“I was raised to admire dudes who were gangsters and I admired the thugs, because to me that was the essence of masculinity," Lecrae said at the time.
“What 2Pac represented to me was true masculinity and he was just a young 24-year-old dude who was confused, but I didn't know that," he continued. "Faith was always the final frontier."
Lecrae balances his Christian faith with his music. He has built a successful empire by consistently putting community at the forefront of his mission, seen in his longevity as an independent artist with Reach Records. On Friday, Aug. 22, he releases his 10th studio album, Reconstruction, built on the values of restoring, rebuilding and giving back.
Lecrae is a four-time Grammy Award winner. Although he’s a product of hip-hop, he tends to be boxed in for being a Christian rapper. He named his 2014 album Anomaly because his existence was often questioned: where does he fit in within hip-hop culture? As he earned his first #1 on the Billboard 200 chart with Anomaly and stacked up more Grammys, he always led with his apprenticeship with Jesus. An anomaly no longer, his spiritual journey built a dedicated following and broke mainstream barriers.
In a recent interview with The Breakfast Club, host Charlamagne tha God said after hearing Reconstruction, “If Lecrae wasn’t a quote-unquote Christian rapper, they would have to put this in the rap album of the year category.” It's further affirmation that in an abundant hip-hop release week that includes new albums from BigXThaPlug, Earl Sweatshirt, Ghostface Killah, Kid Cudi and Offset, Lecrae's music always gets high praise when people decide to pay attention. Reconstruction is beginning.
Lecrae partnered with The Human Impact to create a different kind of listening experience. On Tuesday night, with a suggested donation of $20, Lecrae brought fans and local residents together to uplift the Dallas community by assembling care packages for those experiencing homelessness at Watermark South Dallas. After Pastor Marvin said a prayer and Elisabeth Jordan, founder and president of The Human Impact, shared some welcoming words on what The Human Impact is for those curious, Lecrae received a warm round of applause before sitting down in front of us. Throughout the evening, Lecrae, with several crosses behind him, shared the message behind Reconstruction and gave the backstory behind five tracks, including a bonus one called “Holidaze” featuring Jon Bellion that he wanted to preview for us. Typically, album listening parties have an open bar and hors d’oeuvres, with most people coming to network rather than to hear an artist’s new album. In a church setting, it was quieter and intimate, letting the fans speak to Lecrae directly while hearing the songs clearly through good-sounding speakers. He praised the faithful Lecrae fans who bought tickets to this experience and his upcoming Dallas stop in November for the Reconstruction World Tour with Miles Minnick, Gio, 1K Phew and Torey D’Shaun on selected dates.@power1051 Charlamagne just said if Lecrae wasn't labeled a "Christian rapper" his new album would be RAP ALBUM OF THE YEAR 🔥 The respect is real
♬ original sound - New York’s Power 105.1 🔊
On the meaning of Reconstruction, he says, “It’s more than just the idea of reconstructing your faith. It’s the reality that broken people can be rebuilt. Broken things can be restored. And broken faith can be reconstructed.”
As he got into Reconstruction, Lecrae was open, referring to chapters in the Bible to add detail to his song explainations, cracked jokes when there were technical difficulties with the audio and heard stories from the audience about how his music saved their lives in a Q&A after the playthrough was over. One fan asked about how parenthood has changed him, while another told him how “Take Me As I Am” turned his life around. Lecrae even got a gift, a custom-made kimono from a student studying fashion, that he promised to wear and tag him on Instagram.
From the holy trappings of “Brick for Brick” with a show-stealing verse by Meezo! to “Headphones” featuring Killer Mike and T.I., Lecrae delivers for hip-hop aficionados. His listening met every intention he set for the evening: to elevate values, to serve and to connect with other humans hand-in-hand to make an impact.
Here’s what Lecrae said about the five songs he broke down during his Reconstruction listening experience.
“H20”: “It's just the concept that I think a lot of things that we think bring us hope are not. In order to reconstruct, you got to look around at what’s broken and kind of get rid of that and build on a solid foundation, which is Jesus. And build healthy things and tear down some of these things that we think are sustaining us. Your money is not [sustaining]. It’s a resource, but it is not the source. So we're rebuilding.”
“Brick for Brick” feat. Meezo!: “In order to build a house, what do you need? You need some bricks. Jesus is the cornerstone; we need bricks to build the house. When you look at these beautiful homes, it’s like, ‘Wow, how did that happen? It didn’t happen overnight.’ You had to do it brick by brick by brick by brick. I thought it’d be fitting to do a song because we are the bricks of God’s house. We are the body, we are some of the stones he’s building with.”
“It features this young lady, she lives in Houston, but she’s from South Georgia, and I heard her rap one time, I said to my A&R Ace [Harris], ‘Who is that?’ He told me about her heart and character and everything about her. She’s only like 21, 22. I said, ‘Put her on my album immediately.’ We just flew out to Houston and hung out with her. She is a beautiful soul and has a promising future if she keeps rapping like this. She tore this song so bad I rewrote my verse.”
“There For You” feat. Fridayy: “This song is a time when God spoke to me in a different kind of way. I was in the darkest place of my life, but you wouldn’t have been able to tell from the outside. I had bought this late model car. I was living in this house, and we had gotten a basketball court in the backyard. You can just imagine life couldn’t get any better. I was in the darkest place spiritually, emotionally and mentally than I had ever been. Imagine sitting in an expensive vehicle, wondering why you’re still alive.”
“I don’t care about failures, I don’t care about how you have not lived up to what you thought the standard was, I don’t care about any of that stuff, I don’t care about the fact you achieved all these things, I loved you before you had anything. I’m there for you. It’s me talking about the pain, but also knowing God is there for me.”
“Pray for Me”: “A part of the journey of being who you are created to be is not listening to the outside voices that tell you who you are. Your identity is not achieved, it’s received. God has already told you who you are…‘Pray for Me’ is all the naysayers and the people that have negative things they have to say about me, that I’m in the Illuminati, all kinds of things over the years. One, I pray for them. I have no grudge against them. I hope you’re praying for me as hard as you're critiquing and criticizing me. It’s just a challenge to us and to others to pray for the people that we have issues with, that we critique when we see them online.”
Love my brother's. https://t.co/Vony9JYf7p
— Killer Mike (@KillerMike) August 20, 2025
“Headphones” feat. Killer Mike and T.I.: “It is one of my favorites for a few different reasons. My cousin that I grew up with, we were [born] three days apart. We did everything together. He died of a fentanyl overdose a couple years ago. It was the deepest form of grief that I had experienced. I haven’t lost anybody that close to me yet and it rocked me. I realized that whether you know God or you don’t, you are going to experience loss. That’s something across the aisle. I had been building with my brother Killer Mike for years. We had a lot of disputes about Christianity but we still love each other…He has come around a lot more. If you listen to his last album, he’s like processing this, heavy. He lost his mom and I was able to have some conversations about the loss of his mom.
“And then T.I. as well, just being able to have proximity to him over the years. Tip, he’s a handful. He’s a handful, but he’s not beyond the grasp of Jesus. For me, these are not superstars. They are not celebrities. These are just brothers that I sit and have conversations with and we can talk and be real. And Tip has asked me some hard questions and challenged and pushed back. And I love and I welcome it. It challenged me to get deeper into my word.”
— Eric Diep (@E_Diep) August 20, 2025You can preorder Lecrae's album on The Workshop.
