An epiphany, or the “light bulb” moment, is defined as a sudden, intuitive perception; the instant when all the puzzle pieces fall in to place. In Christianity, the word epiphany traditionally referred to the moment where a person has their eyes opened to the fact that Jesus Christ is Lord of all creation.  This is the idea that lays the foundation for Eshon Burgundy’s debut album, Blood Rushing To My Head: Somewhere In The Clouds Lookin Down(BRTMH).  Eshon Burgundy is a native of Philadelphia who has been rapping and producing for about 10 /11 years. Eshon has done excellent work on his many free mixtapes  like “The Fire Escape,” “Cleaning Out My Closet,” “Blood Bought” and “The Fire Escape Reissued.”  The title represents, as Eshonsays “The moment when the revelation comes” and in the light of that revelation he says “”That’s the point, where I know; when it became real to me what that blood signified. I was all in.”  Eshon raps with the attention of making the gravity of that revelation know to others.

The theme of this album is clearly presented from the first track of the album entitled “The Garden.”  Christon Gray sings this awesome hook that so perfectly captures the main message of the song: “Please don’t believe that this dying world will get any better/We choose to kill ourselves it was never meant to be/And if I can only make you see that your heart has been deceived/by the serpent in the garden/And we ate from the tree.” The song talks about the deception that world feeds us hoping that we will build our world on a mountain of lies. As Romans 12 says Christians must continually renew their mind from the philosophy of this world which we have been submerged in since our first breath. It is this idea that Eshon exhorts the hearer to consider and live out.

BRTMH has a vintage east coast sound and the production is well handled despite a few mixing problems. Eshon’s flow is tight and packed fill with heavy statements such as in “I Don’t Want You” where he says “I am not perfect because perfection is a mere reflection/ Of the Triune God/Plus I get to host his presence.” The album is targeted to those trapped in the darkness of the inner city, which is often glorified by the secular rap scene. This is the audience that Eshon seems to have a true burden about and every track leads those broken by the lies of this world to Christ.

The final track of the album: “Cloud College” featuring Copywrite, IV His Son and Big Fil, is one of the best displays of lyricism on the album. Eshon goes in on this track with lines like  “I’m a headless Christian/my thinking is purely scripture/My blinking is clearly a method to wash away worldly pictures/Take an early listen as the Holy Spirit whispers/And thoroughly envision that which is considered wisdom.”

BRTMH is only 10 tracks long, which is short. However since this album is the first in a three-part series, the short tracklist isn’t that much of a negative. However, I feel that at some points the album almost gets weighed down by the amount of features on it. Almost every song has a singer on the chorus and thus causes the able to lack a little variety but this album is too strong to really be hindered by this.

Overall, this album is an excellent and I am personally pumped to hear what Eshon Burgundy has in store for us in the next two parts. BRTMH definitely displays the heart and passion that Eshon put in this project and ultimately doesn’t disappoint.