Lecrae to visit

Grammy-winner performs March 22

Christian hip-hop artist and rapper Lecrae, who won a Grammy last month for best Gospel album, will perform in concert with Andy Mineo and Propaganda at the Vines Center March 22 at 8 p.m.

Lecrae, whose full name is Lecrae Moore, attended a Gospel conference with hundreds of other teenagers and stood in awe of the participants’ demonstrated faith, according to reachrecords.com, the website for the recording company to which Lecrae belongs. This conference is where his love for Christ began, and, according to the Reach Records website, it gave him the passion to found Reach Life Ministries five years later in 2005 with Ben Washer, a friend he met through youth ministry.

According to the Reach Records website, Lecrae began his outreach by volunteering, speaking and rapping at a juvenile detention center. Lecrae has released five albums since 2005, and his latest album — entitled “Gravity” — won him a Grammy. His third album, “Rebel,” became the first Christian rap album to ever sit in the No. 1 position on Billboard’s Top Gospel Charts. “Rehab,” his fourth album, brought him to No. 3 on the Top 10 Albums chart on iTunes as well as a Grammy nomination.

“Lecrae has a talent for word-playing, with metaphors and examples of Christianity,” Liberty sophomore Mallory Corpe said. “I admire how he so bluntly portrays the Gospel through rapping. I am really pumped to get ‘cray at Lecrae,’ to see how crazy the crowd gets, and to see such a popular artist perform.”

However, some students had no previous knowledge of Lecrae’s ministry before his visit was announced.

“I have heard a lot of Liberty students on campus talking about Lecrae but have never personally heard his music,” Liberty junior Kimberly Jamison said. “I am excited to hear him perform and witness for myself his … talent. I am glad that Liberty is bringing in a performer with such a different take on Christian music and that they are being so open to more current, modern styles of worship.”

Tickets are already being sold online for the March 22 concert, and they are $5 for Liberty students and $10 for the general public. For more information, call 434.582.SEAT or purchase tickets online.