Christian hip hoppers excel with release

Are you ready? Once you put this circular piece of plastic into your CD player, you're in for the shock of a lifetime. The musicians of Souljahz have found the perfect way to mix exceptional hip hop and soul with gospel grooves that will keep you listening over and over again. The Fault Is History is an album you need to add to your collection.\nPerhaps this CD sounds so tight because the members are family. Brothers Joshua and Je'kob Washington provide the hip-hop edge, while sister Rachael Washington lets her soulful voice glide over these musical treatises like nothing I've heard in Christian music in a long time.\nSome people might brush this album off as being an oxymoron ("Christian hip hop? Puh-leeeze!"), but they are the ones who are going to miss out on what may be the most original hip-hop album in a long time. In a genre that has forgotten its roots, Souljahz infuse its tracks with intelligent lyrics and tightly-produced backgrounds that mix groove, hip hop, soul and gospel sounds into one that is all their own. \nSongs like "The Color Hate," introduced by Vejea Jennings' a capella rhythmic poetry, is a call to arms for all of us to stop the hate and racism that are to this day tearing at our nation. "Let Go," the opening track, hits you with a real soul vibe and lyrics that urge us all to leave our problems in the past and use what they've taught us to move on to the future. Even the album title is a message for all of us to stop blaming each other for our troubles. The past is done, they're saying, stop blaming everyone for your problems, just learn from them. It's a lesson many of us have heard but few have given much thought to.\nCritically acclaimed from the start, this band is poised to be the breakout contemporary Christian act of the year. The group's first single, "All Around The World," has already slammed into the top 10, and with what this album has to offer, I don't think it will be the last we hear of these siblings.