Christian rapper Lecrae made his debut on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon Thursday evening after his latest album "Anomaly" grabbed the number one spot in the Billboard Top 200 list.
Lecrae, who shared his testimony in Billy Graham's My Hope America broadcast message "The Cross" last November, isn't afraid to go against the grain of hip hop culture. He combines fresh beats with theologically rich lyrics, and his newest album release, "Anomaly," has received rave reviews. It was recently endorsed by Christian NBA player Jeremy Lin, for instance, who has been a fan of Lecrae's for quite some time.
While The Tonight Show has featured Christian performers in the past, including Switchfoot, For King and Country, Relient K, and Third Day, Lecrae is the first Christian artist to have topped the Billboard Top 200. "Anomaly" also shot to the top of iTunes charts for album sales upon its release on September 9.
Christianity Today reports that Lecrae joined Jimmy Fallon's house band, The Roots, Thursday night and performed parts of "Nuthin," "Fear," "All I Need is You," "Say I Won't," and "Welcome to America." The Tonight Show also posted a video clip of Lecrae explaining how he came to write the album's lead single, "Nuthin," which sheds light on much of the deceptive, repetitive, and meaningless content that is found in many modern rap songs.
"It was just such an aggressive track that I wanted it to say something meaningful ... I love music, I love hip hop, and I love substance in my music and I wanted this to have some substance, and I want hip hop music to have substance," says Lecrae. Frank Knuckles of The Roots later tweeted, "Just got finish rockin wit Lecrae...it was quite refreshing 2 hear a rapper rap about sumthin other than what rappers rap about today!"
While the success of "Anomaly" has catapulted him into hip hop stardom, Lecrae has remained humble. "It's a lot to take in. I haven't had time to download it all," he tweeted recently - "I am so grateful for the support. I know I represent something much bigger than me. Thank you! I thank God for a voice into culture. I pray I use it wisely."
