As Lecrae releases, Church Clothes 4, he boldly stands at the crossroads of sacred and secular, a lane he unashamedly accepts. In the ten years since the first Church Clothes mixtape (hosted by DJ Don Cannon) was released in 2012, no one has been able to surpass the heights that Lecrae has reached crossing CHH over to the mainstream, planting his feet simultaneously in the street and the Church without compromising. While the critics blasted him for not picking a side, the people spoke even louder, downloading the music for the original Church Clothes over 100,000 times within 48 hours.
On November 4th, he brings the righteous and ratchet together yet again, and this time for Church Clothes 4, the last of the mixtape series! He maintains the unashamed posture reflecting on Romans 116, “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to EVERYONE who believes first to the Jew, then to the Gentile!’ emphasizing that his music also is not just for believers, but for everyone! In Episode 2 of his Church Clothes TV short airing on YouTube, Lecrae explains, “I’ve always been a combination of my roots and my faith. I love God but I grew up in hip-hop and the hood. People always want to put me in one camp or the other. Truth is you (with me), you can’t have the righteous without the ratchet. They’re two sides of the same coin.”
While Church Clothes 4‘s first single “Spread The Opps,” recognized the opposition, his second single “Fear Not” acknowledges that our faith in God is bigger than our deepest fears! On “Spread The Opps,” Lecrae stated “I’ve been running for so long from the opposition. Since I was a kid, there were enemies, both physical and spiritual, that were trying to destroy me. I decided to stop running. This song, “Spread The Opps,” is me knowing that even in the valley of death, God is with me. He’s scattering the opposition.”
In the second single, “Fear Not,” he shares, “Everyone deals with fear. I’ve met some of the most hardened criminals sitting behind prison walls confessing their fears. Fear makes us run, fight, or do nothing. I believe the cure is fear is faith. Faith in a God who is bigger than our biggest fears. We don’t have to be afraid of the dark. The dark is afraid of the light within us. Fear Not is the articulation of that.”
A verse in “Fear Not,” speaks to the illusion of fame! “They don’t even recognize me when they see me coming all they see is fame. They don’t know behind these Cartier’s, just a little boy full of pain.”
