Hip Hop Prophet Corey Red Warns of 'Empire Falls'

Ask the average Corey Red fan and it’s likely that they’ll say Corey Red is the Christian Method Man.  Corey Red is brash, unapologetic, and insanely smart.  If your “fight the power” Sociology professor could rap, it would probably sound like Corey Red on the mic.  His street-wise professorial raps made an eye-opening entrance on 1999’s Mark of the East compilation when he was rhyming with Redman  Precise.  Though it’s been over a decade since then, Corey Red has kept his rugged boldness while adding apocalyptic commentary on this world’s political systems.  As a Corey Red fan til Jesus comes back, I’ve always had one criticism for an emcee as profound as Corey Red: his beats have never measured up to his lyrical greatness.  But with his current EP, Make It Happen, I can tell that Corey Red is trying to change that.

Corey Red’s latest single, Empire Falls, is CLASSIC Corey Red.  To my surprise, the Godfather-like sample had me at hello.  The tense filled (though obviously from a keyboard) horns and strings warns you that there’s a darkness at work that our physical eyes can’t see.  The hook, “Those who ain’t scared will take notes / the rest are afraid so they’ll blame the scapegoat” is a profound synopsis of Corey Red’s subversive teaching.   Straight out the gate, Corey Red rhymes like a rogue CIA agent reading confidential files.  

On Verse 1, Corey Red reveals how the European Union, the pharmaceutical industry, and the US financial crisis will all coalesce into this world’s ruin.  Corey Red then rapes my virgin ears (not like I had them to begin with) and talks about being a horny eight year old in a way that’s both comical and repulsive.  Corey’s music is not for the politically correct.  He reveals the depravity of the sinful nature head on.  

Then, Corey Red says something that makes me wanna throw a napkin at my laptop: “Some masons are rappers but they’re just puppets.  Let’s talk about the masons who are pastors”.  THANK YOU!!!  We can be so focused on the enemy outside that we forget there’s an enemy roaming within.  We should listen to pastors with the same discerning ear we listen to Jay-Z.

Empire Falls is a PH.D level thesis in Hip Hop form.  I’m at a lost for words that an emcee could suggest the Navy’s role in Haiti’s earthquake.  I can’t say anything else but to let Corey Red’s music open your eyes to the subterranean conflict outside and within.  Let’s keep this brother lifted in prayer as he uses his life to expose the darkness.   Bandcamp  Twitter  Website