By Ron Gonzales /
For the Journal
The rapper known as Braille looks every bit the part of a hip-hop head — his clothing and posturing suggest someone who has been in the game for some time. Same thing goes for his lyrical style, a heady flow of pop culture references and lively metaphors.
Buried in those messages, however, are the words most important to Braille: those that profess his love for Jesus Christ.
Actually, the title of his latest album, “The IV Edition” (released April 15), contains a four-pronged message behind it. First, it signifies his fourth release as a rapper. Also, Braille uses the letters “I” and “V” to denote the device used for delivering solutions and medications into the veins, a sort of metaphor relating to social illnesses such as poverty, hunger and depression. And, those same letters are an acronym for “International Vision;” Braille feels it's important to be aware of what is going on in the world around us.
Finally, Braille used IV (as in the Bible book Romans 4) in the album title to show that Jesus is the ultimate healing solution for humans' sinning nature, and at its core, this is the message that Braille hopes that listeners will be left with.
“Christ in my life is more important to me than success and accolades,” Braille said in a Journal interview. “But at the same time, I want to be in the mix of music culture. Every artist has a core message and is preaching, whether they realize it or not. You write a song about going to club, then basically they're endorsing and promoting a lifestyle and a way of doing things.”
Braille's free show at the Victory Outreach Center tonight should resemble many of the shows that he has performed, in that it has been commonplace for him to be welcomed into such venues. However, Braille has toured extensively, both here in the United States and abroad, and has played to all sizes of crowds.
“I take the same approach whether it's a big or small venue,” Braille said. “A couple of years ago, I was touring with James Brown in Europe before he passed away, then I moved to shows in small towns in churches and gave the same effort.”
Following his current tour, he'll even get to expand his audience even more when he performs a string of dates with the Warped Tour, and one of those dates includes the tour's stop in Las Cruces on June 26.
“It's a good opportunity to reach more people and it definitely takes some of the legwork out of my head because I do my own booking,” Braille said of his Warped Tour run. “We just have to show up and play, and we don't have to do any promotion, so I'm really looking forward to it.”
Braille album release show
WHEN: 7:30 tonight
WHERE: Victory Outreach Center, 913 Sunset SW
HOW MUCH: Free
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