When Sho Baraka first debuted with “Turn My Life Up” back in 2007, people loved it, yet I could tell that many saw that there was more that Sho could have brought. After a three year wait and a bunch of anticipation, Sho comes with his second offering called “Lions and Liars”. The album cover really captured the intent of the album, but the concept took it even deeper. The concept is basically that there are many “Liars” in this world, which are those that sell you deception and lack the character that we all should have, the character of the Lion of Judah, the only King we should serve. The “Lions” of this world are those that show the life of Christ in whatever sphere of influence that they are placed in (2 Corinthians 10:13).

When Sho Baraka first debuted with “Turn My Life Up” back in 2007, people loved it, yet I could tell that many saw that there was more that Sho could have brought. After a three year wait and a bunch of anticipation, Sho comes with his second offering called “Lions and Liars”. The album cover really captured the intent of the album, but the concept took it even deeper. The concept is basically that there are many “Liars” in this world, which are those that sell you deception and lack the character that we all should have, the character of the Lion of Judah, the only King we should serve. The “Lions” of this world are those that show the life of Christ in whatever sphere of influence that they are placed in (2 Corinthians 10:13).

What I like about this album having this topic is that it addresses the misconception that the most visible place where a Christian at is always the best place. This happens in the areas of fulltime ministry versus part-time, living in areas of large wealth or places of poverty, ministries of prominence or obscurity. In an interview with DJ Wade-O, I heard Sho sum it up in this quote, “If God has called you to be a garbage man, don’t stoop so low as to be a King”. I think that this is what makes Sho’s album such a powerful album, especially from the camp that it is coming from, for some may think you have “arrived” if you’re on one of the big three record labels[Lampmode, Cross Movement, Reach Records]. But let’s go into the title track first.

I always love a great intro track, and Sho makes sure to come hard-hitting! The track name is “Extinction”  and it starts as a call trying to find out where all the real believers (Lions) are at? Some have died and compromised their allegiance to Jesus, and the Lions are decreasing to come against the amount of Liars in this world. The question to everyone listening should be, “Does everyone know where I stand in this world or does it look like I’ve already died?” However, a concern I had for the song was at the beginning of the song. In the description of extinction, the first reason of extinction was because of a lack of resources for the species and adaptation, but the second reason was that the species “Evolved into a new species”. Now, I’m not sure where Baraka is at regarding the Theory of Evolution, but when a phrase like that is used it refers to that and that was the first thing that popped into my mind. Besides that, the song was a great intro song and set the tone for the album.

This album has an interesting selection of beats for the album, which was Sho’s intent, but I found myself at a struggle because of my own tastes and also what I see as a shift in Hip Hop music as a whole. Before the change, you wouldn’t be able to call it Hip Hop without the craziest lyricist, but now it seems you can’t have a good Hip Hop song without a vocalist or the sound is blended more with R&B or is smoother. Now, for me personally, I have no problem with shifting trends in music at all, but I just point this out in case there are people who wonder where the sonic feel of this album tends to fall. This is not to say that the music is soft or even that there is a lack of lyricism on this album, but that the way it comes across is less rugged and smoother than what Hip Hop is usually associated with. Artists like Rhema Soul, and Applejaxx are redefining how Hip Hop is brought across and listening to this album Sho has done the same.

Examples of this include songs such as “We Can Be More”, “Me Myself and I”, “Famous”, “4ever is 2morrow”. The next track after the intro is “Lions Anthem”, produced by DJ Official, lists different types of people with different types of jobs or careers where they work at while still ministering where they are at. With this song, it not only highlighted the necessity to be a true Lion for Christ wherever you’re at, but it really highlighted what has set Sho apart from many and that is his wordplay. He says lines like these below:

“I know a Lion Steve who wears post office blue/even on his off days he delivers good news/my cousin at the IRS, his name is Thomas/on many different levels he deals with false profits (prophets)/yes Lord, saints up in the house/if you reppin’ in the jungle give a big Lion shout!”

If there is one word that I could use to describe Sho’s use of wordplay it would be “exquisite”  because when he does it, it is used to catch your attention but at the same time it doesn’t feel forced just for the wow factor, it feels like Sho basically.

Now after the Lions are described there is a “Liars Anthem” as well. Now this song really hits hard, and if you paid attention to the last tour, Don’t Waste Your Life that Reach Records had, there were commercials for the tour and in one of them Sho played a rapper who repeatedly said “Pimpin’  Pimpin’ Pimpin’ Murder Murder sell drugs”, and for this track he actually uses that in the song which I thought was pretty cool and didn’t expect that. The song references liars in the world and in the church. Some of them are the liars that rap about things the Lord hates and the liars that are influenced by it and when it does the liars that rap back away and say they have the freedom to do it or its just entertainment, and the liars that are in church and talk endlessly about doing outreach instead of actually doing outreach, as well as repeating Christian works from past authors really hits home for many. The impact of this is that both types of lions are the enablers of the extinction of lions and work against the revolution that Christ is administering. This song addressed many aspects of society that live as God hates which is the core definition of the Liar that Sho brings home in the end.

Another song that I believe will really hit hard and be a favorite would be “Shut Us Down”  produced by G-Roc and also After Edmund with the vocals and band addition to the track. This song really expressed many things such as people that come against him and the whole Reach camp from both the world and inside the church. I love this track because of the fact that when your “on top” as this group is, there are people that pray for your fall or are just straight up jealous or are very critical of everything you do. With this track Sho and Lecrae speak candidly on how the world doesn’t like them because they are “too religious” so they don’t play them, and those within the church criticize if one goes on a secular show and Sho speaks on not knowing which ones are the enemy or friend. The core of the song is that no one will stop the Gospel from going forth, whether in the church or outside. I’ve heard of many artists going through the same thing and the only comfort can be in the presence of God and following His Word.

Now, we’ve talked about the beats and we’ve talked about the subject of the album, but I also want to touch on the features of the album. I remember when I first saw the track list I was very excited because of the variety of people featured on this album. There were features such as Erica Cumbo, Pro, Lecrae, Trip Lee, Benjah, Tedashii, R-Swift, and more. The songs that Erica Cumbo was featured on were great, but I wish she was used to rap along with the singing that she did on the tracks. The track Pro featured on was also just on the chorus, and if there was anything that could have been better for the features would have been for them to rap since that’s what they do, but besides that the features were well placed.

One more thing I would like to point out is how Sho shows that Hip Hop isn’t just for teenagers. I can kind of see that this was his intent or just how it came out because when you listen to “Barakaology Mixtape”, he speaks of how Pastors relegate a Christian rapper to just entertaining the youth as more of a distraction sort of thing more than something that God actually uses. There has long been a perception that Hip Hop in the church is useful to entertain kids and not even be used for grown people as well, and I think with this album and the way Sho approaches it, it actually shatters that perception. This would also mean if you are just looking for 808’s and all the beats to be bass heavy, this is not what Sho was here to bring. One more thing I did feel about the beats was that the ones that were the most unique (Shut Us Down, Oh Well, Revolutionary Died, We Can Be More, plus some others), brought out Sho’s strength the most, but there were others that were cool yet I felt could have been better (Lions Anthem, 4ever is 2morrow, Feel So Alone).

All in all this album was a mature sophomore effort put forth by Sho. With a diverse selection of beats and a great concept along with Sho’s way of words this promises to be a great album for years to come. It will reach a variety of people, and whether that hurt the way the beats came off or not, this album is a great album to enjoy and remember to represent Christ unashamed, and what better imagery than of a Lion? Now give a big Lion shout!