Slugger Roo hits grand slam with ‘Testimony’Thursday, December 7, 2006 9:02 AM CST A new CD brings street smarts to JesusBy Chris KingOf the St. Louis AmericanThe Testimony of Slugger Roo is a landmark in local gospel hip-hop, showing just how versatile a format it is for music, ministry, memoir and even humor. It’s a major achievement - and a very interesting and varied CD.Most important, for music fans, is that the record pops and flows. Because of the disc’s diversity, there aren’t that many raps and beats, but they are all solid and a few are spectacular.The hit single (if there is any justice on the radio) should be “Thinking of a Way Out Da Game (Jesus is the Way Out),†which begs you to shout along. Like many of Slugger Roo’s rhymes, it’s based in his years on the streets as a teen leader in The Vice Lords. It’s a believable peek inside the mind of a brother trying to clean up and deciding to use Jesus as his cleanser. A strange but also effective rap track is “Who Got Saved? (Slugger Roo Got Saved),†another singalong that manages to promote both Jesus and the artist’s own brand in every chorus. The strange part is the backing track, which sounds rooted in death metal. It’s weird but beautiful.Rap is only one aspect of Slugger Roo’s game. The record opens with a sincere prayer that his CD will do the work of God, and it ends with a live recording of a sanctified church service when Slugger Roo apparently delivered his first sermon. This rocks just as hard as the rap tracks.The record also has personal testimony, as the title would suggest. Slugger Roo lets a couple of other people step up to the mic, including one child, but his own extended, self-titled testimony is the deepest waters. Anyone who wonders what goes through the mind of a gangbanger needs to study this text.Speaking of studying texts, Slugger Roo also offers some fairly straight-up Bible study on this record. One track is titled after a scripture from Revelations, and “He Didn’t Have to, But He Did†is a masterpiece of translation, out of The Old Testament and into hip-hop slang. Given that it’s about Cane and Abel, you could say this is a sermon about two ancient brothers delivered for the contemporary young brother. Slugger Roo copies a page from the street rappers he used to run with and sprinkles skits throughout the record. It goes without saying that they aren’t as funny as most street skits, since so much juicy material and language is off-limits in a gospel context. The amazing thing is that they manage to be funny at all, without disqualifying the record from being played in Sunday school, as it deserves to be. They’re about as funny as your average Fat Albert episode.Then the dude goes off the hook by chopping and screwing two of his better rap tracks, “Thinking of a Way Out Da Game†and “Chillin’, Readin’ My Bible.†I wonder why everybody doesn’t drop a chopped-and-slurred remix onto every record. The remixes here are artful and interesting and succeed in taking local gospel hip-hop to an entirely new and cool place.“Only one Blood saved me from the Bloods and Crips,†Slugger Roo raps, in a typically clever and soulful line. This record shows that the Blood left Slugger Roo with all the good parts of the streets - the tight beats, gutsy rhymes and innovative intelligence. As Praiz’ would say, Ain’t nobody mad but the devil.Slugger Roo will release his new CD The Testimony of Slugger Roo Dec. 15 at Treasures of the Kingdom bookstore in Fairview Heights. For more information visit www.myspace.com/sluggerrooent.