Joint HeirsThe Solution (2013)
By Bob Marovich for The Black Gospel Blog
Nashville’s Moiba Mustapha and Darcey Stewart are Joint Heirs, a modern-day version of the ’60s Chambers Brothers or Joe and Eddie. They stitch inspirational and spiritual messages into a quilt of contemporary music.
While Joint Heirs embraces the hard-hitting sounds of hip hop, they, like other hip hop artists, are also enchanted by retro music. That’s because they grew up on old school, and their tributes to these timeless grooves on The Solution add depth and texture to the songs. Witness the ‘70s Marvin Gaye/Isaac Hayes funk on “All My Needs” and Sly Stone psychedelia on “Supernatural.”
Even if Joint Heirs aims their music at street level, their lyrics are not the stuff of saved former gangbangers evangelizing to the destitute and lost. Their lyrics express the everyday exasperation of the general public. In other words, Mustapha and Stewart speak to those sitting around the kitchen table, trying to make physical and emotional ends meet. For example, on the captivating “This Song is for the Sick and Tired” and “Sanity,” the duo worries about bills due, raising families, and other challenges of the post-modern age. The “solution” of the title, the album concludes, is to give your burdens to the Lord, who has the answers to life’s problems, and He will supply your needs.
If many of the selections have a gritty edge—Christian rapper Andale’ guests on the pop-infused single “More to Life” (a TBGB Pick of the Week) and “Beleevuh”—others don’t. “Sanity” has an AC rock feel, and on “Jesus Is Love,” the duo shows they can harmonize sweetly.
The thematic introduction by the duo’s pastor, Elder Harold J. Frelix Sr. of Priest Lake Community Baptist Church in Nashville, is dramatically done, but runs a bit long and might have been better interspersed between tracks to get the listener to the music more quickly. Nevertheless, The Solution is an intriguing listen and a fine introduction to Joint Heirs’ music ministry.
Four of Five Stars
Pick: “More to Life,” “This Song is for the Sick and Tired.”
Written by : Bob Marovich
Bob Marovich is a gospel music historian, author, and radio host. Founder of Journal of Gospel Music blog (formally The Black Gospel Blog) and producer of the Gospel Memories Radio Show.
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