Slugger Roo: Press

Friday, December 08, 2006

SLUGGER ROO hits grand slam with "Testimony'


Slugger Roo hits grand slam with 'Testimony'



Thursday, December 7, 2006 9:02 AM CST


"Who Got Saved?" Vice Lord gangbanger and drug dealer Darrin Williams known as SluggerRoo committed his life to God on Dec. 14, 2003. Photo by Wiley Price
A new CD brings street smarts to Jesus

By Chris King

Of the St. Louis American

The Testimony of Slugger Roo is a landmark in local gospel hip-hop, showing just how versatile a format it is for music, ministry, memoir and even humor. It's a major achievement - and a very interesting and varied CD.

Most important, for music fans, is that the record pops and flows. Because of the disc's diversity, there aren't that many raps and beats, but they are all solid and a few are spectacular.

The hit single (if there is any justice on the radio) should be "Thinking of a Way Out Da Game (Jesus is the Way Out)," which begs you to shout along. Like many of Slugger Roo's rhymes, it's based in his years on the streets as a teen leader in The Vice Lords. It's a believable peek inside the mind of a brother trying to clean up and deciding to use Jesus as his cleanser.

--> AdSys ad not found for religion/local_religion:middle --> A strange but also effective rap track is "Who Got Saved? (Slugger Roo Got Saved)," another singalong that manages to promote both Jesus and the artist's own brand in every chorus. The strange part is the backing track, which sounds rooted in death metal. It's weird but beautiful.

Rap is only one aspect of Slugger Roo's game. The record opens with a sincere prayer that his CD will do the work of God, and it ends with a live recording of a sanctified church service when Slugger Roo apparently delivered his first sermon. This rocks just as hard as the rap tracks.

The record also has personal testimony, as the title would suggest. Slugger Roo lets a couple of other people step up to the mic, including one child, but his own extended, self-titled testimony is the deepest waters. Anyone who wonders what goes through the mind of a gangbanger needs to study this text.

Speaking of studying texts, Slugger Roo also offers some fairly straight-up Bible study on this record. One track is titled after a scripture from Revelations, and "He Didn't Have to, But He Did" is a masterpiece of translation, out of The Old Testament and into hip-hop slang. Given that it's about Cane and Abel, you could say this is a sermon about two ancient brothers delivered for the contemporary young brother.



--> AdSys ad not found for religion/local_religion:middle2 --> Slugger Roo copies a page from the street rappers he used to run with and sprinkles skits throughout the record. It goes without saying that they aren't as funny as most street skits, since so much juicy material and language is off-limits in a gospel context. The amazing thing is that they manage to be funny at all, without disqualifying the record from being played in Sunday school, as it deserves to be. They're about as funny as your average Fat Albert episode.

Then the dude goes off the hook by chopping and screwing two of his better rap tracks, "Thinking of a Way Out Da Game" and "Chillin', Readin' My Bible." I wonder why everybody doesn't drop a chopped-and-slurred remix onto every record. The remixes here are artful and interesting and succeed in taking local gospel hip-hop to an entirely new and cool place.

"Only one Blood saved me from the Bloods and Crips," Slugger Roo raps, in a typically clever and soulful line. This record shows that the Blood left Slugger Roo with all the good parts of the streets - the tight beats, gutsy rhymes and innovative intelligence. As Praiz' would say, Ain't nobody mad but the devil.

Slugger Roo will release his new CD The Testimony of Slugger Roo Dec. 15 at Treasures of the Kingdom bookstore in Fairview Heights. For more information visit www.myspace.com/sluggerrooent.

13 May 2007

SLUGGER ROO SCHOOLS WITH PRAIZ'


Living It

Slugger Roo schools with Praiz'



Wednesday, May 9, 2007 9:11 PM CDT

..>
..> A gospel hip-hop 411

By Chris King Of the St. Louis American

"When they invite you to go praise in a club, don't always say no," Praiz' was saying to Slugger Roo.

"That's why I call my thing 'Parking Lot Praiz Beats.' We do it in the street or in the church. I hate to sing 'Deliver Me' in the church - that's just preaching to the choir."

Slugger Roo was really taking that in and nodding, in gradual agreement.

"We've got to represent who we are," Praiz' said.

..> .. AdSys ad not found for entertainment/living_it:middle --> ..> "I'm going to take what you said to heart," Slugger Roo said.

"I'm way too confident in who I am as a Christian to worry about walking into a club," Praiz' continued. "If 50 Cent walked into your church, he's still going to be 50 Cent, right? If you and me can get on Extreme Bling, let's go!"

Slugger Roo laughed with Praiz, then said, "That makes it all so clear."

They were sitting across from each other at a restaurant bar, drinking soda, with me in between them, enjoying a beer.

..>
.. AdSys ad not found for entertainment/living_it:middle2 --> ..> Praiz' - whose pop gospel single "Deliver Me" tore up St. Louis as an independent, on the strength of its Quiet Storm feel and simple message ("Oh Lord, deliver me from myself") - was visiting this past weekend from Tallahassee, where he is musical director for a young church.

Slugger Roo had driven over from the East Side to meet Praiz' while he was in town. I consider him the heir apparent to Praiz' for local gospel hip-hop (putting aside Marcus T. Flame, whose game is national). I wanted to put them together, see them connect.

Slugger Roo is a self-confessed former gangbanger, who still has a certain swagger from the streets, not to mention gold in his mouth, some bling on his fingers and shiny tips on his braids.

Praiz', on the other hand, looks like the laid-back, hard-to-impress family man that he is. But he has been grinding on pop gospel for years and has experienced success at a level that Slugger Roo only has begun to glimpse.

"The best thing," Praiz' said, "is the women who come up to you after you have performed and say, "The Lord told me you're my husband. And I say, 'Did he tell you about my wife, too?'"

Slugger Roo was on fire with Christ and the urgent need to testify - but he also seemed a little agitated about the surprisingly competitive gospel music scene and how hard it can be to break into it.

"I could care less about competition," Praiz' said. "If I can't be on stage, then I don't need to be on stage. Right now, it seems like I've got something to say, so He's using me."

Slugger Roo nodded, taking it in, knowing that in one weekend Praiz' had just been on every major gospel stage on both sides of the river. Now he was going to go back home to Tallahassee, lay low, lead worship services, raise his four kids.

The veteran and the relative newcomer talked shop on CD manufacturers, iTunes, CD Baby, logos, T-shirts.

Slugger Roo had brought Praiz' a copy of his new CD, and Praiz' was impressed that dude had done his own logo and graphic design. Slug, on the other hand, was impressed that Praiz' made many of his own beats. It looked like an unofficial beat-for-logo exchange might be worked out down the road, and who knows what else. They programmed each other's cell phone numbers into their phones.

Above all, Praiz' cautioned a fellow independent against the industry side of gospel music.

"The longer you can keep doing it by yourself, the better," Praiz' said. "The longer you can keep spending your own money, you're good."

Slugger Roo will perform from his new CD, Testimony of Slugger Roo, at 4:30 p.m. Saturday, May 19 at Vintage Vinyl. Check out www.myspace.com/sluggerrooent or www.sluggerroo.com/.

Praiz is at www.myspace.com/praiz and plpb.net.