LABEL: HOLY SOLDIER RECORDS
RELEASE DATE: AUGUST 16, 2011

t’s a theme I’ve heard used before in Christian Hip-Hop.  Christians are a ‘peculiar’ people who should stand out from the world.  Rapper Da Messenger, Kyren Monteriro, uses this theme throughout his latest album Alien. This album is Christian hip hop in it’s purest form as Monteriro expresses his view that being weird in the eyes of the world is fine.

“Alien Intro” starts the album off with a futuristic sound that gives you a quick glance into the direction the album will go in. The intro stays on point by challenging Christians to remain different from the world.  It provides a good start to the project.

“Go to War” is one of the better tracks on the album.  The production made me feel like I was heading into battle.  Da Messenger encourages the listener to continue their walk with God and to press forward through adversity.  My one knock on this song is that I felt the hook could have been a little better.  Da Messenger however provides nice lyricism throughout the verses.

Some other notable tracks on the album include “True Reward,” “Invade” and my favorite “Ready to Go.”  The latter features Chrys Jones and the song shares Da Messenger’s view on the rapture and hopes to get the listener ready for it.  Chrys Jones sounds great on the hook and the beat is really solid.  I felt this was the best overall track on the album and would appeal to a wide range of people.

Alien has some solid moments, but there are a few things that take away from the overall project.  One con of the album is that at times I felt the project lacked creativity.  The theme of ‘being an alien’ has been used before in Christian Hip Hop.  Also I felt the futuristic sound of many of the tracks became too repetitive.  My biggest pro for this album is that the beats and production were solid.  Overall, I wasn’t overly impressed by the album and didn’t see a lot of replay value, however musically it was solid so it might be worth at least checking out.