Rob Hodge's Born King Turns 20

Rob Hodge's sole studio album, Born King, was released April 18, 2006 on Beatmart Recordings. As I reminisce on this record, it sure makes me miss Beatmart. The label had quite a cohesive sound across its discography, not to mention a nice logo (see picture on right). You'll likely hear more about the label in a future post.

I bought this CD at Scott's Parable when I was 13 years old. (Or perhaps it would be more accurate to say my dad bought it for me, because who has money at 13 lol?)

Born King had more of a radio-friendly, East Coast sound than some of the other hip-hop I listened to back then, such as DJ Allstar's Uprok Records Mixtape Volume Two, Deepspace5's Unique, Just Like Everyone Else, or Mars ILL's Pro Pain. But unlike much of the other more mainstream-sounding music that I've enjoyed in the past, Rob Hodge's songs haven't drifted off into irrelevance.

There are a lot of things to like about Born King. Rob Hodge has the right voice for rap, both gritty and confident. He's a great storyteller as well, which is highlighted on songs like "Conflict," "Determination," and "Look At Me Now." There are many enjoyable guest contributions, both rapping and singing, from artists like Japhia Life, T.K., Janae Paden, and Emmanuel Parks, to name only a few of them.

The beats on this album are fantastic. Kid Classic handles the majority of production, but there are also contributions from J-Nat, Saint Man, Todd Collins, J-Rippa (Holy Hitmakerz), Naiheem, The Architect, and Rob Hodge himself. "Determination" has one of my favourite beats, for the simple fact that it ends with a guitar solo. How often do you hear that in hip-hop?

Born King might well be the best album that Beatmart released. It was easily one of the standout Christian hip-hop albums of 2006, garnering an impressive amount of attention. In fact, in 2007 Rapzilla reported that Rob Hodge would release a mixtape titled Rebel Muzik to the secular market with some quite impressive collaborations. Unfortunately, as far as I'm aware, the mixtape never saw the light of day.

Rapzilla later reported in 2009 about some other Rob Hodge projects on the horizon, such as the Feels Good To Be Home mixtape. Several songs from that project can be found on YouTube and SoundCloud, but otherwise, the rest of it appears to be a mystery.