Blue Chip & Specialist – Ground Zero

Blue Chip & Specialist
Ground ZeroArete Music Group (2008)
http://www.chipandspec.com/

On “Clear the Air,” a track from their 2008 CD Ground Zero, Christian hip hop artists Gerard Henning (aka Blue Chip) and Rudy Ramos (Specialist) announce, “If you don’t know my story, you won’t understand my praise.”

That line could have opened the duo’s second official CD.  The album is packed with stark testimonies about going “from the street to the pulpit.”

Also known as BOANERGES, the Louisville, Kentucky duo Blue Chip & Specialist have been involved in Christian hip hop since 1999. They were part of the Righteous Riders tour and have shared the stage with artists from Pettidee to Kirk Franklin.

I don’t know if the the duo’s rhyme-stories are autobiographical, but their tales are distinctive because they don’t begin with the protagonist knee-deep in the thug life. Rather, they show how he or she got there in the first place.

For example, “Freedom” suggests the tipping point could be a parents’ mean-spirited divorce. With jarring Middle Eastern-sounding beats as its soundtrack (the duo favors exotic beats), “Who is He to You” is about a young boy whose direction is set “in middle school, when I started packing a weapon.” But on the latter track, the hero accepts Christ after learning that the Son of God was not “weak” but endured unimaginable torture and cheated death.  Here was someone who could be the “leader of my squad.”

For those whose testimonies are not so extreme, “Freedom” describes how everyday problems can make or break a person’s destiny. “Nothing” and “Runaway” talk about common temptations of the flesh and the struggle to stay faithful and saved when bedroom eyes are smiling.

“I Want to Trust You,” with its familiar melody, is the most radio-friendly selection. It suggests a relationship with Christ is like any other relationship: based on trust.

If kingdom warriors stomp on the devils’ head, on Ground Zero, Blue Chip & Specialist call him out and beat him down with brute lyrical force.

Four of Five Stars

gPod Picks: “I Want to Trust You,” “Clear the Air.”

Reviewed by Bob Marovich for The Black Gospel Blog.