Hip Hop and Rap related Gospel has had a hard row to hoe since it’s influence first started being heard back in the 1990’s. It is a little bit like the fable of the Golden Goose. People were told about this thing that they had never seen, but had heard of by word of mouth. Gospel music has had such a long and venerable tradition and community behind it that it does not want its pre-eminence challenged. It also has many older consumers who are traditional to the point they still listen to gospel music on cassette tapes. The influence of these newer forms of Gospel and praise and worship music, has taken a long time to permeate and spread around the country.
Darrell Kelley, is one of the newer artists who has rolled up his sleeves and looked at the landscape and made a plan to get his message out there one song at a time. His released material up to this point shows why he is steadily gaining traction in the markets. He vacillates between humor and seriousness to make his messages. You can see early in his catalog that songs like "Sit Your Rump Down" rests comfortably next to more serious issue songs like "Believe in Something (Kneel)". It is going to be artists like this, who are going to prove to be the breakaways in the Indie Gospel field.
Kelley’s new song is about the lessons we must learn from the good book. "Here Ends the Lesson" is built on a heavy grind of a beat and string-like sample from the keyboards, with deep bass pounding away behind it. Darrell uses this platform to wrap his voice and lyrics around to give a sense of urgency to learning these lessons to help souls in his community find the right path. There is not one word that he says, or one sentence that rings false, when you believe in the word of God. The listener to this track would do well to reflect on the meaning here that Mr. Kelley is trying to impart. If anyone of the many listeners to this message home and activated it in their lives, it would probably have the added benefit of making their lives more complete, and more pleasurable.
Kelley has some history in making the case for a better sense of spiritual unity among people. He is the author of a book that looks for the commonality between the world’s estimated 4,200 active religions. In his published book, "The Book Of UWGEAM", he does not want to dwell on what separates us, he wants to keep promoting the ideas of religion that he has obviously thought about for a very long time. He will fit in well along side artists like Toby Mac, LaCrae and Bobby Bishop, as long as he keeps producing a steady diet of songs for the souls out there starved for the word of the Lord. "Here Ends the Lesson" is a song and a prayer, which is what most men women and children need in their hearts daily.