A-1 Swift

Item: Turn Yourself Around
Author: Jamie Lee Rake

Turn Yourself Around

(1994)

Reviewed by Jamie Lee Rake

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Label Gospo Centric / Sparrow RecordsSyndicateAug 1994

g-funk hip hop rap

The East Coast roots of many of the California-based Gospel rap acts to have released major label albums might explain why West Coast down(tempo) 'n' dirty gangster hip-hop is only now hitting Christendom. A-1 S.W.I.F.T. (Salvation Will Indeed Feel Terrific) and Gospel Gangstas (formerly of Alliance of Light) may share south Central and surrounding environs' streets, but from there, their approaches are as varied as Long Beach is from Laguna Hills.

Married couple Chris and Alisha Tyler comprise A-1 S.W.I.F.T. with sufficiently smooth flow where elongated syllables and little rhythmic tricks in the rhyme scheme are the rule. Exceptions to the laid-back, low-rider-ready, eleven song (ten on tape) excursion are the hyped wheeze and scratch of "The 40, The Gat & The Blunt" and equally jumpy "Rescue 911."

The best comes when tension and relaxation mesh for uneasy equilibrium, as on the title track, where guest wailer Daryl Coley works around one of those vaguely Arabian, insistently mesmerizing melodies like those on the last batch of Dr. Dre singles you were humming along with before realizing his despicable intentions.

The Tylers' scripture-heavy couplets sound directed to the same throngs for whom Dre and Snoop Doggy Dogg would otherwise provide manna, especially those who already have an inkling of Christianity's truth from the place of the church in urban culture. Chris and Alisha may be living the experience, though they now and again sound more like they are ministering to, rather than reflecting the reality of those to whom they are ministering.

However, there is no mistaking the hardcore reality of Gospel Gangstas. Much ballyhoo has been made of the group's actual past as criminals. Their approach to the Gospel has the same confrontational brusqueness of a point-blank drive-by, but also the tight strategy of a well-planned hold-up, too.

Rapping over the kind of early 80s radio funk flavored by folks like D.J. Quick and Coolio, Mr. Solo (Da Gangsta Poet), Chilly Chill (Da Demon Recka) and Tic Toc (The Holy Hoodlum) get fed the flava by ex-SFC vinyl violator D.J. Dove for numbers that speak with pointed eloquence of issues facing saints and sinners alike. That perception doesn't come without controversy, though.

"Tears Of A Black Man" and "Y Cain't Da Homiez Hear Me?" decry murder, racism and other social sins facing the inner city, but they fight the temptation to drop their 9 mm's and fists in "Mobbin' (Gang Affiliated)" and "Vengeance Is Mine," lest they go out like a martyr, or at least like D-Boy. They might be the first sanctified MC's to call police violence what it is ("One Time"), but it ain't no thang to off the Anti-Christ for fun in "Da Gangsta' Prayer" (kinda funny, actually). They make A-1's "Drive-By Witness" sound peaceful by comparison.

The best hip-hop is always problematic, however. Or so it seems. After proving its popularity with multi-million sales and the bugaboo of mass media attention, it's encouraging to see A-1 SWIFT and Gospel Gangstas re-contextualize the rebellion that has produced some of the decade's best-sounding pop. Both groups are up there in making it themselves, too.

3/5