God & Music
Giving Jesus The Business 2005
Live On Arrival
About the same time, we became more aware of a producer calling himself
“DOA” Allen, and his friendly rival J Moss. I actually never made the
connection between J Moss and the Moss family—a veritable Gospel Camelot
of descendants of the legendary Mattie Moss Clark. Allen and Moss
collaborated on a number of productions that yielded extraordinary and
surprisingly progressive music, taking the baton from Burrell and Warryn
Campbell, and bringing the rules of engagement from secular R&B into the
Gospel studio. Moss/Allen no longer waited to hear innovative things on
the radio or on secular CD’s before emulating them or adapting them to
Gospel. Rather, they vaulted out front, becoming the innovators
themselves. They certainly had the credentials for the job, having spent
years producing huge acts like Destiny's Child, NSYNC and Dru Hill,
Patti Labelle and Vanessa Williams. This production team now threatens
to usurp giants like Timbaland, Rodney Jerkins, and old masters like Jam
& Lewis.
The Moss/Allen stamp seems to be on most chart-toping CD's in the market
today, with the notable exception of the purposefully odd Tonéx, who has
probably out-Princed Prince by now, putting out more meaningful and
innovative material that the Purple One himself. It is unlikely that you
do not have a CD in your house, right now, that J Moss hasn't had some
hand in producing. He's becoming, dare I say, ubiquitous. And I mean
that in a good way, breathing new life into an industry that had begun
to languish on disengaged acts like Franklin, or less innovative ones
like Carr.
Their largest contribution may have been to Karen Clark-Sheard, Mattie’s
daughter and a member of the legendary Clark Sisters. Having overcome a
life-threatening illness and shed nearly a hundred pounds, Karen Clark-Sheard
has emerged as one of the strongest and most definitive voices in Gospel
music, eclipsing even her famous siblings like Twinkie Clark. Her edgy,
progressive, thunderous R&B is utterly delightful, and her brassy
reading of the powerful material honors her take-no-prisoners family
tradition. Each successive release pushes Sheard closer to the pinnacle
achieved by few Gospel artists—most notably Yolanda Adams who was
launched in relative obscurity and now is so huge she is marketed,
literally, like a secular artist; her stature and sheer talent having
overcome the industry stigma of categorizing her as simply a “Gospel”
artist.
Unless she makes some terrible misstep along the way, Karen is poised to
join Yolanda as artists who are so huge they transcend the little signs
in your record store. They’re simply good and their CD’s are simply so
entertaining you don’t even care that they’re singing about Jesus and
what have you. Those considerations begin to pale against some of the
best and most innovative R&B music being produced today.
I like Tye Tribett a great deal, His debut CD is very cohesive, like a
sermon. It takes you on a journey through problems and offers solutions.
It has a beginning, a middle and an end.
I agree; I think Tribett and Tonéx are two of the most innovative voices
on the scene today—regardless of genre. Tribett’s joyous and
multi-faceted Life is just a wonder to listen to, as is J Moss’s own
project. The J Moss Project, is so good, in fact, so surprisingly good,
that it really took me by surprise. Moss demonstrates a range as an
artist that threatens to dwarf his incredible production and songwriting
skills. The album is a well-built collection in the old school sense of
an album being a complete work and not just a bunch of songs tossed
together without much thought. It earns a high rank as an album that
truly deserves to be called an “album” rather than what we tend to call
albums these days— “a CD.”
Israel and New Breed is another new voice, Neil said. He’s more in the
Kurt Carr vein, but there really is a new vision with this guy. He takes
us through this worship experience, from end to end of the 2-CD set,
without much of a break. It’s really a spiritual work-out.
The Butterball: Kiki bolts out of the nest.
The Fiery Butterball
I’ll admit that picking through CD’s can be a lot like shopping for
neckties: after while, they all start to look the same. These days, much
of what’s going on in choir music and Gospel music in general, indeed
looks and sounds the same. But the handful of hungry pioneers may be
about to change all that. Whether the record labels themselves raise the
standard or whether we do it for them with our checkbooks, the message
may, I hope, go out that we should demand more from Gospel music than
just a panacea.
This is a complex and challenging world. A world of questions without
answers. We can certainly lock ourselves in a closet and stick iPods in
our ears blasting mindless Ain’t God Great-style music. But that’s not
our calling or our duty.
When and if Gospel music becomes more than just a way to make a buck off
of church folk, when it starts to deal with our social and economic
welfare as much as it simply offers God pat praises, I’m sure I’ll get
more excited about it and pay more attention to it. But, these days,
even the very best—the Karen Clark-Sheards and the J Mosses—are
certainly innovating musically (and thank God for that), but their work
offers precious little to challenge our social , political or economic
condition. Now if they can find a way to speak to my intellect and my
social conscious while they’re making me dance and shout—that would
really be something.
Karen’s teen daughter, the fiery butterball Kierra “Kiki” Sheard,
literally exploded out of the box this year, after having been primed by
Mommy with appearances on Karen’s previous two albums. Propelled by both
the dynamic Moss/Allen team and uber producer Rodney Jerkins, arguably
the biggest producer in the recording industry today, Kiki’s I Owe You
delivers and delivers and delivers in spades, not only showcasing
Sheard’s developing power as an artist but also tackling teen issues and
evangelizing in an unblinking declaration of her principles and faith.
Now, either Sheard is the best little actor I’ve seen in a long time, or
I have to believe her walk with Christ is real. The anointing on the
record is easily as strong as the groove, and the whole project seems
designed to penetrate the force fields of youngsters turned off by
church.
For my money, the quirky and enigmatic Tonéx may be the best example of
a guy who seems wholly unconcerned with most any of the rules. You name
a rule in Gospel music, Tonéx has broken it. And he imbues a great deal
of his work with—wait for it—social conscious. Not as much as I’d like,
but I’m happy to report at least one artist out there is dealing with
real-life issues and offering practical applications of God’s word, not
just fluffy praise.
Out The Box, Tonéx's vivid and sprawling masterpiece, can aptly and
honestly be described as a landmark recording, one that should have
penetrated deeper into the black church psyche and wider across her
breadth. But, let's face it, Tonéx is... weird. He's a scary little Don
Cheadle look-alike whose preaching chops are thunderous and wondrous,
but not many church folk know that. His multi-octave vocal range nearly
defies description, and his radical Stone Soup approach to musical
styles all but forces a kind of musical hegemony on us: we'll need to be
patient with Tonéx's hard rock number because we know Lord Make Me Over
is just around the corner.
Tonéx's mastery of musical forms, his deeply disturbing lyrics, and his
sheer inhibition place him at the top of my list (if I actually made
lists). This album—and, yes, it is indeed an album and not just a CD— is
way, way, way too long. It taxes even the best and most patient among
us. And there are indeed self-indulgent moments here (he builds one song
around the theme to the old Family Feud TV game show). But he's only
setting you up for the kill. It's the feint before the right cross of
Taxi and the knockout punch of Lord Make Me Over.
I think it criminal that our white brothers and white sisters are more
into this guy than we are. White churches around the country are singing
Alive, Tonéx's ebullient rave/resurrection anthem, replete with horn
riffs torn from The Jackson 5's Dancing Machine. Here in Ourtown, of
course, most of the people in charge of, well, most anything at all at
church have never heard of the guy.
This in spite of the fact the local Wal-Mart broke Out The Box like a
secular album, loading racks top to floor with hundreds of copies, which
sold briskly at the discounted price of around twelve dollars. But, who
was buying them? My instinct tell me more white kids than black, which
could be a challenge for Tonéx and Verity, his record label, as well as
a call to us to push through all of the sameness, all of the bland music
piled up on our CD players and make room for a fresh anointing.
What we need is at least fifteen more acts like Tonéx, perhaps produced
by J Moss. And then we'd be getting somewhere.
Christopher J. Priest
19 September 2005
editor@praisenet.org
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