Trailblazin Ministries

Cross Movement - HIStory: Our Place in His Story

Written by LaRosa Johnson
Tuesday, May 22, 2007

Album Overview

When you think of holy hip-hop, Cross Movement is one the names that you'll almost immediately think of. For a decade now, they have been the face of the genre and the standard for biblically centered hip-hop. They started in 1997 by showing you how to have a Heaven's Mentality before showing you in 1999 how to be a member of God's House of Representatives. A year later (2000), they told us about the Human Emergency and then took a little hiatus. After rejuvenating, they came back to show us how to be "In [and] Not Of" the world as members of the Holy Culture and then lastly showing us how to view things with spiritual eyes in Higher Definition. They even gave us a greatest hits album with Chronicles. With six albums in a nine year span, Cross Movement gave us a multitude of bangers that repped Christ ranging from "Who's Da Man" and "I Am That I Am" to "Know Me (Huh, What?)" and "Forever." These are the jams that people remember chanting after leaving a Cross Movement concert and ministry outreach and the songs that remain on repeat years later. Truly, the CM camp has touched the hearts of holy hip-hoppers and now that they have announced that that they are doing one final album, it leaves many, like myself, in a state of reflection and remembering what they've down to both spark and engage the culture. So, if there are smudges on the paper or streaks on the monitor, don't mind me, I'm just shedding a tear or two in remembrance of the crew that made me fall in love with holy hip-hop and showed me how to not be ashamed of the gospel.

Keeping things in line with their previous albums, Cross Movement's last group effort starts with the letter "H," completing their second hat trick: HIStory: Our Place In His Story. For a crew with such a history, it would only seem fitting that they would title their last album HIStory, and then put a gospel twist on it, so as to take the focus off themselves and put it all back on Christ. With that in mind, Cross Movement attempts to use this album to talk about their place in God's story and how they played a part in it, and showing how we do also. Musically, this album is absolutely astounding; Cross Movement took things back to their roots by bringing back more of the sampled east coast sound, which is what they do best. By bringing back that style of hip-hop, they take you back to the days of Heaven's Mentality and House of Representatives (which are personally two of my favorite albums); in doing so, they went back to what brought them so much success and still kept it fresh and vibrant for a 2007 audience. Lyrically, this is Cross Movement at their finest; just listening to this album, you can tell that they put a lot of work into making this album the best it could possibly be before passing the torch to their youthful CMR labelmates. From top to bottom, HIStory puts Cross Movement's ministry into perspective and puts the perfect finishing touches to a memorable music career.

Spiritual Significance

As stated earlier in the review, the primary objective of this final Cross Movement release is to put everything into proper perspective. What is that perspective? Simply put: God is the Creator, and we all play a part in His great story. That's what HIStory is, it's showing us our place in His story. It is with this agenda that the Tonic, Ambassador, Phanatik, and Tru-Life seek to address many spiritual and social issues that are relevant in today's culture and are affecting both the Body of Christ and the world as a whole, while still giving plenty of emphasis to the orchestrator of this story. The opening song "Our God" immediately sets the record straight about who this is all done for, by giving props to "Our God," the Lord Jesus Christ, the Alpha and Omega. They then get into a dual love song with "I Love You," with CM showing how much they love God and how much love that God has for humanity. Then they still show that they know how to lift His "Name Up" and prove that God is still in charge with "Now Who's the Man" (an update to Phanatik's original "Who's Da Man" from Heaven's Mentality).

With God getting His due throughout the entire project, you would think that there wouldn't be anything else left to talk about, but that is so far from the case. Tru-Life motivates everyone to scream His name "Louder" as they proclaim the Gospel message, while Tonic begs for "Spare Change" in an attempt to spark a modern day reformation that would bring Christ back to the limelight. And while Phanatik weaves a "Tapestry" and Ambassador gets you to "Clap Your Hands," the entire CM crew gets down to show you how God is able to do "Big Things" with little people, much like how a mouse is able to defeat a giant elephant. You also can't forget "The Last Cypha" featuring many of the new faces of CMR as they pay their respects and give love to the ones that have taught them so much, while the CM fellas lay down their last cypha verses on this their final Cross Movement group album. Maybe not their best cypha, but it is probably one of their most memorable, especially with the sample they used stating that they're not going to leave until the work is done. What better way for Cross Movement to go out?!

Topics Covered

I've already given you a pretty clear overview of the topics discussed on this album, but much like reading the Scriptures and constantly hearing them, it bears repeating. The overarching topic covered on this project is the majesty of God, how He has a plan for humanity and plans to give His Son the glory through all of it. But aside from that, here are a few of the other topics covered in the project:

• Trusting in God and putting faith in Him (Trust in Him, We Were They)
• Standing up for righteousness and Christian values (Back For This)
• September 11th and living like it never happened (9-10)
• Seeking social and spiritual change (Spare Change)
• Having a good time in the Lord (Get That, Clap Your Hands)
• Doing great things for the Lord (Big Things)

That's only the tip of the iceberg. There is so much on this album that it'll take some time to digest. Again, what better way for Cross Movement to go out? They leave you with a very spiritually rich album that has enough meat for days. Cross Movement spit the gospel and the truth of Scripture, just like they always have and will continue to do with both their label and individual ministries.

Farewell Cross Movement, you have blessed all of us with so much and we thank you for it. If it weren't for a ministry like yours showing how the Bible and hip-hop could intersect, there wouldn't be a site like Trailblazin Ministries seeking to follow in your footsteps of having a Heaven's Mentality within this Holy Culture; you have shown me how to see things in Higher Definition and there truly is a Human Emergency out there that I, and many others, need to respond to. Now that you're retiring the group, rest assured that there is a House of Representatives that is ready to step into your place, like Timothy, and continue running the race with endurance! God bless you!

Key Tracks

Our God, I Love You, 9-10, Big Things, Trust in Him, the Last Cypha