Truth Be Told – Voorhies Hanniboheez

Voorhies Hanniboheez
Truth Be Told (2015)
www.voorhieshanniboheez.com

By Bob Marovich

When Voorhies Hanniboheez spits rhymes about the G, he’s referencing God, not a gangsta.

Actually, listening to the award-winning Detroit hip hop artist’s debut project, Truth Be Told, one might conclude accurately that Hanniboheez is God’s gangsta.  He fights the devil and his crew with the power of his incisive vocalization and take-no-prisoners lyrics.  On more than a few tracks, Hanniboheez explicitly states that he would rather flame with rhyme than use guns on those who have fallen. He shoots with rhymes, not bullets, with the ultimate goal of bringing them all back to God.

To emphasize the otherworldliness of the battle between good and evil, Hanniboheez uses gothic music backdrops that evoke 1970s Tangerine Dream and employs images such as gladiators. No gentle prophet he: “I ain’t playin’ like Fisher Price,” he declares on “The Good News.”

But Hanniboheez, whose name is explained in a JGM interview that you can access here, wasn’t always a gladiator for Christ. On the autobiographical “Praise God for Everything,” he notes how he was “just like Saul before he was Paul.” Hanniboheez’s life was redeemed, he became known as the “Anointed Bible Spitta,” and he now uses rap to testify and also to praise, as on “He’s the Light,” featuring fine singing by Janee’ Smaw.

It’s as the Anointed Bible Spitta that Hanniboheez distinguishes himself among his Christian hip hop colleagues. “Sending His Son,” a rhyme based on the teachings of one of Hanniboheez’s inspirations, Dr. Myles Munroe, illustrates the Biblical battle between Michael the Archangel and the devil. “B4,” with Stacey Askew, uses word jazz to explain how God existed before creation.  The showcase of the artist’s rhyming comes in the final track, “Your God My People.”  Here he surveys the entire Bible in eleven-plus minutes of hip hop.

Besides being dark and gothic, the beats on Truth Be Told are simple and unvaried, minimalist in parts, but the positive side is that you can hear every word. Voorhies Hanniboheez took his time on this project, and the result is telling.

Three of Five Stars

Picks: “B4,” “Your God My People.”