Lecrae

Lecrae Devaughn Moore (born October 9, 1979) is an American rapper, singer, songwriter, record and film producer, record executive, actor, and entrepreneur.

He is the president, co-owner and co-founder of the independent record label Reach Records, was the co-founder and president of the now-defunct non-profit organization ReachLife Ministries, is an investor and co-owner of the audio production software MXD, and is a co-founder of the film production studio 3 Strand Films.

To date, he has released ten studio albums and three mixtapes as a solo artist, and has released three studio albums, a remix album, one EP, and numerous singles as the leader of the hip hop group 116 Clique.

He produced much of his earlier material along with other early Reach Records releases.

Lecrae, in reference to him being labeled as a Christian rapper, has stated that his music is just hip hop, though it reflects his Christian faith.

Lecrae received a scholarship to study theater at the University of North Texas, and graduated with a Bachelor of Applied Arts and Sciences in 2002.

He also briefly attended Middle Tennessee State University.

At 19, he went to a Bible study after being invited by a girl from college.

He was amazed to see people like himself there, who liked the same books and music, but who were loving.

He decided to live for God, but continued to make bad choices.

Following a friend's invitation, he attended a Christian conference in Atlanta and was impressed by the performance of a Christian rap group, The Cross Movement.

He was also touched by a clear presentation of the gospel by Pastor James White (of Christ Our King Community Church).

He then asked forgiveness for his sins and claimed to have experienced a new birth.

Subsequently, he was in a car accident but came out unscathed.

Lecrae's debut recording, Real Talk, was released in 2004 through Reach Records.

His third solo album, Rebel, released in 2008, became the first Christian hip-hop album to reach No. 1 on the Billboard Gospel chart.

Rehab followed in 2010, and Lecrae began attracting mainstream attention when he performed at the 2011 BET Hip Hop Awards Cypher and appeared on the Statik Selektah song "Live & Let Live" from Population Control.

On May 10, 2012, Lecrae released his first mixtape, Church Clothes, which was hosted by Don Cannon.

Considered his breakthrough into mainstream hip hop, the mixtape was downloaded over 100,000 times in less than 48 hours.

His sixth studio album, Gravity, came out on September 4, 2012, and has been called the most important album in Christian hip hop history by Rapzilla and Atlanta Daily World.

Lecrae's filmography includes a role in the television film A Cross to Bear (2012) and brief roles in the comedy film Believe Me (2014), crime film Superfly (2018), and Christian drama film Breakthrough (2019).

In the social sphere, Lecrae has presented on and written about racial tension and injustice in the United States as well as advocated for the preservation of responsibility and fatherhood values among men in the United States.

The album debuted as the best-selling album overall in the iTunes Store, No. 3 on the Billboard 200 and won the Grammy Award for Best Gospel Album at the 2013 Grammy Awards, marking the first time that a hip hop artist received this award.

Lecrae received nominations for Artist of the Year at the 43rd, 44th, 45th, and 46th GMA Dove Awards, the last of which he won, and for Best Gospel Artist at the 2013 and 2015 BET Awards, the latter of which he won, a first for a rap artist.

In 2013 he partnered with Dwyane Wade and Joshua DuBois in the multimedia initiative This Is Fatherhood as part of the Obama administration's Fatherhood and Mentoring Initiative, and in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic worked with Love Beyond Walls to distribute hand-washing stations and food to homeless people in Atlanta.

Lecrae was raised by his single mother in a poor neighborhood in southern Houston.

Shortly after his birth, he moved to Denver, away from his father, then to San Diego.

At the age of 6, he was sexually abused by his babysitter.

As a teenager, his role models were the rapper Tupac Shakur and his uncle, a member of a street gang.

At age 16, he began using drugs, trying almost every substance except crack and heroin.

He started stealing in high school and dealing drugs, using his grandmother's Bible as a lucky charm.

He was arrested for possession of drugs, but the policeman who arrested him discovered his Bible and made him promise that, if he let Lecrae go, he would live according to biblical principles from now on.

Subsequently, he began rehab.

He dropped drugs but replaced them with alcohol and partying.

Lecrae released his seventh album, Anomaly, on September 9, 2014.

It debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 with 88,587 copies sold through the first week, the first album to top both the Billboard 200 and the Gospel chart simultaneously.

In May 2016, Lecrae signed to Columbia Records in a joint deal between his label and Columbia.

He released a third mixtape, Church Clothes 3, on January 15, 2016, an eighth studio album, All Things Work Together, on September 22, 2017, and a ninth studio album, Let the Trap Say Amen, a collaborative project with Zaytoven, on June 22, 2018.

He left Columbia in May 2020.

His tenth studio album, Restoration, was released on August 21, 2020.