Humble Tip - The Merger
by mmog37

First Impression

Typically when I do a review, I pop in the CD and begin listening to the first few bars of each song just to get an overall feel of what I can expect from the artist. I especially do this when I haven’t heard the artist before or am not very familiar with. Those first few seconds are crucial because they can tell me if the artist is consistent with his theme or message on the CD or if they are all over the place. Those first few seconds give me a measurement of the production and sound quality. Ultimately those first few seconds either invite me to stay and listen or push next and skip to the next song!

Those first few seconds after I pushed play on Humble Tip’s CD The Merger, I knew that I was going to have a problem with it.

What Da Problem Is
As I began my usual process skipping from song to song, I kept running into the same problem. Track one… track two… track three… more of the same… it was getting ridiculous. Track after track, from start to finish, revealed that Humble Tip had done his homework. Every track was bangin! But bangin tracks aren’t uncommon [and to be honest on the Christian side of the house we really shouldn't make our music choices
on the basis of whether we like how they sound as much as whether we need to hear what they have to say but we'll save that for another post].

What was unusual was the fact that this dude wasn’t pullin his punches, but his flow was so clever that he cuts you and puts the band-aid and pain medicine on before you even know that you’ve been hit. From start to finish I was head knoddin, fist pumpin, praisin and worshipin. This isn’t your basic sermon over beats, not just music meant to go from speaker to ear but from heart to heart. The Merger represents the merging of the Church and the Streets, taking the message to the masses, but not just limited to the streets or the
hood, the goal is to reach an entire generation “4 A Generation.”

For me personally, The Merger represented a merging of the best from both worlds: head noddin music with a heaven sent message!

A Closer Look

In Matthew 28, Jesus commands or commissions the Disciples to go and make disciples of all nations, a passage that most refer to as the Great Commission; Humble Tip uses The Merger to remind, challenge, and convict the hearts of the listener to do just that: to go and reach all nations not just the church, or just the hood or block to reach all nations. From start to finish, he challenges, encourages, edifies and warns
the Body of Christ; but at the same time, the scriptural concepts are easy to digest and Humble’s flow is such that a non-believer would be able to follow where he is leading them.

Da Breakdown reveals that The Merger contains both Spiritual Significance and Spiritual Application. Each time I listened to The Merger I heard something different and I am sure that it will be the same for every listener. I don’t have enough room to begin to write about all the spiritual insight I gathered from
this CD.

Da Breakdown

The Merger touches on several different topics and each song/topic deals with issues regarding reaching a generation. One track, “What Would You Do,” challenges the listener to try and imagine what their life would be like without God’s love and grace, while at the same time presenting the model of real life individuals like Cassie Bernall who made a stand for God even in the face of death. After reflecting on the goodness of God, Humble instinctively closes out the track with an invitation to worship.

Another favorite track was “Not the Good Things;” it reinforces that it is not our good works or good deeds, but by the grace of God. There are a couple of bonus tracks at the end of track 13 “Ex-Addict;” don’t sleep on these or skip them. One of the deeper tracks is “Give Us Barabas,” which draws the comparison between modern day Christians who live compromising lives choosing to promote and support secular artists and media that is anti-God with the people of the crowd who chose Barabas over Christ; this one will really make you pause and think. Here ’s a brief breakdown of some of the topics covered:

• Humble introduces himself, his intentions and who he wants to reach (4 A Generation) Hott!

• Time for the Church to meet the Streets (The Merger) Hott!!

• In the Culture not of it, reppin Christ to the Hip Hop culture (Represent) Hott!!

• It’s not by our good deeds but by the Grace of God (Not the Good Things)

• It’s hard to do but try to Imagine a life without God’s love (What Would You Do) Deep!

• The Great Commission “Go Make Disciples” (Let’s Go Get Em)

• Get Ready, boldly takin it to the streets (Here We Come)

• Not here for fame or props here to represent the King (What I’m Here For)

• Choosing the sinful things over Christ, just as the crowd cried for Barabas(Give us Barabas) Deep!

• No Matter what the people say…still gonna Praise Him (Can I Praise Him) Hott!!!

• Life is different once we allow Christ to change us (Louder)

• Problems with/Solution for the industry and culture (Ventin‘)

• Spiritual Rehab for the sin addiction (Ex-Addict)

• Bold Representation of Christ (*Bonus Track, Christian Flow)

• A wake up call to see what’s really going on around us and a reminder that Christ is the answer (*Bonus Track)

• Humble reveals his heart’s desire for The Merger and offers a Personal invitation to accept Christ (at the end of the bonus tracks)

Final Thoughts

Humble’s style is fresh, witty and even humorous at times and he skillfully uses the musical arrangements as the vehicle to deliver what would otherwise be a heavy or serious message, and I thought the album artwork was pretty clever also. Without a doubt I highly recommend this one, The Merger is one of those CDs that you can play and it will still be speakin to you long after you press the stop button, and it is one that you can blast in the ride with the windows down

Be on the Lookout for Humble Tip’s latest project Our Turn