Contend Earnestly: Tedashii: Identity Crises

Thursday, June 18, 2009

Tedashii: Identity Crises


I first saw Tedashii a couple of years ago when he and Lecrae blew it up on stage at the Resurgence Conference at Mars Hill in Seattle. At the time I was very ignorant of the fact that there were guys out there who were actually good at spittin' rhymes and glorifying Christ. This was a new thing to me. Before, I only had bad memories of when an older white woman back in the early 90's handed me DC Talk and told me that it was "my kind of music and really good." I listened to it, laughed, and then threw it away. I loved this lady, so I didn't hold it against her, but the CD was just not good at all. Then came Reach Records. They sent me a copy of Tedashii's new album "Identity Crises" to listen to. I have listened to most of their artists, so what you get from Tedashii in the form of doctrine is no different than the other guys. This is a good thing. They are Reformed in doctrine and hit it harder in 3 minutes than most preachers do in a year. So, hands down, the theology is on point, you won't be disappointed.

The one thing that really made my head spin was Tedashii's far reaching styles. From song to song you are taken to sounds of all realms of hip hop from today and yesterday. If I didn't know that biblical understanding of what Tedashii means by "Identity Crisis" I would think that his identity crisis was coming from not knowing which aspect of hip hop he wanted to be identified with. You'll get songs that sound like Rob Base (from the early 90's), Wu Tang Clan, Jay-Z, 50 Cent, East Coast, West Coast and even some that sound like some old school gospel. Tedashii throws it down from all genre's and this does set him apart from other Reach guys.

This can be a good thing for Tedashii or a bad thing. As far as style, those that stick with only one genre of hip hop will find themselves wanting at times, but those that love many different genres will love the diversity of this album.

The two songs that really stand out are "Make War" featuring Flame (and John "No Diggity" Piper in the intro) and "I'm a Believer" featuring Trip Lee and SoYe'. If you listen to just these two songs you will notice the difference in style that you will expect from the rest of the album.

If I had to I would give the album 4/5 stars for style and music flow and 5/5 on bringing the glory to Christ and rhymin with right doctrine and practice.

Because when you bring it like this:

Self proclaimed kings bragging cause they on chrome
but 26 inches is a pretty low throne

That deserves some personal reflection on what and who we are living for.

0 comments:

Related Posts with Thumbnails