith in God. I really hope this one makes it to radio. With Jennifer likely on a sabbatical, it has a high chance of scoring with non-rap fans who just miss hearing her voice. (Astute listeners will notice that Jennifer is also returning the favor of a guest vocal here - Bonafide and Coffee both showed up as part of a "chorus of voices" in Jennifer's song "Light of the World".)

What Do You Believe
This is more or less a vamp tacked onto the last song, with soulful male vocals underneath the light beat. It's okay, but it seems a bit redundant since it doesn't say much that wasn't already said.

Get It
Since '89 I stayed straight, no more livin' off state
The only bars I stay locked in now are 16 or 8...
Here comes another one of those tracks that sticks in my head because it has more of a "party" feel to it and a persistent female vocal in the chorus. The beat here is definitely more electronic, perhaps a little funk-inspired, with a little bit of sampling underneath. It sounds like more of the typical self-referential rap song at first, but that's not so bad after Grits have shown us that they can be versatile. The song's basically about the desire to do something revolutionary, to put forward a timeless message (the Gospel) by taking advantage of modern tactics (i.e. their musical genre of choice).

Make Room
Wreaking havoc on Satan's mavericks through a labyrinth
Filled with nooks and crannies, we like the X-Men, so uncanny...
This track starts off with an odd sample of a wacky-sounding comedian before launching into a confident refrain of "Back on up, back on up, aw yeah, back on up!" At this point where the album starts to get a little redundant for me - not that any of the songs are outright bad, but most of the musically interesting material is over with at this point. "Make Room" is definitely more of a "tough guy" song, with both guys spitting their lyrics more forcefully instead of the more relaxed talking that characterizes most of the songs. I have one nitpick with Coffee's verse - it's really out of place and tactless for him to say he's "tight like the shorts that men look gay in". If you have certain views about homosexuality, that's fine, but no sense making uncalled-for jabs that some people will interpret as gay-bashing.

Keep Movin'
This is another one of those "soulful vocal" interludes that basically shows the guys having fun, but is ultimately pointless and a waste of space. I do think it's kind of cool, though, how it fades out and then the voices break back in: "That's for real!"

Sunny Days
It's all to teach you that you can't depend on me
Like drivin' a Benz, 20 inch rims, drop top 6 with the tank on E...
The second-to-last song on the record sounds like it might be an appropriate closer - as the title suggests, it's a bright and upbeat celebration type of song. It's actually a celebration of being given the strength to persevere despite trials, holding onto the hope that Christ will return again and Christians will be rewarded for their tenacity in keeping the faith. Nirva backs the guys up again here.

Lovechild
Now I'm grown with kids of my own
Aand I gotta do right what the grans did wrong
Now I'm in a battle for my soul control
Tryin' to get back everything they stole...
The last song remains upbeat, but ties the album up on a more personal note. Some guy named Antonio Phelon offers a decent background vocal, making you expect a digitized dance number as the song starts off, but of course it takes a turn back into hip-hop territory for Bonafide's first verse, with the chorus being a decent morphing between the two styles. The song is basically about being a child adopted by God, which sounds like it has special meaning for at least one of these guys, since they lacked a father figure growing up. They acknowledge that learning to accept God as Father has helped to heal those wounds, but all the same, they want to take what they've learned and be there for their own kids so they won't have to endure the trauma. It's not as obvious of a tribute to fatherhood as say, Will Smith's "Just the Two of Us", but then it isn't as schmaltzy, either. It's interesting that the term "wild child" shows up here - it was prominent in the song "Get It" as well. Perhaps there's more to connect these songs than meets the eye - the boys have definitely crafted an album that requires more careful listening than I've had the chance to give it (hey, I had to get this done while it was still February!)

The Art of Translation
The album closes out with an odd postlude, featuring a few different voices rapping and speaking in various languages. Not sure what it all means, nor am I even sure what languages they are - they sound mostly European. This ends rather abruptly, and then we are treated to a perplexing coda that sounds like someone took an Italian opera and remixed it with a hip-hop beat. Okaaaaaayyy...

Don't be dissuaded by my mixed reaction about parts of this album - this is a fine piece of work that shows Grits to be veterans of their trade. I tend to be more of a fan of rap when it is influenced by more of a pop/rock style, which is why some of the more straight-up rap numbers go over my head at times. I'm not as good at analyzing how good the beat is (though I know it when I think I hear a catchy one!), or isolating as many quick and clever lines amidst all of the verbiage as I wish I could, but I can safely say that these guys have a lot of talent, and for the most part, they don't waste their time messing around. They know what they want to say in a song, and they manage to still have a lot of fun with it even when the message is dead serious. Judging from past crossover success, I'd say that the boys stand a better chance than most Christian rappers to really make an impact on the mainstream, because they do enough genre-mixing to catch a lot of people's ears, and yet they're not as off-the-wall as say, Toby Mac or old-school dc Talk. It may be true that Grits don't really care about crossover success - they're certainly not mincing words about their beliefs on this release, but that's fine with me since mincing words isn't really something you do in a rap song. Those who have ears to hear will need no help with the "translation", and as for the rest of us, well, we always have the aid of their website...

ALBUM WORTH:
Here We Go $1.50
Ooh Aah $2
Runnin' $1
Tennessee Bwoys $1.50
Be Mine $1.50
Ill Coined Phrase $1
Seriously $1.50
At the Video Shoot $0
Video Girl $1
Believe $2
What Do You Believe $0
Get It $1
Make Room $.50
Keep Movin' $0
Sunny Days $.50
Lovechild $1
The Art of Translation $0
TOTAL: $16

Group Members:
Teron Carter (aka Bonafide)
Stacy Jones (aka Coffee)

Website: http://www.grits7.com

Thanks again to the hosts and participants of the Black History Month Write-Off. I have listed them below; please check out some of their reviews 'cause we've covered a lot of ground here!

aeoakley / aerocat / artbyjude / atchesonate / bigd99999 / brotherman / cdm72 / cletta1201 (host) / cntaur5 / cr01 / davidmac / dedemw / divad23 / e-kleptic / ed_grover / ekidd911 / ez013182 / flamepillar / frostiepekkle / fuche_bu / gc_mom / hierograffiti / insomniac1587 / jay1051971 / jeff_wilder78 / jennjoy / jo.com / kristinafh / lambchops / macresarf1 / madtheory (host) / marinermoose22 / matta75 / megstar / netnut746 / officer / pacmany2j / paulyoungotti / pmills1210 / psychovant / roheblius / shadesofblue / sherkarr / skbreese / sparkospunky / speeddemon531 / stairway2drew / standells / susidee34 / tdswift89 / thevoid99 / tjolims / youngchinq / waynio

Recommended: Yes