Author's Note: A few readers pointed out to me that it was rather hypocritical to make sweeping generalizations about rappers based on most of what I've overheard (which is gangsta rap; a style I don't like at all) right before admitting that I knew very little about rap. So I've modified this review, kept the statement that I know very little about rap, and tried to remove the generalizations about other artists.

Every now and then, the music industry encounters one of those artists who takes pride in doing it wrong, in purposefully breaking the rules. John Reuben is one of those artists.

How fortunate it is, then, that John Reuben’s genre of choice is rap. I don’t know about you, but I’m not a big fan of rap artists that follow “the rules”. Which is not to say that there’s an absolute set of rules. It seems to me that a lot of rappers have their own version of "the rules", and don't take kindly to others who break those rules.

John Reuben broke the rules before his career even started. For starters, he’s white – and of course, the world has its successful white rappers (the publicity Eminem’s been getting serves as an extreme example), but for the most part, it’s hard for white rappers to be taken seriously. On top of that, he’s a Christian. Sure, there have been plenty of Christian rappers before him, but urban music remains largely understood in the world of Christian music, so being a Christian rapper certainly isn’t the key to massive popularity. But even among Christian artists, Reuben stands out from the crowd. He’s witty and sarcastic. His #1 enemy is not another rapper he’s chosen to pick a fight with, or a family member or ex-lover who has hurt him. He chooses instead to attack the ego. And he does it not just with an array of clever words, but with interesting and sometimes whimsical musical accompaniment that purposefully flies in the face of typical hip-hop sensibilities.

Now, I’ll make the disclaimer that I am not an expert on rap. At this point, I own a sum total of four albums that could be filed under “rap” or “hip-hop” – dc Talk’s Free at Last (which is way too pop to be taken seriously as rap), Toby Mac’s Momentum (half of which is way too rock to be taken seriously as rap), D.O.C.’s Righteous Funk (which was an impulse buy in my younger days), and John Reuben’s stellar debut, Are We There Yet? And honestly, if I hadn’t liked John Reuben’s debut as much as I did, I’d have no basis by which to judge his sophomore record, Hindsight. The debut had a winning combination of fun party songs, humble soul-searching, and spiritual reverence that never got overbearingly preachy. Thankfully, Hindsight continues that formula.

The strange thing about Hindsight is that it actually sounds like it should have come before Are We There Yet? in John’s discography. Fans of the first album will appreciate John’s habit of placing decidedly non hip-hop elements in many of these songs, but where those elements often added to the hook on the first album, here they’re largely placed there for comedic purposes. I have no problems with ditching the rules and poking fun at the industry, but sometimes, these elements are more annoying than amusing. And as a result, a lot of the hooks and choruses on this album don’t grab me like the songs on the debut did. To be honest, after my first listen, it took some fortitude to go back and listen to it again, due to how annoying a few of these songs were. But for every annoying song, there was a really good song to balance. So I bravely gave the album a second spin, and then a third… and finally most of the annoying elements transformed into amusing quirks.

My biggest problem with Hindsight is that John spends less time rapping about God and more time rapping about himself and his hip-hop peers. I do understand that he wasn’t going to let anyone force him to write simple, feel-good Christian songs, but I just feel like there’s a lack of depth on some of these songs. There are times when John seems to practicing the same things that he’s dissing – talking about how his music is innovative and all that. He never claims to be the best, but sometimes he comes off as being a little smug, mostly because a high number of tracks are devoted to reminding us that he’s different. On Are We There Yet?, a few songs like “Do Not” and “Hello Ego” served that purpose well enough without overdoing it, but nothing on Hindsight gets me as hooked as those two songs did. There’s also nothing on here that rivals the rocking intensity of “X-Ray” or “Identify”.

Still, Hindsight is not without its merits – it’s got more good than bad, and we can’t accuse John Reuben of trying to be anything other than himself.

Try a Little Harder
Interestingly, John decided to start off his latest disc with an amusing interlude that rivals a few of the in-between tracks on Toby Mac’s solo debut. (Toby Mac runs John’s label, by the way.) This minute-long track is basically a diary entry, and it’s guaranteed to make you laugh due to how cheesy it is. John sounds as excited as a kid in a candy store about the prospect of starting his new rap album, while the music in the background could have come from a Saturday morning cartoon. Still, he gets in a clever jab at his detractors when he mentions something about “mean people” who will judge how real he is. Ouch.

I John Reu
We're about to use all we have
Throwing out attention getters simply just to grab focus
Channel in, because if you're like me you have a short attention span…
After establishing his desire to break all the rules with that ridiculous intro, John basically recites his mantra in music form, letting us know what he’s all about and that he promises to “keep it innovative, daggonnit”. Right from the beginning, he hooks you in with a clever rhyme: “Hi, you’re listening to my new LP/If you didn’t buy it, then my man, listen please/Don’t dub a tape, you can go to the store/And if they’re sold out, tell ‘em please get more.” Makes me feel slightly guilty for downloading the album, but anyway… The circus organ used in the first track makes for a nice, playful back-up instrument here, and John’s delivery is a good mixture of playfulness and confident hip-hop posturing. The only thing that mars this track is a series of random voices in the middle of it, repeating the line “My name is John Reuben and you have my word on it”, but John redeems himself with the final verse, which informs us that “This record won’t ever sell a million” (it’d sure be funny if it did!) before surprising us with a sudden, but clever ending.

Hindsight
Aimless to whether or not I made a mistake
And if so, how far is too far before it's too late
Should I wait, but then what would be too long
To reverse the effects if I was wrong?
Transitioning smoothly out of the last track, this record’s title cut is a little more typical of Reuben’s old style, and therefore it contains more obvious reference to spiritual matters. Here, he’s basically looking back over his life, and times when he fought against God’s leading due to his own pride, but sees now that God knew what He was doing. It’s got a similar flavor to “No Regrets”, a compelling tune from the last record, though I have to say this one isn’t as catchy. It lacks a strong instrumental hook like the guitar line from the aforementioned song, and the chorus seems anemic to me. Still, I like it’s laid-back, lazy afternoon sort of atmosphere, so it’s a keeper.

Big E Cypha Session
Pretty much just an intro to "Soundman"; I don't know why they made this a separate track, other than to make it possible to skip a few repetitions of the chorus.

Soundman
I understand your need for attitude
But I don't see why we need to spare the gratitude…
Well, this is, um… unique. John hits us with a seventies-inspired rave-up designed to give props to the man behind the sound boards. Not a bad idea, but this track has one of those choruses that drags on and on and on and on… The song’s over five minutes long. Whoever the guest vocalist is on this track should be shot - he sings in a high-pitched, nasal voice, and even breaks into a scream when the main beat kicks in, right before shouting ?!” and them realizing it’s 2002 (an obvious jab at the need for rappers to tell us what year it is). Once John actually gets into the meat of the song, he tosses off some of his usual well-crafted lines, depicting the sort of atmosphere he wants to create at his concerts, with everybody moving and the soundman pumping the volume up real high to maximize the party atmosphere. He even gives a shout-out to “the security guard who tries hard to be hard, but takes his job a little too far.” Actually, this song brings back amusing memories of John’s opening stint on Five Iron Frenzy’s Electric Youth Tour, which makes me think of their song “Blue Mix”, which is about the loathsome practice of mixing opening bands’ sound poorly so that the main act will sound better in comparison. Anyway, forgive that little tangent. Just when you think there’s a point to this song, John tells us near the end that “It’s not about you, it’s not about me… it’s not even about the soundman. Just don’t take life too serious.” Huh? I guess I should stop thinking and wave my hands in the air or something.

Run the Night
While I'm with them, I'm spittin’ wisdom
Hoping to hit them, get them to listen, and make the room start livin’…
This song continues the party atmosphere, floating on a more relaxed groove. John greets a bunch of his buddies at the beginning of the song and invites them in, telling them “Tonight is your night ‘cause it’s gonna be my night.” I think the song’s about taking time to relax and not have to think about your troubles – something we all need to be reminded of once in a while. The song just doesn’t do that much for me – even though it’s got some good DJ effects and a looped guitar sample in the background, it still seems rather monochromatic. Another weak chorus doesn’t help matters much. However, I’ll give John credit for keeping the focus on God in this tune – “How could we create without love for the Creator?”

Breathe
Sometimes you feel like no one can stop you
And other times you feel like you have nothing to offer
Like right now I might be scared to death of death
And tomorrow I won't even care about my next breath…
I’m a sucker for a good transition, and John manages to keep the flow going as “Run the Night” suddenly ends, leaving us with a melodic (though slightly high-pitched) vocal intro that leads into what sounds like some chopped-up samples of John’s voice before his verse finally kicks in. He gets a good stop/start flow going in this song, with a thick, rumbling beat that drops out at the beginning of each verse, leaving a few minimal electronic keyboard notes to carry the rhythm. This song seems to follow in the theme of “Run the Night” by exploring what happens when you don’t allow yourself to relax. I can definitely relate to that panicked feeling at times, when everything is happening too fast and you can’t seem to breathe in enough oxygen. It’s unfortunate that this song suffers from yet another flimsy hook – it’s just John calmly saying “Breathe in, breathe out, you see I’m tired of holding my breath”. I guess the calm demeanor helps the song, but it’s kind of a bummer that only two hooks have been memorable so far, and one of those (“Soundman”) is one that I really don’t want stuck in my head. Quick, somebody get me a good hook!

I Pictured It
What caused my accuracy to be tainted?
‘Cuz my mind was smart enough to manipulate itself
But not smart enough to figure out it was being manipulated…
Just in time, this song comes to the rescue – it’s perhaps the most intriguing and innovative track on the record. This one finds John in a more introspective and pensive mood, looking back on an encounter with a woman who wasn’t what she seemed to be. As John says, “Her face looked different than I pictured it.” Much like “Jezebel”, he paints the relationship in less than flattering terms, portraying her as an artist “capable of the most abstract stuff imaginable”. He realizes that he gave into the fear, wasting his time “analyzing life more than I was living”, afraid to make a move due to the fear of losing it all. His rhymes and metaphors are superb in this song, even if his rapping style is more like talking than the more rigid rhyme schemes he employs on most of the record. The beat is more syncopated to match, and the song has a disarmingly calm feel up until the end, when John repeats these words over and over - “Have you ever felt something you couldn’t explain? No definition, no name? Just a feeling, no definition, no name?” – getting louder and louder until finally he’s screaming, and then everything drops out and the song ends, much like how “X-Ray” ended on the last album. The only thing I don’t like about this track is the creepy vocal sample in the background.

01-08-02
A host of angelic voices appears here to back up another one of John’s diary entries. He sounds serious at first, until you realize that he’s writing over-the-top, cheeseball poetry, and finally you’re ensured that he’s just messing around when his earnest prayer suddenly becomes pathetic begging for God to allow him to “make music that people actually like”. Just to convince us he’s totally lost his mind, the track ends with him singing the chorus of the next song to a bluebird that lands on his windowsill.

Doin’
You get what I'm puttin’ down?
I say a gimmick can be found above as well as underground
And since what's real can't be defined by culture or man
I'm curious as to what makes you think that you can?
This is one of those songs that has such a ridiculously obnoxious hook to it, you’ll either be singing it for the rest of the day or you’ll just throw your stereo out the window in disgust. John romps all over this track like a bully kid on a playground while a chorus of voices sings “Reuben, what is he dippity doin’?” as a tuba blurts in the background. You have to hear it to understand what I’m talking about. It’s a lot like “Hello Ego” from the last record, especially since we get the most concentrated indictment of those who play by the rules in this song. Once again, he takes out the notion that MC’s have to act tough, explaining to us that they don’t like him because he “made hip-hop happy”. “You MC’s need to quit it,” he spits. “Do you really think that you’re the only ones to get it?” I don’t know, it’d be a truly great song if it weren’t so self-referential. It’s also severely marred by the most obnoxious female vocal ever heard on a rap album – she doesn’t sing, but just inserts pointless comments in her high-pitched voice about whatever John has to say – and then a bunch of random people speak for over a minute at the end of the track. John probably decided to talk to whoever was around the studio and put it on the track just for fun, but it gets old really fast. Even the return of “The Kleeze” (an obnoxious character who made fun of John on the first record) isn’t really all that funny. But I love John’s clever verse where he tells his detractors that “Y’all got to be kidding/Some of ya'll treat art like it was some sort of religion/Following the rules, one two and on through/To the point you don't create art, art created you.” He then repeats that verse with “hip-hop” in the place of “art”. Touché.

Thank You
I'm not even sure what's next
I'll let my thoughts collect and do my best to connect without begging for your respect
Or maybe… just a little, what the heck?
This seems to be one of those shout-out tracks – other than a few more clever lines, I’m not hearing much new at this point. It’s basically about John’s desire to be unique – “I know there’s really nothing new under the sun, and yet I want to do it like it’s never been done.” Guest rappers Othello and Manchild get a turn each at the mic – I don’t know where they’re from, though I seem to recall Othello being a guest MC on the last album as well. Manchild’s verse sounds like it’s really pushing the borders of what’s acceptable on a Christian record – he doesn’t swear or anything, but his overall tone sounds a little more “worldly”, especially when he says “I could turn the other cheek, but see I’ve only got two/So spit in my face one more time and let’s just see what I do.” That was really unnecessary.

DJ Manuel (Turntablism 101)
John’s DJ gets a whole track to himself here – though it’s only a minute long. I guess everybody’s giving their DJ a track these days. It’s cool than John gave him the spotlight, but it’s no “Cure for the Itch”, if ya know what I mean.

Up and at ‘Em
I'm not trying to be a jerk up on this microphone
I just want to make you happy and the party full blown…
This is probably the most fun (read: least obnoxious) of the party songs on this album. Thank God it’s the last one – there were a few too many on this record for my tastes. Once again, a slight 70’s vibe sneaks its way in, and thankfully we have a stronger chorus and melody line to work with here – “You see there’s too much energy to do nothing/And we don’t care what y’all do but do something, move something.” Okay, so it doesn’t say much, but it’s a good “get the people moving” anthem. You can tell it’s designed for concerts, especially in the middle 8 when John declares repeatedly, “You have no choice in the matter, get your hands up!” He’s rather persistent about getting everyone involved in his concerts; now he has a song to back him up.

A Defensive Offender
Tap into my thinking, tap into my will
What causes human motives to be so ill?
You pushed a man looking to make him react
Then you stand there smirking, satisfied that I snapped…
This is the second of two “darker” songs on the album, and it’s no surprise that these are my favorites, simply because they go in a completely different direction than most of what I hear from Christian hip-hop artists. Plenty of them explore darker themes, but it’s generally set to a more typical, somber urban background. Here, John plays around with a plinking piano sample, a tense female vocal, and DJ effects to make the track sound like it came from a horror movie. John’s vocals are much more tense here as he describes a person who took pride in hurting him. The song then takes a confessional turn in the second verse when he recounts the measures he took to get revenge. He’s not proud of it – he realizes that he did the same thing he was condemning, and in the chorus he asserts that “I’m no better than you and you’re no better than me/We’re just flesh and bone looking for some identity”. It has a very similar tone to “Identify” from the first record.

Pataskala
Perspective changes, we could never claim this life
Yahweh spoke and showed us what our aim is
Something that wasn't alive by heartbeat and breath
And something that's not left with bone and flesh…
I think John has a thing for organs. The first song made use of a circus organ, and now the last track makes use of a funeral organ as John gives a shout-out to his hometown, and a friend from the ‘hood (or rather, the 'burbs) who passed away recently. Fellow rapper Scott Bellows (who was in his early 20’s like John) apparently died in his sleep for unknown reasons, and you’d expect a song about this incident to be sad, but John actually keeps the mood upbeat and whimsical, ending the record on a confident note by reminding us that “none of this is really ours” and pointing us towards Heaven in a very non-contrived way. He chorus is a fun sing-along where John spells out the name of his hometown: “P-A, T-A, S-K, A-L-A, O-H-I-O.” Interestingly, the song and the album suddenly end with a brief rap interlude from Scott Bellows himself. Kind of weird, but a fitting tribute to a buddy that he had a lot of good times with in their makeshift basement studio back in the day.

Even though parts of this record disappointed me due to John’s over-the-top insistence on not sounding like a normal hip-hop artist, it’s that same attitude that makes me admire him. It’s unfortunate that some of the songs approached the braggart territory of stereotypical hip-hop – this will likely cause some Christians to question his motivation for being a rapper. But then, I don’t expect John to follow all of my rules. I can probably sum up his opinion of this album best with a quote from the song “Doin’”:

Actually, I think you tough guys are corny
And my LP comes with a full proof warranty
If you buy it, and don't like it, feel free not to listen
I'm not sure about a refund, but you're welcome to diss it
‘Cause I don't, will not, and won't ask you
To react to the beat if you're not feeling it
But perhaps, maybe you are in that case
It goes one for the treble, two for the bass

Yeah. Word up, brutha.

TRACK REVIEW SUMMARY
Excellent: I Pictured It, A Defensive Offender
Good: I John Reu, Doin', Pataskala, the "Dear Diary" interludes
Decent: Hindsight, Thank You, Up and at 'Em
Weak: Soundman, Run the Night, Breathe
Skippable: Big E Cypha Session, DJ Manuel (Turntablism 101)

Website: http://www.johnreuben.com


Recommended: Yes

Great Music to Play While: Hanging With Friends