By using a form ideally suited to communicating large amounts of spiritual truth in a small space,¹ hip-hop artist Shai Linne has created a work that compels listeners to view their lives in light of God’s eternal purposes. In an age that pits experience against truth, Storiez, Linne’s third solo album, is a profound embodiment of the Christian message.

Used with permission.

Growing up in Philadelphia, Linne was immersed in hip-hop from childhood. After his sudden and dramatic conversion at 24, he felt compelled to proclaim his savior through the music he loved. He released his first solo album, The Solus Christus Project, in 2005, through Philadelphia-based independent record label Lamp Mode Recordings.

Solus covers a wide thematic range, from the autobiographical Memoirs to a verse-by-verse exposition of Romans 3 entitled Justified. One song, Angelz, deals with the problem of evil through a story in which the song’s main character is visited by an angel of darkness and an angel of light. The positive response from listeners to Angelz inspired the concept (and spelling) of Storiez.²

Before releasing an entire cd based on narrative, however, Linne zoomed in on one particular doctrine in his February 2008 album, The Atonement. Against a backdrop of stripped-down and often somber sounds, The Atonement systematically examines the event and the implications of Christ’s crucifixion. Lyrics that employ complex, polysyllabic patterns of vowel-driven rhyme are enough to make a waspy, middle-aged, suburban church elder weep:

Willingly, He’s under the curse
To be treated as if the Son was the worst scum of the earth…
… He’s the Light, but being treated like
He’s the seedy type who likes to beat His wife
He’s treated like a rapist, treated like a slanderer
Treated like a racist or maybe a philanderer…
…I could write for a billion years and still can’t name
All of the sins placed on the Lamb slain
But know this: the main thing the cross demonstrated
The glory and the holiness of God vindicated

In The Atonement, Linne throws his artistic weight behind teaching us gospel truths, from an examination of each member of the Trinity in Triune Praise, to a lyrical catechism entitled Atonement Q&A. Between many songs, clips of preachers like John Piper and CJ Mahaney ensure that listeners understand what is being communicated.³

Storiez, released this past November, continues the work begun in the other projects while raising it to new conceptual levels. In the introduction, listeners are greeted by the voice of narrator Rick Horne, whose delivery is reminiscent of a 1950s radio announcer. Over scratchy-vinyl-sounding beats, Horne welcomes listeners and lays out the album’s thesis: human history is “the stage upon which God Himself—as the writer, director and main character—has been actively at work for His redemptive purposes, and ultimately the glory of Jesus Christ.”

The narrator’s welcome gives way to a collage of sampling from previous albums and turntablism, both common features of  the underground hip-hop Lamp Mode is known for. What follows is a collection of stories set in a variety of times and places utilizing a broad range of genres, from sci-fi to biography, from children’s story to love story. Linne’s theatrical background (he studied theater at Philadelphia’s University of the Arts and taught playwriting in Philadelphia schools) is evident in several songs, including a radio-drama-esque account of the Passover, featuring the voices of children from Linne’s church, Epiphany Fellowship.

The voice of the narrator appears from time to time between songs, binding the stories  into one auditory journey. It also appears occasionally in the middle of songs, creating an intentional confusion of layers as the meta-narrative bleeds into the smaller stories. The same effects are achieved through other devices. In one example, the voices from the chorus of the song Alone appear in a forty-second clip several tracks earlier, entitled Alone Foreshadowed.

Similarly, Wake Up, You’re Alive, is a dream within a dream, ending with a line that Linne echoes in spoken testimony later in the album. Like the cover photo, in which children watch television, unaware that they themselves are being watched, the effect gives listeners the sense that each story on the album—and the stories of their own lives—are part of the one story of the transcendent, immanent, sovereign God. The album’s overall form implicitly teaches the message that it proclaims explicitly, from the prose of the narrator’s introduction to the poetry of the final track, an overview of the Bible called The Greatest Story Ever Told.

While making powerful statements about the nature and experience of truth, the dominant thrust of Storiez is pastoral, encouraging believers in obedience and worship by viewing their lives in light of eternity. Penelope Judd is an allegorical children’s story in the vein of Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress. Testify and Work It Out provide snapshots of present-day, ordinary people coming to faith and striving for holiness.

Spurgeon outlines the life and ministry of the great Baptist preacher. The first-person narratives contained in Martyrs span the centuries and the globe. As the Hour Draws Near portrays the thoughts of three fictional characters as they lay dying in a hospital.  The third character, whose life ends in rebellion against God, continues his story in the chilling Letter from the Grave. By blending past and present, these images of life and death serve the album’s purpose of causing the listener to take a step back and embrace an eternal perspective.

As always, the backbone of Linne’s work in Storiez is biblically instructive lyricism fueled by artistry. In High Priest, an ancient Israelite describes his sacrificial duties on the Day of Atonement:

This part of the ritual makes me real cautious
Because the very sight of blood makes me feel nauseous
Still I proceed by snatching him close, slashing his throat
when his blood splashed on my coat
Reacting, I choke- gasping that’s when I’m grasping
God’s reaction that sin provokes

The music swells to a high pitch as the High Priest finally enters the fearful presence of the LORD:

I’m awestruck by the weight of His terrible beauty
It’s almost unbearable but I must fulfill my duty
Approach the ark, the first part of my work’s complete
when I sprinkle blood seven times on the mercy seat
Quickly I exit, impressed with the Hesed
that rescues the wretched and left us accepted!

The fact that Linne conveys theological meat through hip-hop, a medium often associated with materialism, egoistic self-promotion, sexual promiscuity, and violence, is itself an illustration of God’s redemptive work.⁴ To Christians engaged in any form of art and proclamation, Storiez issues a call to rejoice in God’s saving work and to emulate the revelatory wisdom of his Word.
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¹http://lyricaltheology.blogspot.com/ <12.12.2008>
²Interview with Shai Linne, 12.17.2008
³http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NhSuLu3OgZ8 <12.19.2008>
⁴http://www.recoverthegospel.com/wts/shai_lecture.mp3 <12.19.2008>

Bethany Brooks is a Philadelphia-area freelance pianist and piano teacher who sings and plays keyboard and mandolin with Wissahickon Chicken Shack.