Lecrae Devaughn Moore, publicly known as Lecrae, is a pioneer and leading figure in the growing genre of gospel-hip hop. He is also well known for having secured a great degree of fame in the fields of singing, songwriting, record producing, acting and filmmaking.
He has sold millions of albums and mixtapes and received numerous awards, including four Dove Awards and two Grammys. His third solo album, titled “Rebel,” was released in 2008 and quickly became the first Christian hip hop album to reach No. 1 on the Billboard Gospel chart.
He has plenty of titles attached to his name, including president, co-owner and co-founder of Reach Records, an independent record label, and co-founder of 3 Strand Films, a film production company.
Most refreshingly, he openly states that he views his music as an art that reflects his Christian faith.
He told the Houston Chronicle, “I try to be authentic ... I know my roots are in hip hop, but faith is the bedrock that I stand on, and it'd be difficult for faith to not bleed through my music.”
Interestingly, in 2014 he was one of a number of plaintiffs who sued pop singer Katy Perry, claiming that she had pilfered their intellectual property for her hit tune “Dark Horse.”
The plaintiffs alleged that the defendants, including Perry, had used Lecrae's song “Joyful Noise” without having had permission to do so.
The suit further alleged that Perry had “irreparably tarnished” the devoutly religious message of the original song by associating it with "witchcraft, paganism, black magic and Illuminati imagery.”
When the case went to trial in 2019, a jury came to a verdict that Perry and the other defendants were liable, and the amount of damages were determined to be nearly $2.8 million. However, Perry appealed, and in 2020 a judge overruled the jury's verdict.
Lecrae is an advocate for personal responsibility in general, and fatherhood in particular. He even partnered with NBA star Dwayne Wade in a multimedia initiative called “This is Fatherhood.”
He recounts his own conversion story in his autobiographical book titled “I Am Restored: How I lost my religion but found my faith.” It hit the shelves in October 2020.
He shares how he did not know his own father as a youngster. Rather, he was raised by a single mother in South Houston. And although he attended church with his Christian grandmother, he failed to embrace her religious faith.
He told Christianity Today that his father “fell victim to ... incarceration and drugs and different issues in his life.”
He also shared that his uncles “were all 10 years older ... and were gang members and drug dealers ... were some of my role models.”
He suffered “physical abuse, sexual abuse, verbal abuse. And so I just had a lot of dysfunction in my childhood.”
Lecrae sank to the depths of dealing drugs for a living. His loving grandmother had given him a Bible, and despite his disbelief in the Holy Scripture he brought it along with him for good luck.
This fortuitous practice ended up playing a pivotal role the day he was arrested on drug charges. After the police officer noticed the Bible, he let Lecrae go free on the condition that the young man would promise to live by the Good Book.
His mother had encouraged him to read his Bible, but he had expressed antipathy for the Word, even ripping out pages and defiantly tossing the book on the floor.
At the age of 17, a cloud of darkness hung over his life, which led him to feel as though he had reached a dead end.
As a result of his grandmother’s influence, he began attending church. A young woman with whom he had attended high school happened to be present. She invited him to a Bible study.
It was here that he would meet his future bride, Darragh, who would also go on to become the mother of his three children.
It was also here that he would meet his Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
Pastor James White was talking about how Christians are purchased through the suffering of Christ. As Lecrae recalls it, White posed the question, “Do you know you have been bought with a price?”
It made him think, “Somebody thinks I'm significant enough to die for me. Someone thinks I'm significant enough to climb up this mountain with a cross on his back, to take nails in his wrists and his feet ... for me.”
He sent up a prayer. “God get me out of this, don't kill me; do whatever you have to do to get me out of this, just don't kill me,” he pleaded.
As so often is the case, his prayer was answered in a most unexpected manner. While driving on a highway, he took a turn too fast and his car went into a roll. He wasn’t wearing a seatbelt.
The roof and windshield of the car were crushed, and his glasses were pressed into the frame of the car. Miraculously, he not only survived, he was able to walk away unharmed.
The incident convinced him that it was time to commit his life to the one who had paid the price.
Lecrae’s most recent project is the launching of a web series called “Protect The Bag,” the goal of which is to teach financial literacy and provide education to a younger generation of individuals, enabling them to learn how to build and protect their own financial assets.
With regard to the project, he shared the following in a statement: “I am on a mission to spread the word on financial education because when I was growing up, I wasn’t educated about money or budgeting and had to learn a lot about it the hard way.”
The internet series features celebrities such as Seattle Seahawks wide receiver Tyler Locket, Denver Nuggets forward Michael Porter Jr., and former NBA player Kyle Korver.
James Hirsen, J.D., M.A., in media psychology, is a New York Times best-selling author, media analyst, and law professor. Visit Newsmax TV Hollywood. Read James Hirsen's Reports — More Here.
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