Last week some of the hip hop world acknowledged or celebrated the 20th anniversary of the death Chris Wallace. The one and only Biggie Smalls a.k.a. Notorious B.I.G. A hip hop legend. He was shot and killed on March 9th 1997. Three years later, we get the release of what people called the Christian version of Biggie. A rapper named B.B. Jay. If you never saw his face and heard his music, you would say,”When did Biggie start doing Christian hip hop?” No knock against him, but his voice literally sounded just like Biggie.
B.B. Jay makes his musical debut independently releasing the single “Pentecostal Poppa” in 1997. He would then be featured on the “WoW Gospel 2000” compilation album with the track “Word Iz Bond”. A mellow r&b track, with church organs laid over some soft keys and lead guitar. The hook even has a choir singing. It’s literally like Fred Hammond and Biggie collabed together on a track. This would be a push that the gospel community was at least beginning to be more accepting of rap as a method of sharing the gospel.
Then in 2001, B.B. Jay would drop his solo project entitled “Universal Concussion”. Would it be an entire album sounding similar to this first track? Nope. It would start with an intro that had a dark and creepy sound. B.B. Jay would begin to talk about how nobody believed in him. A similar feel as Biggie’s song “Suicidal Thoughts”. He ends this intro yelling, “I am all that I am, because of who God is!” This album would be an offering to hit folks in the head with hard hitting truth, hard lyrics and hard east coast style beats.
B.B. Jay, whose real name is Jarvis E. Cooper, would, put less of a focus on music and more on his ministry as a preacher of the gospel. Check out this track from his debut album and let us know what you think. Until next time fam.
Peace and blessings.
