Lecrae - Anomaly

Lecrae is the undisputed pioneer of Christian rap. His albums have sold more units and garnered more acclaim than any other modern Christian rapper. His Church Clothes mixtapes are some of the best albums I've ever listened to. However, recently Lecrae has received some accusations of selling out to the mainstream, losing the punch in his lyrics and being a carbon-copy of mainstream rappers in his beats, even bringing some of them in for guest features.

Does his new release Anomaly support these accusations? In a word, no. Lyrically, Anomaly returns to some of the themes present in his most challenging work, Church Clothes. In particular, "Welcome to America" speaks to the approval we seek as Christians in United States. It's as humbling as "Church Clothes" in its exposure of the American church. "Nuthin" is pointing out that talking about the same-old, same-old is just as good as talking about nothing. It is a clever jab at the prosperity gospel theology and the pastors who teach it. "Fear" speaks to both the fear of a spiritual valley and the fear of being over the top in our faith. "Dirty Water" tackles the tough and untouched topic of racism in the church with quite a bit of exposure (even if the second verse is Lecrae at his most vehement). "Runners" is probably the strangest song lyrically on Anomaly, as it uses runners at a gym to discuss sexual desire. It does so in a really cool way, but it was just a little odd to listen to. The final four tracks also knock it out of the park, with three well-executed guest features, some really personal lyrics from Lecrae on "Good, Bad, Ugly," and challenging lines on "Broken" and "Messengers."

However, Anomaly does contain some staler tracks lyrically. Most of these are because Christian rap likes to cover only certain topics which eventually become overused. In particular, "Wish" feels incredibly familiar, as it deals with the classic "shoulda-coulda-woulda"dilemma. Also, "Anomaly," "Say I Won't," and "All I Need Is You" feel like lyrical retreads. Even though the lyrics have good intentions and honest motives, they just feel too overused in Christian rap to be effective.

Musically, Anomaly is more varied than many of Lecrae's main studio releases and feels like a large improvement on Gravity. I also appreciate that it is more straight up hip-hop and not club music. It's worth noting, however, that Anomaly does sound more mainstream hip-hop than many other Christian hip-hop artists; but I don't consider this a bad thing, as it lends some crossover for his Gospel message. However, many of the R&B tracks feel weaker, as their hooks fall extremely flat. Guest features are few and far between, but this makes this one of the first true Lecrae records and not a "Lecrae and the rest of Reach Records" album. The ones that are present are well-treated, as Andy Mineo and for KING & COUNTRY prove. One more extremely positive thing to note is that Kari Jobe works really well as a singer for hooks. Way too well. Props to her for being able to pull that off.

Overall, Lecrae's new album Anomaly feels like a step in the right direction for the prolific rapper. While sometimes it can feel like he's walking over his own steps, the album largely feels like an improvement (however so slight) on his last two major releases of Gravity and Rehab both musically and lyrically. Some may say Lecrae is selling out with Anomaly, but I'd say he's trying to make music that will better relate to the world at large and not just Christians. I applaud him for taking up this tough task and doing it quite well on this album.

Lyrics: 4/5
Music: 4.5/5
Overall rating: 4.5/5