B. Reith is a Christian hip hop/pop singer and rapper from Wisconsin. He made his musical debut in 2003 with the release of his first album Urgent Message. Since then he has released an EP called The Forecast (2008) and a full-length album, Now is Not Forever (2009). He most recently released the single "Knockin' on My Door" in early 2011 which was followed by the album mentioned in the title of this entry. While I was angry with myself for missing the release date (November 11), I was elated to discover that the album had come out. I have followed B. Reith for about 3 or 4 years now and he is by far my favorite artist.
2008’s The Forecast promoted awareness of the personal issues that kids in America deal with daily. There were religious songs as well, but the focus of humanitarianism remained. Even in the song "Bottom of the 9th," a collaboration with rapper Knine, B. Reith makes references to the end of the world and suggests that humanity do more to fix what's wrong.
In late 2009, B. Reith released Now is Not Forever. It peaked at number two on U.S. R&B/Hip-Hop Album charts with such hits as "Antidote" and "The Comeback Kid." On this record, Reith seemed to focus more on his personal relationship with God and his personal struggles as an up and coming Hip-Hop Artist.
In his most recent release How the Story Ends I have only had the opportunity to listen to 5 tracks and I can already see that he has successfully tied the themes from his EP and his 2nd album. In the songs "Knockin' On My Door" and "2 Steps Forward" the major focus is his struggles as a Hip-Hop artist to create material that will help him stay true to himself in the eyes of his fans, but also will increase his fan-base. In other songs, such as "I'll Get By" he stresses the importance of perseverance while insisting on his humanitarianism stating that the song is for the kids in Somalia, those who are bullied, and those who are struggling world-wide. In the song "Made for More" he expresses his disappointment in the number of opportunities people are given in the world. "We were made to be more than this... something's gone wrong, we've been broken, who can fix us now?" He still has his strong Christian overtones.
Overall this is bound to be a fabulous album. Go out and buy it.
