Show Review: MC Psalmist, Johnny Moral, Virtuous

Every Monday night here at MCPC, we have a community gathering. This past week, we were joined by MC Psalmist and two of his associates for a brief message about Compassion International and a short concert of "holy hip-hop".

First up was Virtuous, who looked 20-something but is evidently 40 with children. She did a few short songs (none more than about 2:30), with very focused spiritual lyrics and varying beats. Several of my fellow students enjoyed her set the most and purchased her album, which I found impressive considering I cannot find her online (to have an album and no online presence is practically unheard of).

Next up was Johnny Moral, who told the crowd to get up and join him in various dances he had set to crank/snap-type beats with slightly more vague lyrics including a lot of tongue-in-cheek humor. He had no album to speak of, but is evidently part of this group with MC Psalmist. The most interactive of the three, his dances, jokes, and singalongs elicited a lot of crowd participation.

MC Psalmist is a Queens native Messiah graduate currently residing in Philly. He's been producing and rapping since his teenage years, and though still unable to quit his day job (he has a family to support), his ministry is a major part of his life. Of the three artists, I must say he was the most lyrically advanced, with complex rhymes and punchlines on a par with more successful hip-hop artists. He also showed a knowledge of the audience by playing two songs sampling well-known praise&worship songs for the hook so that we could sing bits we already knew.

Overall I was rather impressed with the confidence and ability of all concerned. It's no easy task to bring hip-hop into an almost completely upper middle class white suburban audience at what amounts to a college chapel service, and to get any crowd interaction/reaction at all is amazing. I'd be interested to see them perform again in a context more conducive to their music.