Church Clothes
| Church Clothes | ||||
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| Mixtape by Lecrae | ||||
| Released | May 10, 2012 | |||
| Genre | Christian hip hop | |||
| Length | 61:35 | |||
| Label | Reach/DatPiff.com | |||
| Producer | 9th Wonder, Big Juice, Boi-1da, Charlie Heat, Courtland Urbano, DJ Efechto, Don Cannon, Heat Academy, Red on the Beat, Sarah J, Street Symphony, S1, ThaInnaCircle, Tha Kracken!, Tyshane, Wit | |||
| Lecrae chronology | ||||
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| Singles from Church Clothes | ||||
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| Music sample | ||||
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The song "Church Clothes" drew controversy over its attack on Church hypocrisy over issues such as fashion.
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| Professional ratings | |
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| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| AllHipHop | 8/10 |
| The Christian Manifesto | J. F. Arnold:   Nick Ahern: 4.25/5 Michael Wildes:
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| DaSouth |  |
| FNFLive | 9.2/10 (Classic status) |
| Indie Vision Music | |
| XXL | XL (4/5) |
Church Clothes is the first mixtape by Christian hip hop artist Lecrae, released for free on May 10, 2012, and hosted by DJ Don Cannon. It featured No Malice of Clipse on the song "Darkest Hour", and included production work by 9th Wonder, Boi-1da, S1 and Street Symphony. Label-mates Tedashii and Andy Mineo, as well as other fellow Christian hip-hop artists such as Dre Murray, Thi'sl, Swoope, Christon Gray, and Braille, also made appearances on the album. The mixtape was downloaded 100,000 times in 48 hours, and met with critical acclaim. It received controversy in Christian media upon its release due to its condemnation of hypocrisy in the Christian Church and Lecrae's collaboration with the mainstream producer Don Cannon. A shorter, remastered EP version was released on iTunes on June 25, 2012. The EP debuted at #10 on the Billboard Christian Albums and Gospel Albums charts.
On May 3, 2012, Lecrae premiered his music video for the title-track of his Church Clothes mixtape online on XXL. The video was noted for including cameos by Kendrick Lamar and DJ Premier, and attracted almost 20,000 views in less than a day. The mixtape itself was subsequently released for free on May 10, 2012 on the website DatPiff.com, and within 48 hours reached 100,000 downloads. It reached 250,000 downloads (rated platinum on DatPiff) in less than a month.Bun B was also noted as promoting the album. Artists featured on the mixtape include No Malice, formerly Malice, of Clipse on the song "Darkest Hour", fellow labelmates Tedashii and Andy Mineo, as well as Dre Murray, Thi'sl, Swoope, and Christon Gray.Propaganda, Odd Thomas, and Braille from Humble Beast appeared on the track "Misconception", with Humble Beast member Courtland Urbano providing production. Braille, Odd Thomas, and Courtland Urbano all are members of Beautiful Eulogy. The mixtape also included input from notable producers 9th Wonder, Boi-1da, S1, and Street Symphony. The day before the release of Church Clothes, DaSouth stated the album "may be the most important Christian hip hop album in history." In support of this opinion, the writer cited Lecrae's collaboration with Don Cannon, the featuring of No Malice along with the producers S1, 9th Wonder, and Street Symphony, the fact that the album was free, and Lecrae's more "relational" lyrical approach. The single "Church Clothes" was also chosen as a Staff Pick for the week of May 7, 2012, by iHipHop. On June 25, 2012, a remastered version of the mixtape, without DJ Don Cannon, was released as an EP for sale on iTunes. Due to issues with sampling, this version was much shorter with only seven songs. Upon its release, the EP was noted by Rapzilla for reaching #5 on the iTunes Hip Hop/Rap charts, and it debuted on the Billboard charts as #10 on both the Christian Albums and Gospel Albums charts for the week of July 14, 2012.
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