The Last Street Preacha (CD - 2001)

Personnel includes: T-Bone, E-Doggs, Eric Dawkins, Dawkins & Dawkins (vocals); Chase (keyboards, drums, percussion); Grant "Lil Nick" Nicolas (keyboards); Wali Ali, Jr. (talk box); Talayan Nicolas (background vocals).

THE LAST STREET PREACHA was nominated for the 2002 Grammy Award for Best Rock Gospel Album.

Personnel: T-Bone (vocals).

Photographer: Arnold Turner.

T-Bone is one of very few gospel crossover artists with abilities on par with the larger non-gospel set. Despite that, he's essentially unheard of outside the Christian music scene. On 2001's The Last Street Preacha, T-Bone and his crew present an entirely solid album of West Coast G-funk. It's not mere emulation, though -- there are actual Sir Nose-like samples, vocoders à la Zapp & Roger, and the occasional Dre-like synth and string sampling. T-Bone's phrasing starts out with a stuttering, swaggering lope in the realm of 2Pac, but eases into an ever-relaxing lope with a smoother delivery. By the time of "Ride wit Me" he's moved into full G-funk, working his way into a Warren G area. Aside from a couple of forays into the territory of Bone (the Thugs-N-Harmony version) with four-part harmonies, and another thuggish run, the majority of the tracks feature a style that's primarily a poor man's Snoop Dogg. That's not to say T-Bone is bad in any way, though, just not Snoop himself -- the talent and ability are huge here, and the styles range widely from proper West Coast G-funk to high-speed Spanish rap in the reggaeton mold. It's rare to find an artist hidden away in Christian music with this sort of crossover talent, but T-Bone is likely to remain under-recognized by many listeners. ~ Adam Greenberg minimize