“Hip-hop is more than music, it’s actually culture,” said Lecrae. “It’s the lens through which you see the world.”

As a child, Lecrae’s world was void of good role models. Growing up with a single mom, Lecrae admits he would watch rap videos at his grandmother’s house and found people to fill the void. Despite his ability to rap, Lecrae wrestled with insignificance, having never met his father and experiencing abuse and neglect. He sought to fulfill this emptiness by surrounding himself with gangsters. Before long, Lecrae was embroiled in a world filled with drugs, theft, alcohol and gang activity.

“I didn’t fit in anywhere. I was just a misfit of a person,” he said.

His mother encouraged him to read the Bible, but instead he tore out the pages. Lecrae thought church was for older people and not for him, a perception he developed while attending a few times with his grandmother.

It wasn’t until a friend invited him to attend a conference out of town, that Lecrae realized his preconceived notions about faith may have been wrong.

“I saw guys who have been shot for being in gangs, girls who were extremely promiscuous in the past – rappers, dancers, singers – people who came from the same background I came from and they still embodied who they were culturally. But they were all in love with Jesus,” Lecrae said. “And I had never seen that before.”

Lecrae didn’t understand the God they were talking about but remembers asking God to get him out of the life he was living.

Not long after, Lecrae was driving and took a turn too fast when his car flipped over several times. The roof caved in, the windshield broke and the glasses he was wearing molded into the frame of the car, yet he didn’t have a scratch on him. It was that moment he decided it was time to live for Jesus.

“I saw a change. I spent a lot of time searching for father figures, and God has shown me that, ultimately, he’s my father that drives me to keep pressing,” Lecrae said.

Lecrae started volunteering at a juvenile detention center, singing songs he had written in his darkest moments when crying out to God.

“You’d just see them sitting there weeping. And time after time they keep requesting, ‘Can you do that song? I need something that’s going to remind me that I need Jesus,’” said Lecrae. “This is what I want to do – use music to offer hope and encouragement.”

Lecrae has released four albums with his newest, Rehab Deluxe, hitting stores Sept. 27.

I am Second is designed to help individuals discover hope. The iamsecond.com website includes authentic film testimonies of “everyday” people and celebrities related to a variety of personal struggles, including abuse, addictions, pride, eating disorders, broken families and the search for success and meaning in life. Celebrities featured include 2010 American League MVP and Texas Rangers outfielder Josh Hamilton; former Korn band member Brian “Head” Welch; surfer Bethany Hamilton; and football stars Bradie James, Colt McCoy and Sam Bradford.

Launched in Dallas-Fort Worth in December 2008, iamsecond.com quickly spread virally across the globe. To date, the website has seen more than 5 million visitors from 217 countries/regions who have viewed over 20 million pages on the site. The site has since officially launched in Orlando, Fla., Evansville, Ind., and Kansas City, Mo., with several other cities planned for the future.

The I am Second movement is now readying for the debut of its newest initiative – the I am Second book, slated to release from Thomas Nelson in January 2012.

For additional information about I am Second, visit http://www.iamsecond.com or for information related to the I am Second book, visit http://www.ThomasNelson.com.

A. Larry Ross

Hands down, these boys make up one of the best rock bands EVER! Whenever they perform in your state, go see em’ live.

Atlantic Records is excited to announce NEEDTOBREATHE’s new album The Reckoning debuted at #6 on this weeks Billboard Top 200. Released last Tuesday, this memorable collection of rock songs has been catching the attention of both critics and fans. Along with USA Today, Entertainment Weekly and more, The New York Times raves “this gifted band makes anthemic Southern rock that, on it’s fourth album, The Reckoning, is beginning to reach for the far seats of the arena.”

NEEDTOBREATHE recently played their song “Drive All Night” on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. Watch here.

Listen to the albums title track here.

Watch NEEDTOBREATHE talk about The Reckoning below.

“Can you believe she hooked up with him? What does he see in her, anyway?”

“Who knows?” I replied. I felt a familiar twinge of guilt and ignored it.

Another teammate interrupted our conversation. “Laura, you’re gonna play in Sunday’s game, right?”

“For sure!” I answered. I didn’t feel as sure as I sounded. My stomach had flip-flopped when Coach announced the schedule. I’d have to miss church … again.

It was my sophomore year, and I’d played for the Komets seven months of every year since fifth grade. I’d made the hockey-over-church choice a thousand times. But it never got any easier.

My youth pastor often encouraged me to come to church and youth group more often. He said God should always come before sports. He just doesn’t understand what it’s like to be on a team, I thought to myself. But I knew he was at least partly right. I played volleyball for my high school, but that never conflicted with church the way hockey did. Because I was on a club hockey team, we often had Sunday games–which meant I missed a lot of Sunday school and church. Practice on Wednesday nights meant I rarely went to Bible study.

It went beyond just missing church activities, though. My relationship with Christ was starting to slip. It’s not like I was totally walking away from God. My teammates did a lot of stuff I never got into, like swearing and drinking.

Read the rest here.

IgniteYourFaith.com is provided by ChristianityToday.com to creatively engage and empower Christian teens to be fully devoted followers of Jesus Christ.

The campaign is focused on addressing the issue of manhood in hip-hop culture because they feel “its evident that men don’t know what it means to be a man” said Christian rapper KB, a spokesperson for Reach Life ministries.

Reach Life ministries is a non profit of Reach Records, which houses co-founder and famed Christian rapper Lecrae. Gaining a platform because of the label’s success, the organization has purposed to “help bridge the gap between biblical truth and the urban context” and one of the ways they have set out to accomplish this is through their soon coming movie Man Up.

The film stars, new comer and main character Anthony Moone and presents six different areas of manhood that the creators feel young men often fail to live up to. The six depictions of manhood are aimed at making young men of the urban culture question their standards and beliefs of what authentic manhood means.

Click the video trailer below and read more here.

BREATHEcast.com is the largest and most extensive online source for Christian music in the nation. Opened to the public on October 30th, 2004, BREATHEcast.com houses the latest and greatest in all things Christian music including news, radio, videos, interviews and more from the best artists in every genre, including Contemporary, Rock, Worship, Gospel, Urban, and Southern Gospel.

The 11 track album contains the No. 1 CHR (No. 1 for four weeks) and Top 5 AC radio hit “Hold Me” featuring tobyMac. Other notable songs on the record include “With You,” “Come To Me” and “God Girl” done in a hybrid sound of acoustic pop, hip hop, folk, reggae and even country, final track listing below. The majority of the songs were produced by Christopher Stevens (tobyMac, Carrie Underwood) with additional tracks produced by Arch Nemesiz (production duo of GabeReal and Dave Wyatt of DiverseCity) and David Garcia (Mandisa, Group 1 Crew).

“I had the amazing privilege of working with an incredibly talented and diverse team for this album,” explains Jamie Grace. “What made it even more exceptional is that this team embraced who I am, what I love, where I’m from and most importantly where I’m going as an artist.”

In support of One Song At A Time, Jamie Grace will hit the road this fall with tobyMac in October while he tours Canada, and in November as a special guest on the “tobyMac Unplugged: A Night of Stories & Songs” tour hitting the U.S. Jamie Grace will also take part in “Newsong’s Very Merry Christmas Tour” featuring NewSong, Kutless and Chris August. Dates for the tour will be announced soon and available here.

Jamie Grace was discovered by industry pioneer and multiple GRAMMY ® winner tobyMac. “Every couple of years, I get a true desire to find and help a developing artist share their music with the world,” explains multi-platinum selling recording artist tobyMac. “Jamie Grace is a gifted artist and a great fit for Gotee Records for a lot of reasons. She has a style that can’t be put into a typical label box—a dash of reggae, a hint of folk/alt country, a sprinkle of hip hop. She is a true songwriter, who is blossoming before my very eyes and I have not been this excited to work with an artist in a long, long time. Jamie is a natural beautiful next step for our industry.”

Read all about it here.

Jesusfreakhideout.com™ is one of the world’s largest Christian music online resources. Created in August of 1996 as what originated as a small webpage titled “The Jesus Freak Hideout,” the site was the flourishing creation of music fan and graphic designer John DiBiase. MORE

AP reports:

The birthday wish of a girl who wanted to raise $300 for clean water in Africa has been granted and then some, as donors gave more than $1 million after she died from a car crash.

Rachel Beckwith had been near her goal when she turned 9 on June 12, so her donation website closed. She was injured in a 13-car pileup on July 20 and taken off life support days later. A pastor arranged for the website to be reopened.

The “charity: water” nonprofit says more than 26,000 donations have come in by Friday. Founder Scott Harrison says some came from Africa, Brazil, Thailand and Europe.

Rachel’s mother, Samantha Paul, says she’s “in awe of the overwhelming love to take my daughter’s dream and make it a reality.”

To help out, go here NOW!

From the Teen Choice Awards last night, PEOPLE scoop:

Unable to suppress a smile that lasted throughout Sunday’s 2011 Teen Choice Awards, Sean Kingston walked his first red carpet since his near-fatal jet ski accident in May.

After two separate brushes with death, the Jamaican-American rapper knows he’s lucky to be alive, but more important to him are the lessons he’s learned.

“Basically, I learned that in life anything can happen and you have to count your blessings and worship God, and believe in God,” Kingston, 21, tells PEOPLE. “And know that anything can happen, so you have to be cautious about what you do.”

Cautious yet optimistic, the singer, who received a standing ovation and a big onstage hug from pal Justin Bieber, insists that while his jet-skiing days may be over, he’s chomping at the bit to get back into the studio to take creative risks that don’t land you in an ICU.

“I’m feeling good, I’m feeling blessed, a hundred-percent,” he says. “I’m happy to back healthy, and I’m going back into the studio tomorrow.”

“We’ve been a band for almost 11 years,” lead singer Bear Rinehart said. “It’s been little steps along the way, you know? Playing in our hometown for the first time at a club that we loved, and then getting signed by Atlantic Records, and then Taylor called and wanted us to tour with her ’cause she’s a fan.”

During the four-man band’s first soundcheck of the tour, the guys were surprised to discover just how much of a NeedToBreathe fan Taylor is. “[It was] her and her family sitting out in the crowd, like, singing along to every word of the songs that we’re doing in the soundcheck,” drummer Joe Stillwell recalled. “It’s a little surreal to kind of see that from somebody that you see on such a big scale all the time.”

While South Carolina’s NeedToBreathe have been on the music scene for a while now, the Speak Now tour has been an experience unlike any other for the group.

“We haven’t played in venues this big, so that’s been a little bit to get used to,” Bear noted. “The first night you walk out there and there’s 20,000 people, it’s like, ‘Whoa, this is pretty intense!’ “

“Her fans, for the most part, are younger than our fanbase,” said lead guitarist Bo Rinehart (Bear’s brother).

“Some of these people, it’s the first rock and roll show they’ve ever been to,” Bear said with a laugh about Taylor’s hard-core fans. “Sometimes we’ll see the mom wearing a NeedToBreathe shirt and the kid wearing the Taylor Swift shirt!”

Watch the video here.

SOURCE: MTV USA

This little girl shows us the power of a giving and loving heart and how we all can make a difference in someone’s life. Not just that, we all should make a difference because one never knows when our life is gonna’ end.

Check this story on CNN:

For her 9th birthday last month, Rachel Beckwith told people that instead of giving her presents, they should donate to a charity providing clean water to families in developing nations.

The Seattle-area girl came up with $220, short of her $300 goal. She figured she’d try to raise more money next year.

Then came the crash.

Rachel died Saturday, taken off life support at a Seattle hospital three days after she and six other people were injured in a 14-vehicle pileup on Interstate 90 near her home in Bellevue, Washington, CNN affiliate KOMO reported.

But before her death, as word of Wednesday’s crash spread, so did news about Rachel’s fundraising wish. Her church took to Facebook, Twitter and its own website to promote her cause.

As of Monday afternoon, Rachel’s online fundraising page for the nonprofit group “charity: water” had landed more than $130,000 in donations, from more than 2,400 donors.

“Rest in peace knowing that your wish is helping people in ways that you could have never imagined,” one contributor wrote on the campaign site.

Read more here.

Beckah’s got a new album dropping August 16th, 2011. It’s titled “DESTINY” and it’s gonna’ rock! Check out her new music vid below.

#Putyourloveglasseson Lyrics

Written by Beckah Shae
Produced by: Jack Shocklee

I see you lookin lookin like you wanna dance, Im watchin wonderin why you dont take the chance?

Go ahead and take His hand. What are you scared of man? What are you scared of? Man?

I know you got it in you, Now just let it out. Don’t miss the moment, this is what its all about.

Its everywhere, look around, So many treasures to be found.

So we gotta , keep truth seeking, listen to wisdom speaking, catch his heartbeat and Abide Abide Abide

Keep truth seeking, listen to wisdom speaking, catch his heartbeat and see the world through Gods eyes!

Put, Put your, Put your love, Love, love

Put your, put your love, love

Put your love glasses on, Glasses on

Can you feel it, its in the air, Its how we choose to breathe. People treatin eachother either with honor or jealousy.

Rude rude, cutin others down cause they aint what you think you need.

Truth is we all need one another, Some are just too prideful to see.

God give us grace to see all things, To see mans’ heart the way You see

Gotta get get get that vision (love vision) vision oh

Love bears all things believes all things, Hopes in all things endures in all things

So we gotta get that vision!

Read the full #putyourloveglasseson blog post here.

Visit Beckah Shae’s official site here. Join her on Twitter | Facebook | MySpace | Youtube