Critic's Review
Steve Huey, All Music Guide
The concept of "God's gangstas" might seem bizarre to some, but that's exactly what you'll find on Tha Movement, the second album by the South Central L.A. Christian rap group Str8 Young Gangstaz. The album follows the common Christian-music approach of aping popular secular styles and simply substituting Christian lyrical content. This approach makes for a juxtaposition that's even stranger than usual when you consider the subject matter of 2Pac and the Dr. Dre-era Death Row Records stable, two influences on the S.Y.G.z' sound so dominant as to make the G-funk grooves, George Clinton samples, and vocal deliveries sound like slavish imitations. That's perfect if you're a Christian listener who greatly enjoys the West Coast rap sound, but can't stomach the hard-edged, sometimes amoral hedonism of the artists who pioneered it; it also might appeal to some secular rap fans who like the sound more than the lyrical content (although it's more difficult to imagine that to be true for this style of music than it would be for other genres). Outsiders may find the album further confirmation of most Christian music's essentially reactionary nature -- calculatedly packaging the message in pre-existing popular sounds and making sure to incorporate "insider" themes and language for credibility, rather than creating new forms of expression a la classic African-American gospel -- but this music isn't aimed at that audience, so it doesn't really matter in the end.
