By Kyle Kiekintveld
GENRE: HIP-HOP/RAP
LABEL: INDEPENDENT
RELEASE DATE: NOVEMBER 10, 2009
RATING: 4 OUT OF 5
Hell’s Paradise features some of the smoothest storytelling in hip-hop today. It is filled to the brim with compelling stories that make skipping a track not even a slight possibility. Lyrically the album is simply unstoppable, it is powerful and inspired.
It is a dangerous path for a Christian artist to flirt with club style beats in a Christian themed album. This is one of the few albums that can pull it off. Songs like “Dangerous (ft. Emcee One)” are the perfect matching with an obvious club style beat with a positive (or at least cautionary message).
Tracks like “Rescue Me” reveal the near unlimited potential of this group and by extension Christian Hip Hop. The beat starts off as a few electronic notes that build manically into a frenzied beat behind ferocious, passionate lyrics about self-discovery and re-establishing a relationship with Christ.
The only slight flaw of this album is while the beats are all high quality and original they don’t seem particularly unique at times. A few are obviously reminiscent to other beats leaving a Hip Hop head trying to connect the inspirational beats. This isn’t a big enough flaw to make the album hard to listen to, in fact most the beats are still far better than many secular artists.
Hell’s Paradise is a powerful mixtape by Wit & Dre Murray. Lyrically the album is filled with smooth flawless rhymes weaved into compelling stories. The production of the album is also top notch featuring a few beats worthy of their own instrumental tracks, specifically the track ‘Circulate’. This mixtape is also completely free.
Authors Note: The question I have been struggling with this review, and the handful of truly great free Christian Hip Hop mixtapes, is this, can a free mixtape be great? Can their be a legendary mixtape worthy of five stars, or do mixtapes lack something that great albums have? I think somehow a mixtape has a different feel. A great mixtape is still just slightly lesser then a great album. Regardless of my bias, Wit & Dre Murray absolutely worthy of notice and respect. This is skill, craftsmanship and passion. Listen to it.
Review copy provided courtesy of DaSouth.com.
Wow. I feel like the only person that wasn’t really feeling the mixtape. Maybe I just need to give it a thorough listen. Who knows?
This was actually tied for my favorite album to release last year and my #1 Christian hip-hop album from last year. I do think that there can be such thing as a legendary mixtape if the same time and effort goes into it as an album, Hell’s Paradise being one of those cases. It’s also hard for me to consider this just a mixtape when it has 21 original, high quality tracks that span 72 minutes and when Wit and Dre Murray pretty much approached this as an album. I had to take a thorough listen from start to finish before I was feeling it, but after I did, I absolutely loved it.