Review – Prodigal Son “Beyond Appearance”

Fresh describes "Beyond Appearances" in one word.  The handling of the production is beautiful.  When unsaved cats play this album they are all like, "Who's that?"  The style is original in all aspects.  Most of the tracks start off with background vocals and beats reminiscent of the early 90's.  This freshness resonates through the entire album and combines with Prodigal Son's mellow rhyming that just clicks perfectly.  The message of Christian living for Jesus and accepting salvation is boldly proclaimed throughout the CD.  Praise to Jesus, which is becoming rarer in Christian Hip Hop these days, is included as well.

Here's a few comments about the songs on this CD:

"Storm II" feat. Japhia Life & Lori Melo, is a certified club banger with beautiful chorus vocals.  Prodigal makes words connect in stride with the beat.  This is hands down a definite hit for this year. The message to focus on Christ through all trials speaks volumes to all Christians.

"Dance" has a beat and chorus worth pumping up the volume and bass.  The rhyming is a bit flat and didactic, but pleasant nevertheless.

The feature track, "Beyond Appearances" feat. Olga Rivera has a laid back mellow groove, complimenting Prodigal's style.  He eats this one up, yummy! The humility message hits home.  The chorus is in one word simply beautiful.

"Decisions," it's official ladies, Prodigal is taken. Boy does he display undying commitment to marry the love of his life.  Prodigal gets mushy, I think the love got the better of him, ha.

"The Message" feat. Richie Righteous, WOW! Hot track, four thumbs up; my two and the guy's seated next to me. I'm blazing this track everyday.  Prodigal delivers a great set of rhymes on a dope reggae beat. The collaboration with Richie Righteous did the trick, slicing and dicing this track with reggae vocals and rapping, "His blessings are grrreeeaaat! Like the Tiger Tony," was a standard lyric.  A totally professional song, respect!

"My Lady" feat. Olga Rivera.  This brother is really in love, this is a second song for his wife.

"Why" is purely a speaker ripper, so pump up the bass and do it justice.  The production is masterfully created.  This is a very catchy and even contagious track, "Why do you say what you say. Pray how you pray" …gets you questioning your motives. "Fearless like Stephen so bring the stones," a deep message.

"Dance Remix" feat. S.O.G. is a remix of the original "Dance."  It makes you wonder how the original song ever made the album to start with, because the remix kills it so bad.  This is a timeless track, with beautiful cuts and scratches mixed in. Your head begins bobbing on its own, purely hypnotic.

The album is just totally awesome.  This outstanding album is destined to be a major banger hit of 2003-04.  Run to the stores if it isn't sold out yet.

 Track Listing

1- Intro
2- The Storm PtII
3- Dance
4- That's Fact
5- Beyond Appearance
6- Livin' For
7- Did You Hear It
8- By His Grace
9- The Return
10- Decisions
11- The Message
12- Rock the Party
13- My Lady
14- Why
15- Are You There
16- Happy Days
17- Dance (remix)

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