If anyone asked me to name my favorite Christian hip-hop project of all time, it is without a doubt Brainwash Projects, and their sole album The Rise and Fall of . . . . Perhaps the album title was a hint at how long the project would last, and we all just missed it at the time.
Rise and Fall had everything: lyrical witticisms, dope beats, funky rhymes, and humor by the bucketloads. While the whole album is worth listening to straight through without skipping any tracks, one of the strongest singles is “Want for Nada,” a testimony to God’s faithfulness.
While the duo, made up of bTwice and Pigeon John, only released one full-length, fans of the group will know they turned up elsewhere. bTwice collaborated with Sup the Chemist (AKA Super C/Chris Cooper of S.F.C.) and Peace 586 (of JC and the Boyz and Freedom of Soul), as well as with LA Symphony. Pigeon John’s rap sheet (see what I did there?) is even longer. Shortly after Brainwash ended, he was an early member of LA Symphony, and then released a ton of material as a solo artist–including both hip-hop and non-rap related stuff. He’s also collaborated with Mars Ill, Flynn Adam Atkins (also of LA Symphony), 4th Avenue Jones (FKA Ahmad), Blackalicious, RedCloud and tons more. He was even name-dropped as a seminal artist in the Netflix documentary series Evolution of Hip-Hop.
Glad to see some love for Pigeon John! I know that his recent output isn’t at all Christian-centered, but he remains one of my favorite artists. A singular and unique voice in hop-hop.