J ProphetI Got Bread (2013)
By Bob Marovich for The Black Gospel Blog
I have written that Christian rappers are the 21st century equivalent of the street corner evangelists of the 1920s and 1930s. They are also versatile and generous with their product. They go out into the highways and byways, literally and musically. They also make singles, mixtapes, and EPs as well as full-length albums, and sometimes they give the music away.
The EP I Got Bread is the latest creation of Rodney Reynolds, aka J Prophet, who has added graduate of Yale Divinity School among his accomplishments. Available for download at the artist’s website, I Got Bread explores, among other topics, the fragility of the human vessel/jar of clay. “We may be broken but we’re picking up the pieces,” J Prophet raps on “Say Hey,” and adds during “Breathe,” “I may be broken but I’m still a vessel.”
And as a vessel, humans have the capability to get refilled through Jesus. J Prophet emphasizes this point during the introspective “Availability” when he rhymes that “emptiness is the possibility to be a vessel” and seeks God’s help not only to fill his cup but to fill it to overflow. The compelling female singer Fancy adds her breathy vocals to J Prophet’s on “Breathe” and “Availability.”
The most poignant track in the seven-selection collection is “When Rainbows are Enuf.” Borrowing from the theme of Ntozake Shange’s For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow Is Enuf, J Prophet tells the story of a young girl persecuted by society for the darkness of her skin and the thickness of her hair. He urges us to see how God’s loves us so we love ourselves.
“Tie My Hands” reprises Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s “Peace and Power” mantra, which appears elsewhere in the collection, and adds the leader’s recorded comments on the difficulties of the Civil Rights Movement to secure a living income for impoverished African Americans. J Prophet uses this as a springboard to reflect on the social and economic troubles today, more than forty-five years after King’s assassination, and how God’s help is required to stop the killing and starving.
Of the title’s meaning, J Prophet writes, “When I say I got bread, I’m thanking God I have something to share. I’m depending on Jesus to shift my focus from what I lack to what I possess.” I Got Bread certainly offers much to consider.
Three of Five Stars
Pick: “When Rainbows Are Enuf.”
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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