Cellus is a young Christian hip hop artist hailing from St. Augustine, FL.  In 2009 he dropped his first album “J.O.E (Jesus Over Everything)” and in 2011 he gave us “The Drought” via True Lyfe Records.  The album recalls the everyday struggles of life and details how he deals with the issues and pains we all face as a Christians. I felt the need to address the project in a track-by-track manner, as I felt it made it easier review. There are a couple of interludes that I skipped over, but lets get into it.

The Drought: It has a decent beat and serves its purpose as the intro to the album. Yet, the song overall leaves much to be desired. The message of the song comes off clear, but the delivery is lacking.  This is basic rapping skills on display here.
Fly Away: I actually like this song! We all have those times when our hearts are heavy and we just want to “Fly Away”.  The vocals from GodFrame really do frame this track and keep it from falling apart.  Cellus comes a little better with his delivery here, but is outshined by his featured artist.
World Lies: I like the message of the song and the beat actually grew on me the more I listened to it. By now I don’t hear much depth to Cellus’ lyrics.  But I do hear him trying and there is a lot of passion and emotion going in to making them resonate with the listener.
Make It Big: The timing is off! From the intro of the beat, I thought this one was gonna be banging! It could just be me, but it sounds like Cellus is rapping to fast or is falling behind the beat. The hook is not good, I’m sorry, it just isn’t.  The beat…sometimes I like it, sometimes I don’t.  
Live My Life: We take a turn here in style, something a little more pop/techno, I hear a lot of potential in this track, but something is missing in the production of the track that keeps it from coming altogether for me. This is a nice track and has more mass appeal to it.  Cellus is still struggling to fully grasp me with his lyrical flow.
Mirror: Nice beat! This track musically is more complete than the previous track. This track has mass appeal too. Again the feature from Eva J outshines Cellus and coupled with the musical track make this song very likable.
Going Off: I like anthem songs. This track makes me want to hear the 116 Clique on it though. I like the marching band/drum line sound behind it, gets me amped up!  Cellus had me there with the first verse, his flow is much better here.  This is a nice track that I can live with.
Solo Degloria: A decent track that attempts to pick up where “Going Off” leaves off. Here we leave the drum line behind and are given a rawer, urban, southern snare rhythm filled anthem song.  This song could be 100 if the delivery were better.  
Chappas: Taking in the last two tracks and this one, this is the lane Cellus needs to follow, and develop his skills in.  He can really do some damage in this style of hip hop. More features in this track, Grime really shines here, while the other two artists are balanced with Cellus.
Thank You: There is a spoken word track (interlude) that precedes this track, which seemed out of place, but as I start to listen to this song, I see how it fits.  This is a great closing to the album. Cellus slows things down, but still gives us this gritty beat to rock to.  More passion and emotion spill from Cellus and a nice vocal feature from Broken Vessel.  This is a nicely produced track and one of my favorites from the album.  

Final Thoughts: Cellus has potential but has some serious work to do.  He should first choose which style he wants to develop his skills in.  I like the southern hip hop style that encompasses majority of the album.  Reminds me of the days I jammed to Pastor Troy, Drama, No Limit and Trick Daddy.  He keeps it urban and fresh with tracks like Thank You, Mirror, Fly Away and Live My Life.  Those songs offer some diversity to album and lighten the overall sound of the album just in case you aren’t into the southern hip hop sound.  The production is good overall, and the album is mixed pretty well. However, Cellus really needs to develop his lyrical flow more and I would say being more creative and advanced with his lyrics.  He doesn’t need to be so philosophically or spiritually “deep” that you don’t know what he is talking about, but don’t come so elementary and basic either, stretch yourself; I believe he would be surprised at what may be hiding in him if he stretched his creative limits.  The messages are ones that we’ve heard before, but not overbearing and everyone has his or her take on the many situations and circumstances you face in this Christian faith walk.  So it’s good to keep hearing different angles of overcoming the perils of this world.  “The Drought” is an album that may need more than one listen to get fully in to, but it is worth listening to a few times. For all things Cellus, check him out at CellusMusic.com 

Categorical Ratings Breakdown:

Originality/Creativity: 2/5
Lyrics: 2/5
Delivery: 2/5
Beat Selection/Production: 2.5/5
Concept/Arrangement: 2.5/5