Transformation Crusade

Description

The self-titled full-length debut album by the American hip-hop group Transformation Crusade was released on Benson in 1990.

It’s funny to think how far Christian market rap has come in the past five years. It only seems like yesterday when kids were taking the Rap’sures more seriously than they ever should have been. Along with P.I.D., S.F.C., and D-Boy, add new jacks Transformation Crusade to the list of credible, godly, alternative street sounds.

As might be expected from a Christian label release, there is a noticeable sheen to the production that slickens the rhymes and beats of this talented duo. However, there is enough of a hardcore edge to the proceedings that the b-boy or fly girl around your crib can blast this around the block and not get the strange stares they might if it were Michael Peace or Stephen Wiley they were turning out. In that way, think of Transformation Crusade production values like those of Delicious Vinyl offerings (Tone Loc, Def Jeff, Young M.C.) – smart to what works both on boomboxes and pop radio playlists.

Unlike Loc, Jeff and Young, the Crusade brothers aren’t about busting moves or doing the wild thing. One of their jazzie – and I mean that literally – numbers, «Hold On», pleads against “missionary dating” and the risks it poses to Christian girls’ virginity. Though it might have sounded a wee more authentic coming from the mike of a sanctified female rapper (where are they?), the shuffle beat and horns push this over well.

Transformation Crusade likewise excel at storytelling, portrait-painting couplets, as best heard on «It Costs to Be Cool», where a GUY/Heavy D-like swing beat accompanies Christian rap’s starkest picture of ghetto death since Sugar Ray Dinke’s «Cabrini Green Rap». The guys blow it a bit, however, when on the reggae-inflected «To Be Down» they make a blanket diss to welfare mothers.

In all, this is a satisfying debut on a number of accounts. The Transform’ers divide themselves between addressing the Church and the street, varying their style in rhyme and rhythm enough to make skeptics believe hip-hop isn’t all monotonous, and their two-part repartee brings to mind the days when Run-DMC were on the artistic upswing. One of these days soon, a Christian act will blow away the west coast gangsters and the east coast hustlers of rap with just how hard the blessed can play. [Jamie Lee Rake, CCM, May 1990]

CD tracklist:

01. Time Ta Rhyme
02. To Be Down
03. It Costs To Be Cool
04. R.A.P. (Righteousness And Praise)
05. Sold Out
06. Hold On
07. The Motel Hell
08. Christ Is King

Note: Simultaneously released on cassette and CD by Benson.

[youtube_sc url=”RAq3lmNvTUM” title=”@45RPM What Good Is Music? (with Pastor Chris Williamson of Strong Tower Bible Church and Transformation Crusade. True Tunes, 19 Oct 2022.” autohide=”1″ rel=”0″]