Verses Mode: Heaven & Earth

Big Brown Dad was (is?) (will always be?) a rapper.

In 1991, I got swept up in the evangelical fervor flooding the #SGV (big ups to the psychologically manipulative altar calls at Calvary Chapel West Covina).

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In 1998, while still riding the big waves of theological fundamentalism, I enrolled in seminary to pursue an MA in the Philosophy of Religion and Ethics.

In 2001, I left seminary with my fundamentalism in tatters and embarked on a hip hop backpacking trip throughout Mexico & Guatemala. I wrote a gang of raps at the time. Ultimately, the rhymes were cobbled together for my album, Heaven and Earth, that I put out in 2005.

This is the title track, Heaven and Earth.

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The song attempts to articulate the tension you feel when enraptured at a church service. You go from high to low, from sin to grace, from saint to sinner, from heaven to earth and back again.

Rise. Fall. Rise. Fall.

The song starts off expressing that tension:

I touch the heavens
clutch the ground
walk the straight and narrow
but still fuck around

If you listen close, I shot out Manuel Aguilar, my brother, on the track.

Pay attention to the chorus, the homie Odd Thomas blessed it. & he made the beat.