Album Review: Rawsrvnt “No Ordinary Love”

Rawsrvnt “No Ordinary Love”
Released: 2010
Reviewed By: E Pluribus Unum
Committee Rating: 6.3 (of 10)
[xrr rating=6.3/10]

Hip-Hop meets Praise and Worship!!! Or should I say Praise and Worship meets Hip-Hop? I think it’s the latter of the two. I must admit, I came into this project blind. I’ve seen promotion for Rawsrvnt in the past, but I have never heard any of his music. When I put the CD in, I was expecting another Hip-Hop banger. Yes, you’re innocent until proven guilty in my court of crunkness…sue me. I was surprised when the first song was a remix of Sade’s “No Ordinary Love.” A remake of “No Ordinary Love” might be a more accurate description. They added rap to the song versus changing the song up in any other kind of way. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing (I actually liked it), I’m just painting a picture here, chill out. Either way, when I say “Praise and Worship meets Hip-Hop,” I don’t mean the average “bunch of rap with more singing than normal on the hook” that is normally promoted with the same phrase. I mean its praise and worship to a hip-hop beat for most of the album. He’s not even rapping on every song. Once again, this isn’t a bad thing…

With all of that being said, the project is pretty cool. Utilizing some songs that I even sing at my church like “Take My Heart” and “Here I Am to Worship” made this album pretty intriguing. It’s definitely not the norm and I appreciate the boldness to do something different. Ninety percent of this album is pretty laid back, but I’ll use the words of Rawsrvnt himself to help describe the feel of the album when he says “Hip-Hop, worship, dirty south, rock star!” With all of that being said, don’t buy this album to get crunk.

If I went from song to song, I’d actually have mixed emotions about this album. One of the few upbeat songs “Jesus Jam” came across as really corny to me. It might just be the auto-tune. I don’t know. “It’s True” was another song that was kind of high up on the corny meter for me, but “On Fire” was definitely one of my favorites on the CD and Rawsrvnt’s love for God is definitely put on display throughout the entire project. I thought he did an awesome spin on “No Ordinary Love” and it’s definitely something I enjoy singing to The Father. On the flip side, “Flossin’ Him” and “Be With You” kind of fell flat. Since most of the album is slow, it’s a CD you can put in and ride to and let your mind wander…come back to sing a little bit…then wander some more. I don’t know if that’s a compliment or not. I’ll let you decide. It’s definitely a soothing type of feel versus something that’s just boring. Rawsrvnt even switches up the style and goes Reggae for “The Almighty” and it was done pretty well. Either way, the album as a whole is “OK”. Nothing blew me out of the water, but when you’re doing mostly slow/soothing music it’s harder to do that. If you’re interested in worship mixed with a little rap, give this album a try. I have this main gripe: music is supposed to invoke emotion and this album didn’t do much of that in one way or the other, so that is a definite negative. If you want to talk about an extraordinary love, I need the music to hit on that same level to help paint the picture. Everything was “OK” and that is the biggest problem I have with this project. But, everybody’s a critic. I’m just the one who wrote the review. Peace and much love…

Music: 6.5 of 10
Flow: 6 of 10
Lyricism: 5 of 10
Content: 8.5 of 10
Creativity: 6 of 10
Credibility/Confidence: 6 of 10
Personality: 6.5 of 10
Presentation Quality: 7.5 of 10
Overall Production: 6 of 10
Potential Impact: 5 of 10

0 Comments

No Comment.