Aaron Sledge – Da Light (Sky High Entertainment 2007)

Aaron Sledge
Da Light
Sky High Entertainment 2007
http://www.myspace.com/skyhighdalight

At first blush, Chicago’s Aaron Sledge seems a contradiction: an urban inspirational artist whose album is covered in photos of the singer in street-smart clothes, posing tough next to a Lexus, showing off a top-shelf shoe collection, and hanging out on Chicago streets.

But listen to the vignettes on Sledge’s CD Da Light, and you realize that the contradiction is not only deliberate, it’s his main point. The outward manifestations of style and success – fashionable clothes and cars – are not necessarily inconsistent with life on the straight and narrow. In other words, you can have bling and be blessed at the same time.

The opening track on Da Light, “2nite,” establishes this theme with hip-hopera drama, although the music throughout the album is not angry or self-indulgent but tasteful and easy-going. Beats and synths swirl, flow and pulse in communion with what is essentially a series of personal conversations between Sledge and his Maker. Infectious musical soundtracks underpin songs such as “I’m Sorry” and “Hold On,” and during “Stuck Here,” a CD-skipping effect is a tongue-in-cheek riff on the theme.

At other times, Sledge can be graceful and elegant as a Praise and Worship leader. The most significant example is “Did It All for Me.” This is beautifully inspired songwriting with all the elements of a major radio hit and the potential to spawn covers by other artists, including white Christian singers. It is by lengths the best track on the CD and one of the best songs I’ve heard this year.

Another track with radio potential is “The Program,” a memorable motif on the Twelve-Step addiction methodology. For Sledge, the seven steps to recovery from addiction to sin are literal ones: his toward Jesus, and Jesus toward him.

Lyric playfulness is also evident on “Bad,” as Sledge likens Christ to a “bad man” as in “baaaaad:” you can’t fight him – there’s nobody like him. As I’ve noted in posts on other urban inspirational and holy hip hop releases, the elements of life on Mean Street are unsettling but effective metaphors for life on Straight Street. It is Jesus’ populist evangelism in the 21st Century.

If on a future project all of Sledge’s songs have the quality of “The Program,” “Hold On,” and “Did It All For Me,” this young man is a shoo-in for a Stellar nomination.

Three of Four Stars