KJ-52 - Behind The Musik: A Boy Named Jonah
ARTIST.....: KJ-52
TITLE......: Behind The Musik: A Boy Named Jonah
LABEL......: BEC / Uprok
URL........: http://www.kj52.com/
RIP DATE...: Feb-08-2005
STORE DATE.: Feb-01-2005
GENRE......: Hip-Hop
QUALITY....: VBR / 44.1Hz / Joint-Stereo
SIZE.......: 105,9 MB
Track Listing:
01 - Dad: "That's How You Got Your Name" 01:35
(Intro)
02 - Fivetweezy 03:22
03 - Are You For Real? 03:17
(Feat. Jon Micah Of Kutless)
04 - Rock With It 03:39
05 - God (Feat. Rebecca St. James) 04:38
06 - Nehind The Musik (Feat. Pee Wee) 04:19
07 - Mom: "Sitting In The Puddle" (Interlude) 02:07
08 - Thank You 03:33
09 - Jesus 03:24
10 - Right Here (Feat. Jeremy Camp) 03:37
11 - Video Games 03:36
12 - Plain White Rapper 03:26
13 - Dad: "Ybor City" (Interlude) 01:46
14 - Things I Like (Feat. Goldinchild) 03:13
15 - Life After Death 04:36
16 - Never Look Away (Feat. Bryan Sanchez) 04:04
17 - For The Ladies (Feat. Seth Ready) 03:24
18 - Mom: "I Wanted To Call You Sky" 01:20
(Interlude)
19 - I Can Call On You (Feat. Donna Lewis) 04:26
20 - Cry No More 04:12
21 - One 03:56
22 - He Is All 03:33
23 - Dad: "It Was God Working In Your Life" 01:54
─────
76:57 min
Release Notes:
Raised in a rough-and-tumble suburb of Tampa, FL, KJ-52 (real
name: Jonah Sorrentino) was the product of a broken home, and
eventually found himself mixed up in drugs, drinking, and chasing
skirts. At 15 a family member challenged him to take up Christ,
and being born again gave him the strength to move on. But rather
than give up hip-hop and its tacit endorsement of sin, KJ poured
his faith into his hip-hop. Even his name was a devotional. "KJ"
was an abbreviation of his old rap name, but "52" (pronounced
"five-two") represented the miracle of the five loaves and two
fish. KJ-52 believed he was spreading the word of the Lord in much
the same way Jesus shared the food in the story. But his road to
Christian hip-hop heaven wasn't easy. While still a teenager, KJ
began working in youth ministry at a Florida inner-city church. He
also recorded a demo, but it was largely ignored. Christian or
not, getting your music noticed is tough. It wasn't until KJ met a
young, likeminded rapper named Golden Child that things began to
move forward. The two young men formed Sons of Intellect and began
performing throughout Florida. Soon Golden Child moved on and the
Sons dissolved. But that brief bit of success in the Christian rap
game had whet KJ's appetite, and in the summer of 1998 he stepped
down from his youth minister position to pursue his Christian rap
dream full-time.
A relationship with Gotee Records' Todd Collins led to a deal with
Nashville CCM label Essential, and the label released the debut
KJ-52 full-length, Seventh Avenue, in April of 2000. The LP
featured collaborations with such Christian heavyweights as Cross
Movement and Knowdaverbs. Extensive touring followed the release,
and KJ-52 found he'd finally established himself as the Christian
rapper he always felt he could be. In 2002, KJ-52 dropped
Collaborations. The album's title referred to the numerous
contributions made to the album by guest artists, including Ill
Harmonics, Pillar, and Thousand Foot Krutch. The most interesting
track on Collaborations was "Dear Slim." The track presented an
open letter to Eminem, taking issue with Em's own song, "Stan,"
and some of the more extreme opinions expressed in the Detroit
star's lyrics. A battle rap of sorts (albeit a warm fuzzy
version), the song nicely encapsulated KJ-52' s conversational
rapping style, his intricate wordplay, and his devotion to the man
upstairs.