Sinema is the second studio album from Christian hip hop musician Swoope, released on August 5, 2014 by Collision Records. It is a follow-up to Wake Up. Highly praised by critics, the album charted at No. 3 on the U.S. Christian Albums chart, No. 1 on the Gospel chart, and No. 4 on the Rap Albums chart. Read More Here
Sinema reads like a movie script, with Swoope as the lead character fighting a great adversary. But while you might think it’s temptress Mya Desiree who keeps calling up looking for love, it’s actually Swoope’s heart that is causing the greatest grief.
This isn’t necessarily an album about sin. It’s an album about our daily battle with sin – some days we win, and others we don’t. I love how this album has been structured. Voicemail messages between Swoope and Mya are the glue that hold the concept together. As you listen, you can’t help but become Swoope’s cheer squad as we silently hope and plead that he won’t give into temptation – just like you would watching a film character at the end of their rope. But most of all, Sinema cuts us deep as we consider our own sin, and our need of a fixed heart.
The album opens with the title track, and sets the scene that this is going to be an album about the battle between our fleshly desires and the Spirit. Swoope paints pictures with his words that you can’t help but feel uneasy about. The song closes with a voicemail message from Swoope to Mya and you can’t help but plead internally – ‘Don’t do it, man!’
On My Mind (feat. JR) features funk and falsetto and delves into our minds and what we chase after. #SameTeam deviates a little from the album’s concept and is a seven-minute epic featuring other Christian rappers (Tedashii, J. Givens to name a few) who are united together by the mission to proclaim the gospel.
LSD (feat. Christon Gray) is a suave glimpse into the battle of the mind: ‘I want it, I want it, I need it, I need it.’ It should cause us to consider the times when we justify sin in our minds, calling our wants our needs, when sin is what we are to flee from.
Bow Down continues this line of thought, reminding us that we need the mind of Jesus to be free from sin.
The glorious grace of Jesus and his forgiveness despite our rebellion is featured on Best of Me (feat. Natalie Lauren): ‘The blessing of the cross says that I’m died equipped to battle this, why? Cos Jesus stands before me’. Swoope gets pretty real on this track, and just when you think he might be winning the battle against temptation, Mya leaves another voicemail. This again messes with us as we fear what Swoope will do next.
Right Side has an edgy, alternative arrangement and starts the examination of our hearts – showing that the problem of sin is within us. It’s our hearts that are the problem. This is shown even more deeply on Sin in Me – a song that really shows the importance of listening to this album as a whole, and in order. Swoope references horror flicks and the sound of the track is spooky enough to belong to one of them. In both of these tracks Jesus’ words in Mark 7:20-23 are on show:
“What comes out of a person—that defiles him. For from within, out of people’s hearts, come evil thoughts, sexual immoralities, thefts, murders, adulteries, greed, evil actions, deceit, promiscuity, stinginess, blasphemy, pride, and foolishness. All these evil things come from within and defile a person.”
More than an Album
The esoteric and eclectic fecundity that is Kanye West, undertook the venture of making an album that was more than an album when he released My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy in 2010. Swoope takes this concept a step further. Aptly titled Sinema, Swoope’s album is the only record I’ve ever listened to that contains such robust imagery that the careful listener can actually visualize the scenes of each track. While it’s not quite a trip to the movies, I definitely felt like I had front row seats at the theatre.
I met this girl when I was no years old,
And what I loved most, she had so much soul
By so much soul, I mean so control of mine
Body soul and mind, body so was fine…
In Conclusion
I enjoyed this album, and as much as I admired Swoope’s talent as a lyricist and the complexity of his wordplay, a few of the beats served as a distraction and left something to be desired. I feel like this is even more important given that the album endeavors to create visual art through music. Sometimes the production masks the greatness of his bars and I don’t quite understand why he opts to go a cappella for portions of “Best of Me”. On a similar note, when listening to “On My Mind” I wasn’t a fan of the heavily synthesized rifts that precede the chorus and didn’t understand their purpose. But then again, that hasn’t stopped me from putting the song on repeat.
Finally, while the album’s voicemail messages are exceptionally creative and accomplish their purpose, it makes re-listening to the album a little tedious and can make for some awkward moments at stop lights. I can’t help but wonder that perhaps they could have been included as interludes and still accomplished their intended result.
But at the end of the day, Swoope can go bar for bar with your favorite rapper. And there’s really no other way to put it. #WellDone Read More Here
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