Song of the Day: Freedom of Soul - Freedom of Soul

By in News, Song of The Day | 6 Comments

There is simply not enough hip-hop on this site. Let’s fix that! I grew up in a small, very monochromatic town in Oklahoma, where most of the people had my skin color. In that part of the world, there were two kinds of music–country and heavy metal. In the 80s, a few of my friends who were more hip had started getting into this new “rap music” that I knew very little about. But growing up in a country-western family and then discovering rock on my own, I wasn’t really predisposed to listen to rap.

Fast-forward a few years, and Oklahoma City has perhaps the most innovative Christian radio station ever, where I was exposed to a lot more styles of music. “Freedom of Soul” was one of the first hip-hop tracks that really forced me to listen. That sick drum beat with that mini-guitar sample was all it took to hook me in.

I recognized the opening sample right away. Not only was it lifted from the disco/funk tune by McFadden & Whitehead originally, but seminal holy hip-hop crew JC & the Boyz had featured it on their debut album as a key ingredient to the title track [correction: as pointed out in the comments, it was the S.F.C. “No Stoppin'” and not J.C. and the Boyz as I incorrectly stated]. Now here’s where Christian rap really starts to get interesting. You can track so many early groups, rappers, and DJs to the original JC & the Boyz crew, including S.F.C., Super C/Sup the Chemist, DJ Dove, Dynamic Twins, and of course, Freedom of Soul. So it was an interesting way to start off their debut album Caught in a Land of Time, as it served both to pay homage to their beginnings, but also serve as a jumping off point for this new project.

I contend Freedom of Soul is still one of the best and most creative hip-hop duos to emerge from the Christian scene.

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Dixon
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Dixon
December 14, 2021 5:28 am

Definitely there should be more hiphop on IVM so thank you for this! It was because of this site that I discovered Illect Recordings, Krum fka Playdough, etc.

Dixon
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Dixon
December 15, 2021 11:22 am
Reply to  Loyd Harp

Thanks for asking now please bare with me while I share this list lol. Lately I’ve been listening to the following:

Krum – https://youtu.be/sl_ag5LU070
Theory Hazit – https://youtu.be/Bpsyp4XdAuk
Armond Wakeup – https://youtu.be/3X7JQAIi7-w
Taelor Gray – https://youtu.be/BnD7PCUh2nU
Rel McCoy – https://youtu.be/QFb9X30EWfk
Eternia – https://youtu.be/M0qqr1MBRwY
Tragic Hero – https://youtu.be/NyC_gm-PtjI
Sojourn – https://youtu.be/13Xrv9j3h8g
Ozay Moore – https://youtu.be/jboy-oamOq0
Die-Rek – https://youtu.be/Bo6TMnN-V94

Hope there’s something for you in there!

Fosforus
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Fosforus
May 17, 2022 6:40 pm
Reply to  Dixon

I love Freedom of Soul! Personally, I think The 2nd Comin album is fresher than this one, it has 1 or 2 odd songs, but the rest are all home runs.

You mentioned ‘Ain’t No Stoppin Us Now’, I think that is actually referencing SFC’s ‘No Stoppin’ song ’89, not JC & the Boyz. But FWIW, on that first album, SFC is JC & the Boyz minus 2-3 members.

Freedom of Soul’s members (Peace586 & Cartoon) & Soup (Super C) did an IG live about a year ago, I think it’s now a post on Peace586’s IG.

Last edited 2 years ago by Fosforus
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