Lecrae Details Album Origins, Collaboration with Mali Music in โNewโค Interview
Grammy-winning rapper Lecrae revealed the unconventional โคpath of his song “Lift me Up” and discussed a fruitful collaboration with Mali Music in a recent interview, offering โฃinsight into his creative process and faith-based artistry. The interview, part of a larger โข”Then โคAnd Now” feature, highlights Lecrae’s commitment โto sharing hisโ music with incarcerated audiences before wider release and his desire to transcend genre boundaries.
Lecrae explained that โhe โคprioritizes sharing his โwork within the prison system, releasing โฃrecords to inmates on their tablets before โฃmaking them available to the public.”I always love doing that, and I release that record to them first-before I release it โanywhere โฃelse-on their tablets and in the โprison systems, before I put it out for the world,” he said. “It’s kindโ of โlike the first single offโ my album Reconstruction.Lift โMe โฃUp โฃ isโ like the โearly stages of what it looks like toโ be reconstructed. First โyou’ve got to ask, ‘Okay, God, I’m โขabout toโ trust you again. You got me? Will you lift me up in the hard times?'”
The track “Lift Me โขUp” โคitself had a circuitous journey to โขLecrae’s Reconstruction album.Originallyโ intended for Kanyeโ West’s Jesus Is King project, the song โฃwas abandoned when West decided it wasn’t aโข fit. Producerโ Beam, who had โboth written the hook and prepared the production for west, then approached Lecrae. “Beam said, ‘There’s nobody else I can imagine using this record but you,'” Lecrae โrecounted. “We locked in and worked on it,โ and man-the rest is history.”
Lecrae also detailed his collaboration with Mali Music on the song “Tell the World,” noting a shared experience of existing outside traditional genre classifications. โฃ”Mali and I were kind of on the sameโฃ page,” Lecrae stated. “We were like these โฃhybrid artistsโฆWe didn’t no it was going to beโฃ a big record-we had no idea.We justโค made it, and people gravitated to it, and itโ became the biggest song on that album.” theโข pair aimed to create a song that authentically expressed their faith while โshowcasing musical talent.โข
The full interview, titled “Lecrae: โฃThen and Now,” is availableโ to view online.