One Life -Heavyweight

written by mmog37

Album Overview

Columbus, Ohio is typically not the place I think of when I think of Holy Hip Hop, or even Hip Hop in general, but as of late Ohio is staking it’s claim in the rap game with artist such as Hazakim, K-Drama(Cincinatti), John Reuben, P-Duble, to name a few as well as the subject of this review; One Life. The 2007 release from Gye Nyame Recordings, Heavy Weight is the follow up to the self released “The Moment.” One Life is no stranger to ministering as he is the son of a preacher and comes from a family of preachers it seems only fitting that he follow suit ministering to the masses in the form of Hip Hop music. In true Heavy Weight form, One Life comes out swinging using powerful combinations and swift jabs, landing a knock out punch on all of the garbage and pollution that has been passed off as hip hop, to include, cheap, empty, misleading and deceitful lyrics. This Heavy Weight comes with some of the industry’s best in his corner, Dj Manwell of Deepspace 5 fame, JustMe of Scribbling Idiots, and Sword of the Gye Nyame fam. One Life does a bang up job as both artist and producer on “Heavy Weight”. Also putting time in the producer’s seat was Carris Hawthorne. Rather than sit around complaining about the industry One Life’s goal is to do something about it, with each track his passion to see a change comes through loud and clear. One Life is no stranger to the industry having toured with the likes of Mars Ill, and he has been on the same stages with artist such JustMe, Listener, and Playdough. “Heavy Weight” is just that…Heavy! Loaded with a serious one-two punch, dope lyrics and banging beats steady beating your eardrums into submission. If you like artist like Mars Ill, or Deepspace I think you will especially enjoy this one. I like the description my son gave it…he said it sounded to him like Mars Ill on Growth Hormones..a Heavy Weight indeed! Being the music fan that I am I especially love it when an artist produces a project such as this one, that is a treasure for the ears as opposed to simple samples that are less than creatively arranged. Heavy Weight boast 11 bangin tracks that will have your eardrums down for the eight count.

Spiritual Significance

This is one of those projects with dual purpose, for the believer it is a reminder that Christ is the foundation for our lives, He is the way in fact He is Life and life is found only in Him, this is a common theme found throughout Heavy Weight. Some tracks like (Talk Is Cheap) even challenge the Christians to turn up the volume on their soft spoken messages. For the non-believer One Life pulls back the covers and reveals that it isn’t about wheels, bling and shiny things and that life doesn’t begin until you meet Christ. In clever fashion One Life uses the music to keep the listener Head noddin while he jabs away at the heart with life filled punches. There is nothing subtle about Heavy Weight, every track stays true to form and each track is Christ centered, One Life manages to challenge mainstream thinking without coming off as preachy, in fact in true classic hip hop form, he uses hip hop as it was originally intended as a form of expression and in this case the message comes through that we need to refuse to backdown and open our eyes to the reality of what is going on in the industry. Heavy Weight is a CD that you must listen to several times, and you are sure to get something new each time you listen, something that will challenge and encourage you to make a difference.

Topics Covered

The Intro which features DJ Manwell on the cut, One Life serves as his own hype man, gettin the listening audience ready for the upcoming heavy messages this project truly is a Heavy Weight, tackling topics from the current trend of empty lyrics in hip hop, to Christ being the Way, down to speaking life and truth when on the mic. Tracks like “Face The Music” advocates refraining from the call of sex, drugs and violence in our lyrics, and interjects that if we really want some substance in our lyrics to put Christ in the center of them. Other tracks like “Heavy Weight” which features Sword and One Life on the tag team pumpin up the listener to push off conflicts and tribulations like pushin off heavy weight in the gym. One of my favorites is (Try) which holds some wisdom for couples as well as for our interpersonal relationships, to try to loosen up and give each other room to grow and improve. As I stated earlier, this is one of those CD’s that you can keep listening to and you will get something new every time. Here are a few other topics covered in Heavy Weight:

• Life is about Christ, life is more than spinning rims and shiny things (Life)
• Coming together and using music to touch souls (The Movement)
• Wake up call to use music to speak life (Face The Music)
• Realizing that talk is cheap and that we can’t afford to buy it, or buy into it, especially since must most of the mainstream talk revolves around sex, drugs and violence. Turning up the volume on soft spoke messages. (Talk Is Cheap)
• We can’t afford to give up any ground, play the background or back down (Never Back Down feat JustMe)

Key Tracks

Heavy Weight, The Movement, Never Back Down, Face the Music, Talk Is Cheap