Gauge – Jan. 1st, 2000 (The Next Day)

Gauge
Jan. 1st, 2000 (The Next Day)
Mental Link, Inc. (2010)
http://www.mentallinkinc.com/

I haven’t been this jazzed after listening to a Christian hip hop CD since Frontlynaz’ Game Over.

David “Gauge” Veira’s Jan. 1st, 2000 (The Next Day) is packed with compelling rhymes, haunting melodies, bursts of full-on techno, and a veritable bullpen of guest vocalists. Gauge’s testimony about the highs and lows of working as an anointed street evangelist ties it all together.

Gauge is a Christian rapper born in Flatbush, Brooklyn to Trinidadian parents. Like many Christian rappers, he worked on the secular side before dedicating his craft to God. His talent is unmistakable.

The January 1, 2000 date is not just a metaphor; it is the actual day Veira emerged as a new born soul from the chrysalis of the unsaved. As such, Gauge’s new album is the thematic sequel to December Thirty-First Nineteen Ninety-Nine (2006), which focused on his life prior to accepting Christ as his personal savior.

On Jan. 1st, 2000, Gauge’s rhymes are clear, cohesive and articulate. Nearly every other track is wedded with a compelling power pop or techno-infused melody, and some include singing. Each of the twenty tracks crackle with aggressive urgency, Gauge full to bursting with the desire to tell every last bit of the good, bad and ugly about saving souls on the streets. In the end, there’s far more good than bad or ugly; in “War,” Gauge declares that evil is going to lose no matter how much military hardware it musters.

Special guests on the CD include Pettidee (“Never Gone Stop”), HeeSun Lee (“Pleasure and Pain”), Ragga (“Hating on Me”), Tanya “Tawny” Thomas (“Party Started”) and Preach Dat Fire, who in the opening track ordains Gauge to be a street warrior for God. Later in the project, Preach Dat Fire resembles an AA sponsor worried about his new member, when he calls Gauge, full of anxiety that the evangelist has once again lost his way (“Stick to the Script”).

Tracks such as “Stick to the Script” and “Pleasure and Pain” are honest admissions that the path to salvation is paved with stumbling blocks. “Pleasure and Pain” is a musical conversation between husband and wife about the daily ignominies of life as a couple that make them crazy but ultimately bind them together (I love it when she says: “I’m sorry but Lynda Carter ain’t part of my profile”). “Stick to the Script” finds our protagonist agonizing over a temptation placed in his way.

One of the album’s high points is “’Till We Meet Again,” a bittersweet selection about Gauge’s mother who passed away several years ago. “We Praise You” is the most radio-friendly of the twenty-song set, featuring a gospel-style choir singing the title repeatedly while Gauge rhymes praises.

Jan. 1st, 2000 (The Next Day) is extremely compelling listening and a CD to set on “repeat.”

Five of Five Stars

gPod Picks: “Till We Meet Again,” “Pleasure and Pain,” “Best Friend.”

Reviewed by Bob Marovich for The Black Gospel Blog.