Trailblazin Ministries

La Familia Muzik - The Heist

Written by LaRosa Johnson
Friday, July 28, 2006

Do you remember the movie Oceans Eleven? If not, the plot of the movie was basically a group of thieves banded together to steal some money from a high security building. Sounds decent enough, right? Well, with their debut album, La Familia Muzik is attempting to do the same thing with their album titled The Heist. With a cover resembling both the movie and a cover of the Grand Theft Auto video game, they use a theme similar to Oceans Eleven to tell their story. But just remember that things aren't always as they appear on the surface and that there are two sides to every story.

With that in mind, The Heist quickly jumps off with "The Plan" where Don Tony gives you your mission and introduces you to his crew of specialists. The La Familia crew consists of: Syd (the inside man), Verse (the wheelman), Ryan Horton (the hacker), Carlito P. (locks/safes), and Foolish (demolitions). Along with Don Tony (the boss), each of these specialists work together to break in and capture their targeted treasure.

Now that we've discussed the crew, it's time to look at the heart of the album, which is the music. The Heist is broken down into five different sections with each member of La Familia Muzik getting an opportunity to flex their muscle and present their style of hip-hop and music. After getting your instructions, the album starts off with Syd offering up his version of hip-hop, which is heavily influenced by reggae sounds. Syd starts off his section of the album with the rowdy track "Krew Is Wild (Jesus Is My Homeboy)" featuring the rest of the La Familia Muzik crew. This song is very upbeat and serves as an anthem for the crew as they represent the Kingdom and show how wild they are for Jesus Christ. He then goes on to show that his music is more than "Hip-Hop" but it's more like a passion and his life, which is then followed by a couple other tracks before getting into the reggae inspired "Afe Stan (Have to Stand)." This particular track encourages the believer to continue to stand and walk in righteousness.

Syd's section is followed up by a voicemail from Verse to Don Tony. This is a hilarious interlude where he talks about how Carlito P. took a lot of his stuff, even his air freshener tree. Verse then comes in with his trio of songs after his voicemail. Two of his tracks, in particular, are very memorable to me. Those are "Worship" and "You Know," which are both very upbeat and bouncy songs. The first inspires people to worship through dance and the second encourages people to get out on the dance floor and have fun. Ryan Horton, the songbird of the crew, then comes in with a couple tracks. His track "Change" is hands down one of my favorites on this album; it has a very strong worship appeal as he asks "how is it between Him and you?" He seeks to find out where your relationship with the Lord is as he wants to make sure you're calling on Him as Father and Savior. "Need a Way Out" is a soulful track where Ryan talks about a woman getting pregnant and how she calls out on the Lord; the purpose of the song is to encourage you to trust in the Lord because He will always make a way out for us.

The next interlude is a voicemail from Foolish, the demolition expert. He is calling to let Don Tony know that everything is set for him to make an escape way for the rest of the crew, but you can also hear him fighting with the Spanish speaking Carlito P. who is messing with him while on the phone. Foolish's voicemail is followed by Carlito P.'s Latin inspired songs. I would have to brush up on my Spanish to really explain his songs because they're primarily in Spanish, but they are very flavorful and dance worthy. "Ahora Fue" has a very heavy Latin beat and sounds like something you'd hear in the club down in Miami; it definitely makes you want to get down on the floor and dance with your significant other. The album is then rounded out by Foolish, who has uses quite a few different styles on his tracks. He starts off with "Not Today" which has more of a rock feel, while "We Gon' Do It" has more of a techno/club sound. Foolish rounds off the album with another La Familia Muzik crew track called "Pain." The track starts off with a musical version of "Our God Is an Awesome God" before moving into the song where they talk about how it took a whole lot of pain over the course of their life, but they've found peace in Christ.

The album ends with another call from Don Tony, who we spoke with in the very beginning. It's here that he congratulates you for making it to the end of the album. He then goes on to tell you the true purpose of the mission, which isn't about a band of common thieves who are stealing something that isn't theirs. The true mission was to take back what originally belonged to us, which are our lives, souls and passions. This is what happens when we come to Christ; we get our life and soul back from the enemy. So all in all, that is what this album and mission was all about, to lead you to Christ.

Overall, as a project, I was very pleased with it. I'll admit that it took me a minute to get into the album because of the heavy influence of Latin music, but after I began to vibe to that, the music and lyrics really began to make a lot of sense to me and speak a lot of truth. The lyricism was top notch and with the five crew members lending their talents to the project it lent itself to be a very diversified project that was enjoyable from beginning to end. The production was top notch as well and served every emcee justice; from the bangers to the slow jams, there is plenty of heat. This album is definitely a must have for your collection and I recommend picking it up as soon as you can. Don Tony and the rest of the La Familia Muzik crew put together a wonderful project and I definitely look forward to hearing their solo projects and another group album.