Lecrae Details Album Origins, Collaboration with Mali Music in New Interview
Grammy-winning rapper Lecrae revealed the unconventional path of his song “Lift me Up” and discussed a fruitful collaboration with Mali Music in a recent interview, offering insight into his creative process and faith-based artistry. The interview, part of a larger ”Then And Now” feature, highlights Lecrae’s commitment to sharing his music with incarcerated audiences before wider release and his desire to transcend genre boundaries.
Lecrae explained that he prioritizes sharing his work within the prison system, releasing records to inmates on their tablets before making them available to the public.”I always love doing that, and I release that record to them first-before I release it anywhere else-on their tablets and in the prison systems, before I put it out for the world,” he said. “It’s kind of like the first single off my album Reconstruction.Lift Me Up is like the early stages of what it looks like to be reconstructed. First you’ve got to ask, ‘Okay, God, I’m about to trust you again. You got me? Will you lift me up in the hard times?'”
The track “Lift Me Up” itself had a circuitous journey to Lecrae’s Reconstruction album.Originally intended for Kanye West’s Jesus Is King project, the song was abandoned when West decided it wasn’t a fit. Producer Beam, who had both 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 recounted. “We locked in and worked on it, 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. ”Mali and I were kind of on the same page,” Lecrae stated. “We were like these hybrid artists…We didn’t no it was going to be a big record-we had no idea.We just made it, and people gravitated to it, and it became the biggest song on that album.” the pair aimed to create a song that authentically expressed their faith while showcasing musical talent.
The full interview, titled “Lecrae: Then and Now,” is available to view online.