Just about 15 years ago, Nas marveled at how “the rap game remind me of the crack game.” Pro’s new mixtape, My Name Is Pro, makes a lot of references to drug dealing, but instead of glorifying that lifestyle, he focuses on the costs of playing the game and the advantages of getting out. Other targets on the producer/rapper’s satisfying new release, hosted by DJ Wade-O, include secular rappers, hypocritical Christians, and the downtrodden who need to know the Good News of the Savior.
On “What Are We Living For,” Pro, who previously released a mixtape called Jackin’ for Hits, which featured beats from the likes of Jay-Z, Ludacris and Rich Boy, borrows rhymes and styles from Eminem, Kanye West and DMX to introduce the three vignettes in this song. We hear about a downtrodden boy who commits suicide, an aspiring rapper who unsuccessfully holds up a liquor store to garner enough money to launch a drug enterprise, and listen to Pro criticize secular rappers who glorify drugs and violence to get paid. “You winning at getting money/but you’re killing the losers/and that’s these kids, so you killing our future,” Pro objects.
“Grave or the Box” similarly uses Pro’s solid storytelling skills to reiterate the futility of the fast life. In this song, which is backed by a mournful rock track with a heavy boom-bap style-beat, he rhymes from the perspective of a drug dealer at the crossroads of faith and fortune who chooses the latter—and ultimately death—despite reading in the Bible that “pride goes before destruction.” The young man, whose mother frequents the crack house and father is in the jailhouse, learned of Christ through his grandmother, but divorced himself from God after his grandmother died of cancer. Time at church similarly did not do anything for his faith: “I risk my life on the block every day/to sit and listen to this dude that’s fake? No way.”
While some dismiss holy hip-hop as a “slow” cousin of the secular version, Pro proves time and again that capable producers and lyricists are repping the Lord, even taunting those from the secular league for having empty, simplistic songs. “Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet” shouts out a handful of Christian rappers and boasts of their prowess: “I take any one of them to your roster/bet that they make a clown of your best hood impostor,” says Pro. “Classic Flow,” which chronicles Pro’s journey in producing and rapping, and “Turn Out the Lights” also reveal the life of a Christian rapper. In the latter, which samples from Teddy Pendergrass, Pro is trying to beat the clock to complete a song before the electric company cuts his power. But he’s not really concerned: “Down to my last dime and I ain’t worried about nathan/ain’t no way I’m doing this work and God gonna let them/turn off the lights.”
Pro’s songs are laden with inspirational and cautionary messages, but he takes the extra step of speaking plainly in several interludes airing conversations with DJ Wade-O on his faith, his hopes for fellow Christians and his mission with his music.
Pro sees himself as a leader, and to anyone that finds fault with his music, he says, “The record is a petition. If you don’t like what I’m doing, pray for me. Don’t get on a message board and talk bad about me; pray for me.”
He also encourages Christians to not take themselves so seriously (“You’re not a slave no more to sin…pop your collar!”), but also to not forget to uplift others, cautioning that The Great Commission was not to become saved for your own sake, but to reach out and lead others toward salvation.
If you are new to Christian hip-hop, never fear. In a time when many feel secular hip-hop is taking it last breaths, artists like Pro prove that hip-hop isn’t the problem; it’s the hearts of the rappers. Pro has his heart in the right place, and has some jewels for you to get yours straight, too.
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