Stop the Funeral

Album Review

On his fourth solo album, the Ambassador, aka William Branch, continues to rap on behalf of his Christian beliefs. Branch may possess a Masters degree in theology from Dallas Theological Seminary, but as a rapper, he is concerned with spreading the message through the usual patter and doggerel, employing a vernacular speech peppered with contemporary references. He is not above cliché, noting, for instance, in the lead-off track, "A-M," that Jesus Christ is "more than the best thing since sliced bread." Sports provide useful touchstones, as when, in "Mind Made Up," the Resurrection is compared to heavyweight boxer Mohammad Ali's "rope-a-dope" strategy in his 1974 comeback fight against George Foreman and when, in "Pop Pop Pop," the Lord is seen as an unbeatable basketball player: "Nobody can block his free throw." Film and television also come up, whether Branch is mentioning Forrest Gump or Crash, or, in "Favor," noting "We were desperate like them housewives" before God's favor was obtained. And miracles are updated to contemporary needs in the same song: "He didn't even have TV, now he has cable." Branch sets his raps to familiar hip-hop beats and employs sung choruses like his secular peers, who also come in for comment, if not by name. "Somebody said it's a hard knock life," Branch says in "Trust in You," meaning Jay-Z (who was in turn quoting the orphans in the musical Annie), "but I got a hard knock Christ." Some of the faithful may find such pop culture associations irreverent, but the Ambassador is trying to negotiate with a new, young audience in Stop the Funeral, and one of Christianity's qualities has always been its remarkable adaptability across cultures, which believers cite as a mark of the universality of its message of redemption.