Tag: grits

Ooh Ahh

Album reviews are weird cause I would literally never listen to GRITS on my own. But I guess that’s why I’m doing this, and honestly I can get down to Art of Translation.

The fourth album from GRITS got mostly good reviews, won a Dove award and the song “Ooo Ahhh” went gold, so they did alright.

The first two songs, as previously mentioned, were very popular and displayed around in the mainstream. From there, the songs vary from headache inducing sound-wall songs, to bops about the Christian classic, getting married so they can hook up.

Over all, it’s groovy though. I’ll be listening to the album and notice I’m dancing along even if the lyrics are “Do you understand the ill coined phrase, gospel rapper.”

They don’t have music videos, but “Ooh Ahh” was in Tokyo Drift.

Christian music is so interesting. It’s so specific, and Christian hip hop even more so, that done in an approachable way, like this album, it’s kind of accessible to everyone.

Some dude name Dan Leroy wrote a review on AllMusic saying “Yet, great as the album sounds, nothing on it is more remarkable than the sound of two conscious and gifted MCs responding to hip-hop thuggery with marriage and Jesus, instead of a hopeless ‘reality’ or revolutionary tripe.”

I make fun of things like this a lot, because I was raised a) to make fun of things, and b) in the church and then later fell out of faith. Reality, though, it’s not as common in the mainstream to rap about respect, trust and honesty.

Overall, I won’t put it on rotation but if you’re dabbling in religion and you need a way in, take this one. It’s comfortable and respectable while still feeling you up.

Do you have thoughts on Christian music? Is it possible for the genre to bleed over into mainstream and interest the non-believer?

ANYWAY.
On Tuesday I’m flying to Oregon for a two week break from NYC/farewell before Europe. My first NY roommates Cam and Matt are getting married, and my best friend Katy and her charming darling Steve are getting married. So it’s going to be a love-filled trip, and I can’t wait to be in homeland territory.

I’m also going to read the longest book on my list (per flying 6 hours west) Unfinished Work by Kevin Max of DC Talk.

As far as I can tell, the book is about trying to discover your place in the world, your profession and still be a good person (whilst coincidentally walking in the path of Christ).

I have very little faith (in general and) in the book, but let’s do it. I guess I decided this is what I want all my free time to be, so here I am owning up to all my (bad) ideas.

Also (and definitely more fun) my love Molly and I are having a Golden Girls themed sleepover, so if you’ve got ideas on how to help us get in the mood, send them right my way.

Wish me luck and SEE YOU IN OREGON.

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Fuuuuuuuuuuuu

(Find throughout this post all the Fucks I’ve given over 63 volumes).

(the artistic fuq)

It’s crazy how attached to swearing I am. Sometimes I felt like my point wouldn’t be made if I didn’t throw an “f” word in there, or it wouldn’t sound like me if I said “holy smokes.” Turns out I rely heavily on my abrasive personality to get me through life.

(to the backdrop of Garfield)

I will say as the week continued I became more and more aware of the language I was using. I would purse my lips to say the “b” word, and then stop myself. Or I’d actually say “aw man, that’s shitty” and hear the word a little louder than maybe I previously had.

I talked with a few different friends about the use of curse words and some of them didn’t even notice how much I swore until I was trying not to. We tried to come up with alternatives, but nothing really feels as satisfying as that hard F.

(The classic scribble fuck)

The best I thing we came up with was Shuck Knuckle. Haven’t used it in context and honestly wouldn’t know how.

(The desperate shitfuck)

As I get older and more aware of myself and the person I think I’d like to be, I think it’s useful to be more aware of the person I am, and this has certainly given me perspective.

Yay growth.

A few weeks ago I mentioned I was going to study the GRITS. album Art of Translation and never brought it back up cause I didn’t get around to it.

Well I’m getting around to it this week. If you like gospel rap originating from Tennessee, then you like really specific things and should 1000% check out GRITS. The first two songs were pretty popular. “Here We Go” and “Ooh Ahhh (My Life Be Like)” played around church to make sermons cool for the young kids and even played on KDUK, the local young people radio station in Springfield and Eugene, Oregon.

I’ve dabbled with the rest of the album a couple times and it’s definitely better than other albums I’ve listened to for JACLAND.

Was anyone a fan back in the early 2000s? Did we go to church together and just never put two and two together? Let me know if you have tidbits or memories of Art of Translation and I’ll let you know if I could choke it down for a whole week.

Wish me luck and tell me all the embarrassing things you did as a young Christian (I shit my bathing suit at church camp, so really nothing is off limits here). (Also the use of the “s” word here is valid. I pooped my bathing suit makes me feel like a Spongebob character). Also also, not that it matters but this is not even a fourth of the fucks I’ve displayed over the years, as one can imagine.

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