Between Two Worlds – Trip Lee

Trip Lee
Between Two Worlds
Reach Records 2010
www.reachrecords.com

In the opening track of his third studio album, Between Two Worlds, Christian hip hop artist Trip Lee makes it known that what we are about to hear is “real life music.”

And he delivers on his promise.

Between Two Worlds is one vignette after another plucked from furrowed brows bowed in daily prayer. Lee essentially portrays the modern Christian everyman (and woman) who must navigate the delicate and sometimes frayed tightrope that runs, as the title suggests, “between two worlds:” between faith/spirit and the circumstances of real life that challenge faith and spirit daily.

On “Life 101,” for example, Lee wrestles with questions about life and the answers he receives from half-empties and half-fulls. “Limitations” provides sobering but refreshing reminders about the finiteness of humanity and the infinity of God. The rapper also waxes autobiographical on his transformation from a youth growing up on Jay-Z and overcoming a debilitating illness that put him at death’s door on “I Love Music” and “Prognosis,” respectively. The album’s first single, “The Invasion” finds Lee and Jai praising Jesus as the true superhero who can fix it all.

Some Christian rappers temper their gritty messages with spoonfuls of humor, but Trip Lee is all about message, with few humorous metaphors. Still, the tightness of the production coupled with Lee’s no-nonsense rapping are sure to earn him a place among the stars who populate his album’s green room.

And what a green room it is! Between Two Worlds has a veritable all-star lineup of featured guests, no less than nine altogether. They include some of the genre’s best: Sho Baraka, Tedashii, Lecrae, Jimmy Needham and the lovely Leah Smith. The beats are stark and the ambient sound sometimes gothically orchestral.

On “Prognosis,” Lee declares that God’s standard is perfection, and we as humans can’t possibly meet it, but based on Between Two Worlds, artistically Lee is pretty close.

Four of Five Stars

gPod Picks: “Invade,” “Limitations,” “Life 101.”

Reviewed by Bob Marovich for The Black Gospel Blog.